Topic: Discovery and access
Research Report
June 9, 2022
Streaming Media Licensing and Purchasing Practices at Academic Libraries
Survey Results
Researchers have undertaken several important efforts to track how libraries are approaching the streaming media market and troubleshoot the challenges they are encountering, focusing especially on strategies for balancing patron demand with managing costs. Building on those data gathering efforts, this report shares findings from the most comprehensive survey to date of academic library streaming media approaches at four-year institutions in the US and Canada.
Blog Post
January 18, 2022
Ithaka S+R is Growing: Join Us!
Over the past few years, the scope and breadth of Ithaka S+R’s work has grown substantially. The Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums program has seen increases in cohort projects that explore critical issues facing libraries; grant funded initiatives focused on digital preservation, higher education in prison, student success, and museum leadership; national surveys of faculty, community college administrators, and archivists; and sponsored work on topics including the health of the research enterprise and diversifying collections. To…
Blog Post
January 12, 2022
Preprints: Their Evolving Role in Science Communication
New Publication
We are pleased to announce the publication of Preprints: Their Evolving Role in Science Communication by Iratxe Puebla and Jessica Polka, both of ASAPbio, and Ithaka S+R’s Oya Y. Rieger. It is part of the Charleston Briefings: Trending Topics for Information Professionals series. This briefing discusses the history and role of preprints—scholarly manuscripts posted by the author(s) to a repository or platform to facilitate open and broad sharing of early work without any limitations…
Past Event
December 2, 2021
Book Talk: Along Came Google
Deanna Marcum and Roger C. Schonfeld in conversation with Brewster Kahle
On December 2 at 4:00 pm (EST), the Internet Archive is hosting a virtual book talk with Deanna Marcum and Roger C. Schonfeld about their new book, Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization. Deanna and Roger will be joined in conversation by Brewster Kahle, the founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, as they discuss the history of library digitization projects and what these efforts hold for future scholars. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A.
Past Event
October 20, 2021
Oya Y. Rieger at iPRES2021
On October 20, Rieger will join other panelists to provide insights from on implementations of current preservation tools and to consider the opportunities in deploying and integrating these tools with local digital content management processes. Please see abstract below: Abstract As cultural heritage organizations seek solutions, open source, community-based, and commercial digital preservation systems and tools have proliferated. Nevertheless, given the magnitude of digital content and the requirements of specific file formats, institutions struggle to integrate disparate tools and…
Past Event
November 4, 2021
Are Big Deal cancellations a big deal for OA publishers?
Oya Y. Rieger and Danielle Cooper Present at 2021 Charleston Library Conference
On November 4, Oya Y. Rieger and Danielle Cooper will present at the Charleston Conference on the results from their research report on the impacts of ‘Big Deal’ cancellations on discovery and access to journal content. For more information, please visit this site. Abstract The recent Ithaka S+R Research Report ‘ What’s the Big Deal – How Researchers are Navigating Changes to Journal Access’ provided an in-depth analysis of researcher perceptions of the impacts of ‘Big Deal’ cancellations on…
Past Event
November 3, 2021
Roger Schonfeld at 2021 Charleston Library Conference
On November 3, Roger Schonfeld will discuss with other other panelists how to design library services that reach library users outside of library-preferred workflows For more information, please visit this link. Abstract “How do libraries add value for patrons increasingly working outside library-preferred workflows (e.g. searching via Google Scholar), and accessing the library’s collection off-campus? This is a question of profound relevance to all library stakeholders – librarians, publishers, and patrons alike – and one that must be addressed…
Blog Post
August 5, 2021
Deadline Extended: Call for Proposals on Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science
Ithaka S+R is currently accepting applications from researchers interested in participating in Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science, an NSF-funded workshop developed in partnership with the Data Curation Network. Participants will receive funding to attend a two-day incubation workshop in 2022, as well as expert guidance from information professionals about how to create sustainable infrastructures to support voluntary data sharing across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Applications are due October 1, 2021. Please see the following CFP for full…
Blog Post
August 4, 2021
New Questionnaire for the Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey 2021 Now Available
We’re excited to announce that we have now finalized updates for the 2021 edition of the Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey, which we will be fielding nationally and with a number of college and university partners this fall. As with previous cycles of the survey, the instrument will explore the research, teaching, and publishing practices and perspectives of scholars at four-year colleges and universities. We have also expanded several areas of coverage within the questionnaire to cover instructional support services,…
Blog Post
July 14, 2021
Why Survey Testing is Essential
Preparing to Field the US Faculty Survey 2021
Ithaka S+R is gearing up for our eighth launch of the US Faculty Survey this fall. This national survey has yielded longitudinal data on scholarly research and teaching behaviors across a variety of institutional and disciplinary contexts on a triennial basis since 2000. To maximize the value of this initiative for higher education leaders, scholarly societies, academic libraries, and publishers who have come to rely on these data, especially in light of the…
Past Event
June 24, 2021
Library Support for Equitable Access to Knowledge
Roger Schonfeld Speaks at Society for College and University Planning Webinar
On June 24, Roger Schonfeld will join higher education administrators, planners, designers, and library stakeholders to discuss the challenges to higher education in a changing world and how more deeply to engage libraries to enable institutional achievement. Abstract In a climate of anti-intellectualism, institutions of higher education remain committed to making knowledge accessible and translating research to help solve society’s pressing challenges. Libraries have long served as stewards of research publications and creative academic output, facilitating access. How are they…
Blog Post
June 22, 2021
New Report: What’s the Big Deal?
