Eric Halpern has already started to map the direction for the University of Pennsylvania Press. Appointed director only three months ago, he intends that "the faculty will soon see that the Press is on the move and will figure more in the life of the University. It's not some kindly aunt in a corner of the mansion, but should be in the forefront of the University.

"I'd like to see the Press grow and develop, to be a bigger player in the world of university publishing and to be an asset and credit to this University," he said in an interview last week in his 13th floor office of Blockley Hall. "I'd like this to be a press that matches the University in its level of distinction."

Mr. Halpern brings more than 14 years of university-press experience to his new position. He came to Penn from the Johns Hopkins University Press; earlier, he was with Cornell University Press.

When he was appointed, Provost Stanley Chodorow noted Mr. Halpern's "stellar reputation for acquiring books.... He is full of ideas and energy to make the Penn Press a truly distinguished component of the University."

To set a course for the future, the Press has begun what Mr. Halpern calls "an elaborate process of self-examination" and plans a $5 million fund-raising campaign. "We've been studying the last five years of the Press's publishing history," he reported, with an eye to "cutting back on areas where we're weak and trying to make choices." The self-examination process has convinced him that the Press needs to target certain areas.

Traditionally, the Penn Press has been strongest in the areas of medieval studies and anthropology, Mr. Halpern noted, with literary studies, business, economics and law represented as well. "The Press has had a tradition of publishing very solid works of scholarship, but not a sense of institutional ambition," he said. "You can't publish effectively unless you're focused. You can't do it by publishing one book here and one there.

"If they aren't going to be marginalized, university presses are going to have to get into science and medicine more, if they aren't now. It's as important to publish in science and medicine as in literature and history." But, he added, "We're not going to move into those areas too quickly, but shore up our areas of traditional strength."

Sharper targeting doesn't translate to cutting back. In fact, Mr. Halpern wants the Press to increase its list and its 17-person staff, which he maintains "is seriously understaffed."

How many books does the Press typically publish? Mr. Halpern spun around to his keyboard and punched up the numbers: "In the last five years, it's been close to 65 new titles on average, but that's been variable." His goal is to increase the Press's list to 100 new titles per year by the year 2000.

Sales have averaged 600 copies per book over five years. "That's too low," he acknowledged. "My goal is to sell 1,000 copies of the average title over five years."

It doesn't take a Wharton MBA to recognize that university-press publishing is a highly labor-intensive, low-to-no-return venture. Academic authors don't pocket $4.2 million advances that trade publishing houses like Viking pay Marcia Clark. Nor do they usually reap royalties.

As Mr. Halpern understated, university publishing "has to be a subsidized industry." He added, "The University has been quite generous, but in order to grow, we must substantially improve our capital base. We must do fund raising--$5 million in five years. It's ambitious but realizable, and necessary to bring the Press to an entirely different level."

For scholarly authors, the rewards of publishing with a university press are prestige, recognition and career advancement. And publishing with a university press "does accomplish the final step in research and writing" for academics, Mr. Halpern said. "I should hope that Penn faculty will turn to us, not merely to send dissertations of their students but their own work. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get them for this press."

Page proofs of the Press's Spring-Summer 1996 catalog--the first under Mr. Halpern's direction--reveal a strong Penn presence. Professor of the History of Art and South Asia Studies Michael W. Meister is editor of "Cooking for the Gods"; Professor of Romance Languages Lucienne Frappier-Mazur is the author of "Writing the Orgy, Power and Parody in Sade"; Associate Professor of History and South Asia Regional Studies David Ludden is editor of "Contesting the Nation, Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India"; Vijay Gambhir, assistant director for Methodology at the Penn Language Center and teacher of Indo-Aryan languages in the Department of South Asia Regional Studies, is editor of "The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages"; and Olivia S. Mitchell, Wharton professor and executive director of its Pension Research Council, is an editor of "Securing Employer-Based Pensions."

While university presses formerly enjoyed a captive if small market--libraries--that market has become limited by tighter budgets and shifting purchasing priorities. While that is a challenge for university presses, they are also enjoying new retail outlets.

When Mr. Halpern was questioned about the shaky financial state of the publishing industry, he responded emphatically, "Not true. Not true. Publishing is one of this country's most vibrant industries. It's a time of unprecedented growth for university presses, largely in the retail trade. Bookstores are stocking very serious university-press books--at a double-digit growth rate. The superstores are buying very broadly."