Every academic community has its supporters - that make us viable.
Some companies like Google or KPMG make deep investments in funding research or education.
They help by offering resources that are otherwise not available.
Others are smaller companies that make learning opportunities available for students and professors.
They help by offering access to experiential or teaching resources such as internships or textbooks.
Either source of support is essential bc uni’s struggle to find support for public sources for our learning missions.
Many academics seem oblivious to their support - because they are busy with their day-to-day job.
Yet.
Our supporters come back year in and year out - because they care about our mission to educate kids and develop novel ideas.
As I walked around #WITS2022 - I had the chance to chat with the people at #ProspectPress - a publisher that has opted to make deep investments in supporting #InformationSystems education.
After the chat, I realized that I had never thanked the folks at Prospect for their support of my field.
From the time that I was an Association President to now, Prospect showed up at conferences, engaging with possible authors, & offered them support for their books.
From the sidelines, I’ve watched Prospect learn my discipline, come to know our needs, & start to publish a series of books that support novel, emerging, and underserved topics.
What does that mean?
It means the publisher listens to the community, works with it to identify what resources we need to succeed in the classroom, &!works with members of our community to develop the materials needed to support a course.
Bc topics are emergent, this often means finding authors able & willing to develop content, fairly compensating them, & selling books at a price point that keeps the book accessible to students.
This is not a simple task.
This is an essential task.
While one might think you can grab materials from a website, it’s not so simple.
Good course materials are carefully curated and prepared in a way that makes them accessible to a broad range of readers.
Prospect plays this role in my scholarly community - they ensure we have what we need to serve students.
I am grateful to them for doing it - and coming out year after year - and carefully cultivating relationships, supporting authors writing their first book, and supporting courses that bigger publishers overlook.
See the Dan Groner book on #Python as an example - it fits a need and is well done.
The consistency is remarkable & the support is much appreciated.
Why am I posting this? Not because I’m paid to.
I’m posting because I have tremendous respect for Prospect.
I’ve worked with Beth Lang Golub as sponsor & as an exhibitor for ten years. She’s committed to doing things the right way & never wavered in her support for the discipline.
Note: this post was solicited. I am simply grateful.
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