한 · 일 대학출판부 출판 활동의 실증적 비교 연구

Comparative Empirical Study on the Publication Activities of Korean and Japanese Universities : Focusing on Seoul National University Press and University of Tokyo Press

출판매체의 다양화, 독자 요구의 전문성 등 출판환경의 급격한 변화는 국내 출판계 전반의 필연적인 현상으로서 받아들여지고 있다. 게다가 최근 불황의 여파로 출판을 본업으로 하는 출판사들이고 있는 재정적 어려움은 대학출판부도 예외가 아니다. 그럼에도 독자들은 대학출판의 기본 사명인 학술출판의 수준을 유지하면서 지식 콘텐츠를 계속 새롭게 재창조해낼 것을 대학출판부에 기대하고 있다. 한국과 일본의 대학출판부들은 소위 구미 영어권 대학출판부들에 비해 출판언어 자체만으로도 1차적 대상독자가 국한될 수밖에 없기 때문에 더욱 고전을 하고 있다. 유사한 성립 배경과 조직, 운영체계를 가진 서울대학교출판문화원과 도쿄대학출판회를 실증적으로 비교하여, 두 나라 대학출판의 대응책을 분석한 것이다.

As a widely accepted phenomenon, the Korean press industry is running a rapid change of overall industrial environment, shifting to diversified press media and professional demand of the readership. Furthermore, the university press cannot exceptionally safeguard against the financial difficulty of recent business recession. In the midst of adverse impact of business environment inside and outside, the university press is exposed to business risk in pursuing the principal core mission of academic publication. On the other hand, constant expectation of readers calls for unique quality brand image and renewed flow of creative knowledge contents of university press. Consequently, as a matter of strategy for surviving the rapidly changing IT environment, diverse demands of readers, segmentation of academic disciplines, interdisciplinary communication, the university press needs drastic transformation in pursuit of its principal role of academic publication, adjusting to such change in trend and environment and attentively responding to the demand of readers. This research paper is presented to give comparative empirical analysis of Seoul National University Press and University of Tokyo Press that are located in East Asia as geographical neighbors faced with similar business challenge under common environmental context. Seoul National University Press and University of Tokyo Press are very active in direct academic knowledge publication as on campus activity. The two press organizations are not very different in respect of the internal position in the university and management system under the direct control of the President of University as the chief executive authority, financial and profit appropriation system, various interactive connection, relationship structure, regulation, business practice involved with the university authorities. The Korean and Japanese university presses have business disadvantage of limited linguistic coverage of readership as compared with English speaking North American or European university presses. Consequently, these two neighboring university presses under very similar difficult condition need to work together very closely for their future development strategy sharing the information in the challenging environment.