When UNSW Press turned 40, one of our authors, historian Patrick O’Farrell, described the company as 'cosmopolitan, realistic, toughish, sunny, coming from humble nothings to being a major and confident publishing force'. Now, as one of the oldest Australian-owned book publishers, we’re celebrating 50 years in business and those qualities remain.

Most days we are firmly forward-looking, scheduling new titles, testing new digital formats or different ways of creating, printing and selling books. In the past few months, however, as we’ve been thinking about this anniversary, we’ve been setting aside some time to sift through the archives.

We’ve published a short history of the company, which is available as a PDF from unswpress.com and as an e-book from Apple and other sources. This book also lists the 1,199 titles published since the company was formed. And our publishing division, NewSouth Publishing, is well on the way to adding another 50 by the end of 2012.

In our graphic timeline of UNSW Press, you’ll find some classic and curious old covers of biographies, histories, textbooks, scholarly and reference works and, more recently, literary non-fiction and memoirs. There are images of our book store, which began as the Union Store in Ultimo and now operates as the UNSW Bookshop on the campus in Kensington.

The changes in your own time always loom large. Digital technology is obviously transforming the way books are published, purchased and read. And our focus now is how to manage this transition.

We thought desk-top publishing had an impact back in the '80s! Now sales of tablet computers are accelerating and the internet has become a global shopping mall. We’re exploring smart new ways to get our books and authors noticed in this environment.

We’re working with different companies to do more print-on-demand and short-run digital printing, which is activating some backlist titles. We wouldn’t dream of printing books ourselves but this is what the Press did until 1973. In fact when the company began it was a publisher, typesetter, printer, distributor of published textbooks and it owned a bookshop.

So the company has been in retailing for half a century and it has always had an active publishing program utilising various imprints, mainly UNSW Press and, more recently, NewSouth. In 1997 it launched a sales and distribution business, which is now known in the trade as NewSouth Books.  We no longer run our own warehouse. Instead resources were diverted into preparing for a digital market.

UNSW Press is a not-for-profit company owned by the University of New South Wales. Its mission – to publish non-fiction books that contribute to the intellectual and cultural development of Australia – puts the company on a specific and challenging course. Revenue from book sales alone is often not enough to cover editorial costs, especially of distinctive illustrated books. So we are seeking philanthropic support through vehicles like the UNSW Press Literary Fund, which we launched last year, to enhance and grow the publishing program.

The Literary Fund supported the production of Lehmann & Gray’s Australian Poetry since 1788. We’re planning to release an enhanced e-book version of this landmark title this year.

Thanks to the interest and energy of our staff, e-publishing is becoming fully integrated into all areas of our business. And like many other publishers, we’re experimenting with different formats and business models. Most of our recent titles are now available in electronic and print formats through a range of online vendors.

We’re attracting some of Australia’s best and brightest non-fiction authors and publishing their work in the format that best suits it. That might be an e-book or a short paperback or a handsomely produced, large format illustrated book.

To add to the dynamism of our program, books are published in partnership with organisations such as the State Library of NSW, State Library of Victoria, Powerhouse Museum, Maritime Museum and Museum of Sydney.

There are plans to form a national network of university presses to assist us all to develop digital infrastructure to publish more scholarly monographs, especially in the humanities and social sciences.

We’re growing our NewSouth Books division after signing several new publishers last year, including the Perseus Books Group and Tuttle. The NewSouth Books team works with print and e-books and offers a range of sales and marketing services.

Our Bookshop is one of the liveliest, best-stocked stores you’ll find and we want it to continue to connect with the University community and beyond.

Earnings from all these activities are put back into the company to set it up for more publishing, more anniversaries.

Many thanks to our readers, authors, friends and colleagues for your interest and engagement, and for inspiring all of us at UNSW Press to aim high.