How Researchers Are Navigating Changes to Journal Access
Since 1996, the “Big Deal” has enabled academic libraries of all sizes to license bundled access to a publisher’s journal at a significant discount off the list prices. Over the years, as Big Deal spending has come to occupy a greater and greater share of materials budgets, libraries have come to question the value of their Big Deal subscriptions, with some opting to cancel or significantly alter their existing arrangements. Today we are thrilled to announce a…
Blog Post
June 22, 2021
Cancelling the Big Deal Project Spotlight
An Interview with Freie Universität Berlin with contributions from Dominik Hagel, Franziska Harnisch, Mario Kowalak, and Cosima Wagner
As university budgets face considerable strain and new models for providing open access to scholarly communication proliferate, academic libraries are increasingly pursuing alternatives to the “Big Deal” journal subscription model, including cancellation. But how are these strategies affecting researchers and what do they make of them? Over the past year Ithaka S+R has been studying the impact of Big Deal cancellations on its users in partnership with 11 academic libraries. Previous research has focused primarily on…
Research Report
June 22, 2021
What’s the Big Deal?
How Researchers Are Navigating Changes to Journal Access
The dominant mode by which research libraries have provided maximum journal access as cheaply as possible—subscription bundles or “Big Deals”—is giving way to new approaches. This transition is taking place through a combination of negotiations, activism, business modeling, user needs research, and decision support, among other factors. To support these processes, Ithaka S+R partnered with 11 academic libraries to understand researcher perceptions to help inform their ongoing strategic decision making about Big Deal journal subscriptions.
Blog Post
January 28, 2021
Convening the Cohort
Teaching with Digital Cultural Heritage Materials in the Pandemic
Last summer we announced a Mellon funded project to study how higher education instructors are adapting their practices of teaching with cultural heritage materials during the pandemic. In this post we share how our project is developing and the issues we are tracking as our research gets underway. Why are we doing this project? We remain in a similarly unprecedented landscape six months later, as the COVID-19 virus remains a terrible threat. Technology has allowed certain types of activities…
Blog Post
September 9, 2020
Supporting Language and Literature Scholarship in the COVID-19 Era
The latest installment in Ithaka S+R’s series of Research Support Services projects investigates the research practices and support needs of scholars in the field of languages and literature. Today we are excited to publish the project’s capstone report. The research that underlies this report was conducted prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we believe our findings resonate now more than ever. The field…
Research Report
September 9, 2020
Supporting Research in Languages and Literature
Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline. From 2018 to early 2020, Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of language and literature scholars in the United States with the goal of identifying services to better support them. The goal of this report is to provide actionable findings for the organizations, institutions, and professionals who support the research processes of language and literature scholars.
Blog Post
August 19, 2020
Exploring the Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Services
Announcing a New Research Project Funded by IMLS
With generous funding from the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS), we are pleased to initiate an 18-month research project to examine and assess how digital preservation and curation systems (DPCS) are developed, deployed, and sustained. Because our cultural, historic, and scientific heritage is increasingly being produced and shared in digital forms, libraries, archives, and museums are increasingly dependent on digital platforms to support the curation, discovery, and long-term management of digital…
Blog Post
August 17, 2020
Teaching with Cultural Heritage Online During the Pandemic
New Mellon-Funded Project
Today we are excited to announce a new project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will explore how teaching and learning with cultural heritage collections and materials is evolving in response to the pandemic. Instructors who seek to use cultural heritage objects from museums, archives, and special collections face unique challenges when adapting to remote teaching. What is needed is deeper understanding of, and better support for these instructors in this current moment. This…
Blog Post
July 8, 2020
What about Research? Scholarship and COVID-19
While there have been a number of research initiatives centered on supporting faculty in shifting to virtual instruction in light of the COVID-19 pandemic—and deservedly so—we have learned far less about the challenges that faculty are facing as researchers during this disruptive time. Back in March, our colleague Danielle Cooper speculated on the ways that “technologies at hand” could partially alleviate disruptions to research, and…