Digital Press Honored With National Award

The University of Cincinnati Digital Press (UCDP) is getting national recognition for its approach to preserving rare pieces of Western American history. The Western History Association has honored the Digital Press with the Dwight L. Smith Award for the UCDP's publication of James Otto Lewis' The Aboriginal Portfolio: The Complete Edition.

Alice Cornell, UCDP assistant director and editor-in-chief, explains that the award cites the Aboriginal Portfolio as "a significant bibliographic and research tool, both in terms of content and technology." The two CD-ROM Aboriginal Portfolio was the first publication to be produced with the UCDP developed CUrator software. The software has multiple searching strategies that integrate maps, text and bibliography with just a click from the user.

The content of the Aboriginal Portfolio holds the earliest and most rare publications of North American portraits, says Cornell. By putting these portraits, maps and journals in an easily searchable, electronic format, the UCDP provides the history to collectors and researchers around the world. In their original form, the editions, not all of them complete, are housed in seven academic institutions across the United tates., including the Archives and Rare Books Department at the University of Cincinnati.

The organization that bestowed the award, the Western History Association, is a national organization of historians, writers, researchers and fans of American Western history. The biennial award is funded by the ABC-CLIO, an international publisher of print and electronic reference materials. The award is named after a historian who has made significant contributions to the field, Dwight L. Smith, emeritus professor of history, Miami University (Oxford).

The UCDP now has three publications available in the CUrator software. In addition to the award-winning James Otto Lewis' The Aboriginal Portfolio: The Complete Edition, the UCDP has published George Catlin: The Printed Works and McKenney & Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America: The First Issue.

The UCDP is currently working in cooperation with the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri to produce A.E. Mathews: The Principal Works, which is expected to become available in the spring. Another production, C. Szwedzicki: North American Indian Works, is expected to be complete by summer 2003. For more information, check the UCDP website or call toll-free, (888) 297-3799.