Last week, Manifold Digital Projects Editor Terence was at the University of Georgia Press—the oldest and largest publisher in Georgia—exploring new digital initiatives and publishing models with Director Lisa Bayer and Executive Editor of Scholarly and Digital Publishing Mick Gusinde-Duffy.

Brisk morning here in Athens, GA. After an enlivening run in the hotel fitness center, I'm now getting ready to head over to @UGAPress for two great days of @ManifoldScholar training. All that thanks to @Mickodopolous for setting a fantastic schedule!

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) November 13, 2019

Terence wasn’t the only one tweeting:

@ManifoldScholar training today with @tremayning @UGAPress. We’re learning how to create iterative #OpenAccess books in the beautiful @DigiLab_UGA pic.twitter.com/09SHkQOfnl

— Lisa Bayer (@lisambayer) November 13, 2019

Terence remarked, "It's always a coup to have an excuse to spend time with university press colleagues at other institutions. Beyond being able to share common challenges and triumphs, it's wonderful to catch up with one another outside the traditional meetings." That said, they very much made the most of their time exploring Manifold to better understand its capabilities as well as its implications and opportunities to affect press workflow and responsibilities.

Mick Gusinde-Duffy had previously remarked:

On first look, Manifold offers an intuitive, publisher-friendly platform that will accelerate UGA Press's digital publishing program and enable broader intellectual impact.

Manifold was built to extend off of existing publisher workflows, to take materials they are already producing and provide a space where they can be enhanced and explored in meaningful ways. Yet Manifold also opens up new opportunities to reveal scholarship in earlier stages than university presses usually do. While Manifold is easy to use, such new potentials introduce new responsibilities. Terence and the UGA Press team considered

• which determining factors of which projects lend themselves to Manifold editions;
• how to best engage with authors about expectations for those editions;
• how to make projects discoverable to libraries and readers; and
• who, how, and when to prepare those elements that won't be part of the print edition were prominent themes.

Enhancing these conversations was Emily McGinn, who oversees the Willson Center Digital Humanities Lab, adjacent to the press offices. Emily will be playing a role in shaping and enabling the new content appearing on the UGA Press instance. Emily was fundamental to the conversation exploring the nitty gritty of the internal dynamics of how we produce Manifold editions at Minnesota and in what ways those can be adapted at Georgia. Terence commented, "For me, this was just exciting. I so utterly love the open and collaborative and giving spirit of the UP community."

Keep your eye on the Georgia instance: in the coming months they'll be reviving and making openly available a backlist series as well as creating projects for new titles.

For more information visit the University of Georgia Press website, or follow UGA Press on Twitter, UGA Press on Instagram, or UGA Press on Facebook.

• Miles traveled: 1,968
• Food Featured: Southern food is second to none. Terence called the dinner at The National on Wednesday "breathtaking."

  From the chicken to the sweet potato pancake to the flourless Condor chocolate cake with gelato—it was pure joy distilled into an edible form. What a spectacle of utter deliciousness. And somehow we managed to kick it up a notch the following day with morning rolls from the Independent Bakery. I’m glad I’m going back next week—I’m making a special trip to the Independent to return with more rolls for family back home.

• Sights seen: Transit to Athens was more colorful than most.

  On my way down, a gentleman was removed from the queue to board the plane on account of his being inebriated, and when getting onto the Groome shuttle from Atlanta to Athens a woman from Las Vegas passed out on the pavement. Oh, and a flatbed just drove off the road and into restaurant sign, seemingly for no reason.