Topic: Digital scholarship and data management
Past Event
August 24, 2023
Generative AI for Library and Information Professionals
North American Voices in Developing an IFLA Resource
Generative AI is one of the most pertinent topics in any information setting nowadays. In response to the rise of generative AI, IFLA’s AI Special Interest Group has compiled a guide for library and information professionals. On Thursday, August 24 at 1-2:30pm ET, Ithaka S+R’s Dylan Ruediger will participate in a session at IFLA’s 88th World Library and Information Congress that will explore the opportunities, challenges…
Past Event
August 14, 2023
Embracing Digital Transformation in Higher Education
Shaping the Future of Teaching & Learning
Ithaka S+R’s Mark McBride will deliver the keynote address at Fredonia’s 17th Annual Teaching & Learning Conference, Digital Transformation: Leveraging Technology for Student Success, on Monday, August 14. The keynotes session will reflect on the steps higher education has taken in adopting digital technology into the campus ecosystem, including the affordances of digital learning and the increasing demand from students for higher education to take a digital-first approach to teaching and learning. Largely due to previous exposure…
Blog Post
August 1, 2023
Assessing Open Source Program Offices’ Role in the Academic Research Enterprise
Open source software is the backbone of the digital economy and is critical to the development and maintenance of transparent, inclusive, and secure digital infrastructures. Universities and their employees rely on it daily for everything from basic communication to advanced research, and in turn make substantial contributions to the open source resources used within and beyond higher education. Over the past several decades, major corporations have created centralized offices, often known as Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs), to coordinate and…
Past Event
August 24, 2023
Book Talk: Moving Theory Into Practice
As the digital library field emerged in the mid- to late-1990s, librarians faced numerous challenges in building the skills necessary to provide digital access to their collections. That changed in the summer of 2000, when Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger produced “Moving Theory Into Practice,” a groundbreaking week-long workshop & digitization guide that offered hands-on, immersive training in digitization and preservation. On August 24 at 1:00 pm ET, Ithaka S+R’s Oya Y. Rieger will join Internet Archive’s Chris Freeland…
Past Event
July 27, 2023
Librarians’ Role in Cultivating Data-Literate Citizens
National Forum on Libraries and Quantitative Data
In a session at the National Forum on Libraries and Quantitative Data, experts will share what we can do to cultivate citizens who understand and use data wisely. On Thursday, July 27 at 2:00-3:30 pm ET, professor Julia Bauder (Grinnell College), Lynette Hoelter (ICPSR), Steve Pierson (American Statistical Association), and Dylan Ruediger (Ithaka S+R) will provide practical advice and tools we can utilize and offer what they see for the future. Learn more and register for the session.
Blog Post
July 17, 2023
Draft Report for Community Input
Shared Infrastructure for Scholarly Communication
We’re thankful for all the comments the draft report received. We will publish a final revised version in October. A robust and nimble infrastructure is imperative to support the vital work of scholarly communication and effectively and efficiently meet the emerging service needs of different stakeholders. Publishers and other scholarly communication services and providers rely on this shared infrastructure in many key parts of their work, and it forms a foundational part of their technology stack and service…
Past Event
July 20, 2023
Allocating Resources to Scale and Sustain Digital Learning and Student-Centered Initiatives
AASCU Academic Affairs Summer Meeting
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in leveraging digital learning solutions to promote effective teaching and learning practices, while at the same time use digital technologies to connect with students, building closer ties and establishing a sense of community. These interests has been driven, in part, by concerns around the affordability of a college education, particularly course materials, as well as the need to promote more personalized and engaging learning experiences for students. What is often lacking…
Blog Post
June 29, 2023
Recentering Cultural Heritage with(in) the Community
The Haudenosaunee Archive, Resource and Knowledge Portal
In early June, we sat down for a virtual conversation with three researchers on a recent Mellon grant that brings together several topics of interest for Ithaka S+R: digital archives, preservation, open access, DEIA, and data sovereignty. In the following transcript, we discuss the development of the Haudenosaunee Archive, Resource and Knowledge (HARK) portal at the University of Buffalo with Theresa McCarthy (Principle Investigator (PI), Onondaga Nation Beaver Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, associate professor…
Past Event
October 17, 2023
Shared Infrastructure for Scholarly Publishing
STM Conference 2023
Shared infrastructure includes everything from discovery services to identifier providers, from editorial management systems and hosting platforms to research integrity services. In one way or another, shared infrastructure is foundational to the work of every publisher. This year, Ithaka S+R is conducting a study about successes, needs, and gaps in the publishing community’s shared infrastructure. The project, which is supported by STM Solutions, will result in a white paper to be published in early October. This session, on Tuesday…
Blog Post
June 15, 2023
Made by Hand
The Case for Manual Data Collection in an Era of Automation
When designing a research study a key consideration is which research method—or methods—will yield the best insights. Here at Ithaka S+R we conduct applied research related to the education and cultural heritage sectors, and so we aim to collect evidence that can be used for immediate social benefit, such as towards improving policies and programs within institutions. Today we describe a method we regularly employ: manually collecting data from public facing websites. The information we can find through public websites…
Blog Post
June 1, 2023
Coordinating Research Data Services
Key Barriers and Questions
This spring, 107 librarians, administrators, and staff from the 29 universities participating in Ithaka S+R’s Building Campus Strategies for Coordinated Data Support project began to identify barriers to streamlining their research data support services. The project’s first two meetings brought together representatives from university units involved in supporting academic researchers: librarians, senior administrators, research officers, and research computing staff. Working primarily in small groups roughly divided by professional capacity, participants described the ways that different university units—and different institutional…
Blog Post
April 25, 2023
Reflecting on Restricted Access to a Chinese Research Lifeline
The rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and China are prompting both nations to restrict exports of technologies with military applications or in areas with significant economic value. Increasingly, these restrictions are calling international commitments to the open sharing of academic research into question. Last month, the Chinese government announced new restrictions on international access to the most important academic database in China, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI) (中国知网). For researchers in the US the CNKI is…
Research Report
April 24, 2023
Common Scholarly Communication Infrastructure Landscape Review
Scholarly communication is the process through which research products and outputs (such as articles, audiovisual materials, data, code, and research methods) are created, assessed, improved, shared, disseminated, and preserved in a variety of modes including through formal and informal publications, conferences, and other academic networking methods. Shared infrastructure is a key enabler for delivering the services that authors and readers need. It is composed of standards, platforms, technologies, policies, and the communities that enable and support them.
Past Event
March 28, 2023
Connecting the Links
Humanities Researchers and the Digital Infrastructure
At the Research Data Access and Preservation Association (RDAP) 2023 Summit, Ithaka S+R’s Ruby MacDougall presented a session focusing on ways librarians can help humanities researchers better maximize the digital infrastructure. The conference took place from March 28 through the 30th. Learn more about the conference and the schedule of events on the RDAP website.
Blog Post
March 22, 2023
Campus Strategies for Data Support Services
Welcoming the Second Cohort
What research data services do campuses currently offer and are researchers aware of them? What funding models can support the costs of centralized data services? Where in the larger organizational structure should these services reside? How can institutions make informed staffing decisions to ensure the expertise needed to support current and future services? As the need for robust, effective, and coordinated research data services on college campuses grows increasingly acute, these are some of the key questions members in our…
Blog Post
March 6, 2023
The Future of Data Sharing in the Humanities
As the National Endowment for the Humanities updates its policies in response to last year’s announcement of new federal guidelines issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) regarding public access to research publications and data, humanists will face urgent questions about how their scholarly practices within the global trends towards mandatory data sharing. When should the evidence humanists collect be considered data, and when is it appropriate to share those data? How might humanists…
Issue Brief
March 6, 2023
Are the Humanities Ready for Data Sharing?
This issue brief suggests that one key perspective that humanists can bring to larger debates about data sharing and open access research outputs is their uniquely well-developed infrastructure for the public sharing of knowledge creation, exemplified in the many public humanities initiatives that are a highly visible and vibrant part of humanities scholarship. Many recent public humanities projects emphasize community-driven, collaborative data generation efforts, in which knowledge is co-created with community participants not for the community.
Blog Post
March 1, 2023
Supporting Shared Infrastructure for Scholarly Communication
Developing, maintaining, and sustaining fit-for-purpose community infrastructure is a challenge in the higher education and research sectors, particularly when the technology and policy environments are in flux. Ithaka S+R has conducted a variety of projects and studies touching on these issues over several years. Today, I’m pleased to share that we are launching a new study focusing on shared infrastructure in support of scholarly communication, with support from STM Solutions. The Project For some time, shared infrastructure has been a…
Past Event
March 9, 2023
A Library for All
University of Michigan, Google, and the Importance of Having a Copy
On Thursday, March 9 at 7 pm ET, Ithaka S+R’s Roger Schonfeld will serve as a panelist on a University of Michigan event focused on library digitization, digital archiving, and the idea of a universal library, speaking on his book Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization, co-authored with Deanna B. Marcum. Other panelists will include University of Michigan Edward M. Gramlich Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Economics and Public Policy Paul Courant, former University Librarian and…
Past Event
February 15, 2023
Creating Digital Collections with and for Indigenous Communities
NISO Plus 2023 Conference
On Wednesday, February 15 at 9:30 – 10:45 am at the NISO Plus 2023 Conference, Ithaka S+R’s Oya Y. Rieger has organized a session to discuss the increasing recognition of the value of Indigenous knowledge and how it is being supported by the current research infrastructure. The session will look at best practices for working with Indigenous communities to create digital collections that meet their needs. This includes, for example, consideration of data sovereignty, privacy issues, and other acknowledgements…