Terence Smyre, University of Minnesota Press’s Digital Projects Editor, is about to hit the road for Manifold Scholarship Digital Services Pilot Trainings. That’s a lot of titles to say that he’s about to work with the ten publishers (announced this summer) just starting off with Manifold. Terence came to Manifold and Minnesota after many years and many roles at the University of Nebraska Press, and he is ready to help integrate Manifold production into each publisher’s workflow.

To kick off his exciting adventures, we thought we’d feature an interview to give those following an idea of what he sees coming, how in-person trainings fit within digital domains, and which American Ninja Warrior challenges he anticipates. Terence has famously claimed to love airports—we will see if that’s still true when he returns from the ten training trips.

The Manifold team is delighted to announce the release of version 2.0 of the Manifold platform. This release adds new accessibility features, makes multiple improvements to the reading experience of Manifold, and expands the number of types of document formats that can be ingested by the platform. For details, please see below or watch this video overview:

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (August 30, 2018)—The Manifold team has selected the following ten groups to receive free installation and training on the Manifold platform to help them meet their digital publishing goals:

• Athabasca University Press,
• the University of Cincinnati Press and Library Publishing Services,
• Concordia University Press,
• Emory Center for Digital Scholarship,
• Indiana University Press,
• Liverpool University Press,
• Reanimate publishing collective,
• Temple University Press,
• the University of Washington Press and Libraries, and
• the University of the West Indies Press.

Digital preservation is a cornerstone issue for the Manifold team to address during our second phase. In creating a platform for publishers to collect and disseminate singular works that contribute to the scholarly record, it is imperative that we provide a means to preserve those works against the rigors of time and technological obsolescence. Publishers, authors, and the communities they serve need to be confident the materials they are publishing on Manifold will not only be discoverable, but also reliably accessible and useable for future engagement.

July 11th through 13th, the Manifold team convened in sunny if stormy Minneapolis for three days of meetings to assess progress, make decisions about the Manifold Digital Services Pilot, plan steps toward the version 2.0 release, and, of course, try out the downtown food truck scene.

Introduction#

Web accessibility is a broad term used to describe any strategies, user interfaces, or content, specifically designed with assistive technologies (AT) and/or disabled users in mind. In developing the Manifold web app we strive for it to be as accessible as possible. Our particular focus is on the screen reader user experience. In this document we’ll explore the guidelines used in determining an acceptable level of accessibility, the best tools to aid in development, what AT compatibility pitfalls to avoid, and the strategies for continuing development. Hopefully this document will outline what work has been completed thus far, as well as describe some best practices for moving forward.

For those who didn't catch the press release in other media last month, it's worth saying again!

The University of Minnesota Press with CUNY’s GC Digital Scholarship Lab and Cast Iron Coding announce the release of Manifold 1.0.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—The University of Minnesota Press, in partnership with the GC Digital Scholarship Lab at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and digital development agency Cast Iron Coding, are pleased to announce the release of Manifold, a free, open-source platform to publish and read networked, interactive, media-rich books online.

The University of Minnesota Press with CUNY’s GC Digital Scholarship Lab and Cast Iron Coding to launch MANIFOLD SCHOLARSHIP PHASE TWO with a $789,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Second phase will focus on expanding installations of the platform and developing new features.

Recently, my eBook on Python programming, How To Code in Python 3, was made available as a Manifold publication. I would like to offer my perspective to the Manifold community to give some background on the work and how I believe the Manifold platform provides additional layers of value to the text through providing a place for learning and idea exchange in both university communities and broader publics.

I'm excited to announce that we're releasing v0.4.0 of Manifold today! This release ships with over 40 bug fixes, a few important security fixes, and a number of new features including backend UX updates, a new "your notes" interface in the reader that allows users to quickly jump to their highlights and annotations, and more editorial control over projects. The full list of enhancements is as follows: