Publication database backend for academic web sites
This sounds like a job for an institutional repository (though you don't have to publicise its existence as such...)

The two most commonly used open-source packages for repositories are ePrints and D-Space, though there's a few others. Anecdotally, D-Space is somewhat more complex to set up than ePrints, though I've only got experience of the latter.

Both have comparable levels of functionality, including metadata feeds/export, and it should be easy enough to export material into a Wordpress site - I've certainly seen it done, for example in this rough proof-of-concept. I'll see if I can find a more polished example.