NISC's New Office and Branding Launch
NISC moved into its new offices at the end of 2013.
The offices were celebrated and officially opened at a launch held on the 28th of March 2014, where business partners, family and friends of NISC joined us for an afternoon of laughter and celebration. In addition the occasion was used to launch NISC's new branding.
Mike Schramm, Managing Director of NISC, gave the opening address and welcomed everyone to the new premises. In his speech Mike touched on the history of publishing and the use of scribes to generate handwritten copies of recorded knowledge. Once the printing press was developed (between the years 1041-1048) these scribes needed to find alternative sources of income. This analogy was used to highlight the situation of publishing today - where change is a constant and publishers have to invent themselves to keep up with the needs and demands of readers.
The publishing world has undergone massive change since the invention of the internet. Research can no longer simply be available in hard copy on a library shelf - it now needs to be completely online and no more than a click of a mouse or a simple search away. Readership is a now a global phenomenon and no longer limited to a local audience. Therefore, local research needs to be disseminated globally. As Mike explained "NISC's philosophy is that there is research in and about Africa that should be made visible to the international community of scholars. In pursuing this goal, NISC has developed a reputation for being an innovator". It is this philosophy that begs the payoff line "Publishing Africa's Research".
NISC also prides itself on its successful and caring relationship with its authors and its partner societies who publish their journals with us. Mike also touched on the importance of quality specialist bibliographic indexes, even with the likes of Google available. He mentioned new and exciting projects in the pipe line as well.
Lastly he thanked some important international partners by saying "Key to our growth has been the very good partnerships that we have with big international publishing concerns - EBSCO (for databases) and Taylor & Francis (for journals). Not only have they helped us to expand our reach internationally, but they are also very nice people to work with. As a result of these collaborations we have seen encouraging growth in all of the titles we work on."
Mike closed his address by expressing his thanks to the staff of NISC for their hard work and perseverance over the years.
Our new street address is 4 Speke Street, Grahamstown. Our other contact details remain as before.