Brill Encyclopaedia of Qur'an
Publishing multiple resources online cost effectively
Having invested no more than they would have expected for a one-off project in order to publish the Encyclopaedia of Qur'an online, Brill Academic Publishers now has a single set of Semantico tools with which to self-manage and maintain multiple reference works cost effectively.
Brill Academic Publishers' online catalogue of reference texts is poised for rapid expansion following the publisher's adoption of Semantico's web services applications.
First online is the remarkable Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Hailed as the central English-language reference work for qur'anic studies, the encyclopedia has been published in print in five volumes over the past five years and a sixth and final index volume and CD-ROM edition will be available this year. The online version, built on Semantico's platform, is available now.
The Semantico Information Publishing Platform (SIPP) provides a scalable solution for building and managing online content. It enables Brill to control costs by using a single set of tools to create and maintain a potentially unlimited number of new, individually 'branded' websites. New material can rapidly be incorporated into any of these sites with little or no data conversion, and while different websites may appear very different at the user interface, all will inherit SIPP's rich functionality and flexibility. Immediate plans for future development include making Brill's Encyclopaedia of Islam available online.
When choosing a development platform, Brill chose SIPP for its international character support and ability to import any XML data, so that existing data resources could be reused. Also critical were the design and support service available from Semantico and SIPP's facility to define granularity at a level appropriate to the content: this enables publishers to select different combinations of content to create products targeted at specific markets.
Rob de Jeu, project manager for digital publications at Brill, said: "Our editors and sales staff now have unlimited possibilities in creating product combinations and developing new business models."
About Brill
Brill Academic Publishers, listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV is a publishing house with a strong international focus founded in 1683. The company concentrates on the fields of Ancient Near East and Egypt; Middle East, Asian and Islamic Studies; Medieval and Early Modern Studies; Biblical and Religious Studies; Classical Studies; Social Sciences; Science and Biology; Human Rights and Public International Law.
The predominantly English-language publications consist primarily of (book) series, encyclopedias, journals and primary source documents. In principle these publications will be available in print and electronic form. Brill's core markets are Europe, the United States and Japan. The majority of their customers are academic institutions and libraries.