This study investigates the database (DB) environment of university presses across the United States. A questionnaire survey was administered to database administrators (DBAs) of university press DBs, followed by semi-structured interviews. The survey and the semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine the tasks, system environment and problems that DBAs of university presses encounter. The presses surveyed had multiple operating systems (OSs) and/or database management systems (DBMSs). The importance of mailing functions and exporting monthly financial reports arose in the interviews. The majority of the DBAs interviewed said that there was little documentation of the press DB and the press was either migrating or planning to migrate to a new DBMS. As time continues, the tasks of the DBA and the DB environment will continue to get more complex. Software designers of DBs need to take into account the needs of small businesses by dividing the increasing job responsibilities of the DBA between intelligent automated software and other stakeholders in the DB environment
