Dear Professor,

Over the course of seven years, Prospect Press has assembled a fairly comprehensive set of IS textbooks. These titles cover much of the current IS curriculum, sometimes anticipate new directions and electives for the IS curriculum, and are starting to support the connection between the IS and DA curriculums. We continue our efforts to identify and develop new textbooks, work with new authors, introduce new perspectives, advance IS pedagogy, and especially cover emerging topics that are underserved by textbooks.

Advice to Potential Authors

Writing a textbook is a demanding but very rewarding enterprise. I held a workshop at EDSIGCON 2021 entitled Successful Strategies for Writing a Textbook to encourage potential authors and to inform anyone even thinking about possibly writing a book. Click here to access a video of the session. A key takeaway that I wish to emphasize is that writing a textbook is a team effort. I have extensive experience working with authors. I am on your team. Additionally, we involve a cadre of reviewers for each book each of whom contributes to assuring that the book reaches its potential and best serves the curriculum.

If you are thinking about writing a textbook, even someday, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Discussing and developing a textbook idea is a process. It can take time. I greatly enjoy working with all types of professors on this formative step. Maybe I’ll work with you!

Distinguished IS Educator 2021

At EDSIGCON, I was honored as the Distinguished IS Educator for 2021. Anthony Serapiglia, the Conference Chair, highlighted that the award was for extensive collaboration with authors and users leading to important contributions. He noted emphatically, “Beth really cares!” I do. So does the rest of the team at Prospect Press. Click here to access a video recording of my keynote address and a series of congratulations from attendees.

In closing the keynote, I introduced Prospect Press’ new aspirational goal:

We want to be your go-to publisher for IS textbooks (and IS-related DA textbooks).

To achieve this end, we need to keep producing important textbooks and more of them. I describe below our newest offerings for you to consider and others that are currently in development.

We have several new offerings for you to consider for next term:

IT Strategy & Innovation, Edition 5.0
by James McKeen & Heather Smith

This edition has been reorganized and new material incorporated. Notably, the purpose of IT strategy is presented as developing guardrails for adopting technology as opposed to “creating solutions” as had been the goal in the past. Click here for more information.

For decades, McKeen and Smith have worked directly with Senior IT Executives. This has been the cornerstone of the success of their textbook as grounded in daily practice of IT. For Edition 5.0, they take things a step further and include four interviews with Senior IT Executives. These videos can serve as distinguished guest speakers in your classroom. Topics covered include the following: Delivering Value with IT; Digital Transformation; Developing a Data Strategy; and Personalization with IT. David Markwell did an outstanding job discussing his company’s efforts regarding Personalization with IT. Click here to access his video interview.

The other videos are available on the instructor resources website for the textbook. Contact Customer Support to gain access if you are not already using this textbook.

Web Development for Business:
A Complete Approach to Front-End and Server-Side Development
by George C. Philip and Jakob Iversen

Web development for business is much more than making pretty pictures. This textbook presents all aspects of web development and covers HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, AJAX, JavaScript, ASP.NET Web Forms, Razor Pages, Core MVC, some C# and SQL as necessary. The textbook is designed to allow alternative pathways to suit your course needs or for use in a more comprehensive two-course sequence. Click here for more information.

New Titles in Development

The following textbooks are currently in development. Let me know if you are interested in serving as a reviewer for any of them. Click here to volunteer as a reviewer.

• Python for Data Analytics by Daniel Groner.
  
  
• Java for Information Systems by Jeremy Ezell.
  
  
• Sports Analytics by Ryan Elmore and Andrew Urbaczewski.
  
  
• Enterprise Network Infrastructure & Security by Thomas Case.
  
  
• Modern Day Business Processes by Dawn Owens and Gaurav Shekhar. 

Conferences

We have been so pleased to reconnect with so many people in-person at conferences last term at NEAIS, EDSIGCON, and ICIS. We are planning to attend the following conferences this spring. We hope you have a chance to attend a meeting and that if you do that you stop by our booth to say hi, have some chocolate, look through our latest offerings, and talk about new textbooks that could further advance the discipline.

Southern Association for Information Systems Annual Conference (SAIS), March 18-19, Myrtle Beach, SC. communities.aisnet.org/southernusa/annual-conference.

Midwest Association for Information Systems Annual Conference (MWAIS), May 16-17, Omaha, NE.
www.unomaha.edu/college-of-information-science-and-technology/mwais2022/

ACM SIGMIS Computers and People Research 2022, June, Atlanta, GA.
sigmis.org/sigcpr2021/

AMCIS 2022, August 10-14, Minneapolis, MN,
amcis2022.aisconferences.org/

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly with questions or comments about our books or if you have a new book idea you’d like to discuss.

Best,

-- Beth

Beth Lang Golub, President & Editor
Beth@ProspectPressVT.com
802-862-4684