The University of Guyana (UG) and Ian Randle Publishers (IRP) of Jamaica have signed an agreement to establish a publishing arm of the university that will publish the scholarly work of faculty and student researchers.
The three-year agreement for the new University of Guyana Press, which is part of efforts to boost research and scholarship at the institution, was signed on March 16, 2017 and takes effect on April 1, 2017, according to a news release issued by UG last evening.
“The establishment of the Press is both history-making and an important part of enhancing the brand of the university. It is an integral part of my Renaissance vision for our university,” UG Vice-Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith is quoted as saying in the release.
Griffith and IRP Board Chairman Ian Randle were the signatories to the agreement, which was signed at Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown, at the conclusion of the presentation of the second Vice-Chancellor’s Renaissance Lecture. Randle delivered the lecture on “The Publishing Pillar of the Renaissance Bridge.”
Professor George (Ken) Danns, of the University of North Georgia, who was present for the event, accepted the Vice-Chancellor’s invitation to serve as the founding chair of the International Editorial Board of the press.
According to the release, UG attaches great importance to the collaboration with IRP, which was described as the largest scholarly and commercial publisher in Caricom.
It added that both UG and IRP noted their intention to actualise the agreement fully to ensure the publication of deserving works by university faculty and students as well as scholars in the Diaspora, especially on matters related to Guyana and the Caribbean. “Both Vice-Chancellor Griffith and Chairman Randle are committed to having the first UG Press titles available before the end of 2017,” it further said.
Griffith, according to the release, announced that the press will publish both books and journals, including the journal Transition, which has had a troubled publication history, and at least two new ones. It said he envisages an entrepreneurship journal that would be linked with the proposed School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, and a Diaspora engagement journal as the scholarly arena of the proposed Regional Centre for Diaspora Engagement.
Meanwhile, the release said Randle also gifted the University Library 200 books, worth US$15,000, which were received by the Vice-Chancellor. He thanked Randle for his kind expression of personal friendship and institutional support. “Not only is Ian a friend of long standing and the publisher of my seventh book, but he is committed to enlarging the educational boundaries of Caribbean people through the availability of educational and popular material,” Griffith was quoted as saying.
Additionally, Griffith also used the occasion to present Randle with the instrument of appointment as an Education Resource Ambassador of the university. Roxanne Reece, Director of Fly Jamaica, which was one of the co-sponsors of the Renaissance Lecture, was also inducted as a UG Ambassador, the release added.
