Oxford English Dictionary

An Introduction to Oxford University Press

December 12th, 2013 by Min | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on An Introduction to Oxford University Press
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Min Yu reports on Vivian Marr (OUP)’s Visiting Speaker session:

Oxford University Press is a worldwide academic publisher. We were so lucky to have Vivian Marr, Head of Language Acquisition from the Global Academic Business to give us a presentation about OUP. According to Vivian’s talk, we know so much  information about the press and learned useful knowledge.

First of all, Vivian introduced the important history timeline of the OUP, for example, in 1478, first book printed in Oxford, first publication of Oxford English Dictionary (in instalments) in 1884 and OED online launched in 2000. With the develoment of OUP, it has enabled excellent research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. When Vivian introduce the range of publishing, we are surprised that OUP has 6500 employees in 60 countries and more than 4000 employees are outside the UK. It has more than 6000 new copyrights per year across 40 languages. We can see OUP is the largest and most successful University Press in the world.

Then, Vivian presented the structures of OUP and its governance. It is amazing that its publishing branches are in 13 countries, offices in another 50 countries and representation in more that 50 countries. OUP has 5 main business groups to maintain and extend the market: Global Academic Business,English Language Teaching, Oxford Education (Oxed), Asia Education and OUP Esp.

OUP also has rapid digital growth, with its digital sales doubling in the three years 2012. OUP now has more than 15,000 UK and US titles available as eBooks, and 250 mobile Apps for iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices-developed using OUP content. Finally, Vivian told us about the development of dictionaries at OUP in the future. Dictionaries are also very important because they provide new business and revenue opportunities because digital licensing income of the dictionaries will replace the lost print salses revenue. In the future, OUP would like to lead the global brand in the world, so it has some global language solutions, for example, it will use a global content brand to work with global technology companies.

After Vivain’s presentation, I learn so many useful things.She also gave us some useful websies and twitter presence, so if you want to learn more about OUP, you can visit these :

•www.oup.com: general information about OUP, also vacancies and internships
•www.oxforddictionaries.com: free dictionary service with premium subscription service
•www.oed.com: the full history of the English language, constantly updated
•www.oxfordreference.com: access to hundreds of Oxford’s reference titles
•www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com: French, Chinese, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish bilingual dictionaries

Twitter presence

•@oupacademic: info on OUP’s publishing, mainly from the Global Academic Business Division
•@oxfordwords: anything to do with words, new and old, grammar, writing, language and lots more
•@oed: the latest research from the Oxford English Dictionary

Leading the Way in Academic Publishing: Vivian Marr and Oxford University Press

May 8th, 2012 by Katherine_Marshall | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Leading the Way in Academic Publishing: Vivian Marr and Oxford University Press
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Vivian Marr, Head of Language Acquisition at Oxford University Press, joined us for our penultimate visiting speaker session, during which we were treated to a whistle-stop tour of OUP’s rich history and given an in-depth look at Vivian’s own area of expertise:  the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Founded in 1478, OUP began life as a humble printing press and is now the biggest academic publisher in the world.  The Press is a department of Oxford University and is governed by a board of Delegates (academics from the university) who must approve every proposal before it can be commissioned.  Despite OUP’s traditional ethos and governing structure it is, without a doubt, fully engaged in the digital era and this came through in every part of Vivian’s presentation.

As Vivian pointed out, OUP is very active in the digital market and this is best seen in the various ways the OED has been utilised.  In her own words- “…dictionary is content: how can this be exploited?”  The OED has long been established as a print product but in 2000 it was finally digitized and launched online.  Since then OUP has produced more than 11,000 digital products including online reference works and mobile applications.  Being so digitally minded, this strategy has allowed the Press to increase their customer reach and further cement their status as a truly global publisher.

OUP are constantly seeking to add value to their dictionary content and this has led to the creation of the Global Language Solutions (GLS) programme, which Vivian is currently responsible for.  The GLS programme was launched in response to requests from technology companies to provide content other than English.  The programme draws upon OUP’s strong brand identity and works by indentifying and sourcing high quality dictionary content in multiple languages, which is then customised to form a common data structure and licensed to leading brands worldwide.  Vivian’s passion for this innovative programme was very apparent and resonated within the class as she spoke.

Thursday 19th April was certainly a jam-packed presentation but Vivian’s enthusiasm and experience shone through at every point, making for an interesting and inspiring session.  It was encouraging to learn how such a long established publisher is constantly seeking new ways to exploit content, proving that Oxford University Press deserves its title as the world leading academic press.

– Katherine Marshall