It was not the best week for university press publishing with layoffs announced at Oxford University Press and the report from the AAUP about declining sales.

However, and needless to say, great books continue to be published by university presses. As we mentioned earlier in the week, the Seminary Co-op’s Web magazine The Front Table has just launched UPfront, a column devoted to new and forthcoming titles from university presses.

Here’s a roundup of other university press blog that highlights some of the exciting new books and ideas driving university presses:

Harvard University Press announces the relaunch of the John Harvard Library.

Indiana University Press interviews the Poet Laureate of Indiana.

New York University Press features an article by Hasan Kwame Jeffries on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, “Forgotten Foot Soldiers in the Civil Rights Struggle.”

Oxford University Press has a letter from author Jerry Coyne to Charles Darwin on the occasion of his 200th Birthday.

Princeton University Press has a post on the upside of pirate greed by Peter Leeson, author of The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates.

The University of California Press includes an article by Steve Waksman, author of This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk, on Iggy Pop and the sad news of Ron Asheton’s death.

The University of Chicago Press on the importance of Reinhold Neibuhr’s The Irony of American History for Barack Obama.

The University of Illinois Press reports on a new Mellon Grant for the publication of titles in Folklore Studies.

The University of Michigan Press establishes a new site celebrating Elizabeth Alexander.

The University of Nebraska Press wonders what might have happened had Henry James had access to text messaging.

The University of Pennsylvania Press announces the publication of How to Get Out of Iraq with Integrity.