c Technological Ecologies and Sustainabilities is one of the first offerings from a new press with familiar roots, Computers and Composition Digital Press, which is an imprint of Utah State University Press. This was a particularly apt choice for a collection that investigates the idea of sustainability within the context of technology. Looking at it practically, digital publishing made this book available long before it would have been using a traditional print publisher. Also on a practical note, the book was able to be much longer than most print publications in Computers and Writing: 383 pages. Without the artificial page-count constraint that print publishers, in their defense, must have in order to stay afloat, the length is determined organically, a much better solution for both authors and readers. This expansive look at a large idea is also proof that our field has issues that demand the long thoughts, the complexities that extend further than monograph-length or at most, 200-250 page books. Granted, we know that, but those outside of Computers and Writing may only see Computers and Writing as a “niche market” that presents mostly monograph-length books with focused issues--the publication equivalent of being the one techy person in a department. Sure, it’s good to have a techy person in a department and I don’t see Computers and Writing as an area that will fall away in time either; it is fundamental in the way, to use an old K-12 poster phrase, reading is fundamental. Until that shift occurs, that transfer from side-issue to foundation, our field will continue to get the publishing world equivalent of putting Baby in a corner. Yeah, Swayze, NOBODY puts Baby in a corner. Our concerns are truly primary concerns for all in rhetoric and composition and Computers and Composition Digital Press gives the space and the access (free pdf) that potentially makes that change in perception possible.

Next: An overview of the book.