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Over the past 24 months, generative AI has become inescapable. As a tool that is capable of generating content, its implications for how scholarly research is conducted and for scholarly publishing and communication are potentially transformative. What is not yet clear is how transformative this impact will be, and which areas of scholarly communication may see more rapid and revolutionary change than others. In a report published today, with funding from STM Solutions and six of its member organizations, we…

Although libraries have a long tradition of working together to improve their collections and related services, collaborations should not be viewed as a panacea. As the landscape of scholarly resources evolve, to be effective and tactical, collaborations need to carefully balance their collective and institutional priorities while remaining responsive to the user needs and behavior. Today, we share a new report on the governance and business characteristics of collaborative collection development initiatives. We intentionally focus on governance models as…

The landscape of scholarly monograph publishing has become increasingly complex, with some business models straddling digital and print realms and others guided by the principles of open access. While the transition towards e-books has prompted numerous publishers to establish proprietary platforms for hosting their content, distribution and aggregation services remain pivotal within this ecosystem.

Over the past several years, Ithaka S+R has conducted several major studies on the scholarly publishing landscape during a time of rapid technological change. There is no better example of how rapid and radical this pace is than generative AI tools, which have moved from the margins to a focal point of scholarly publishing in little more than one year. Last spring, we conducted interviews with publishers, librarians, advocates, analysts, funders, and policymakers as the horizons of possibility and risk…

Ithaka S+R is honored to be partnering with the Library of Congress on a research study to better understand the experiences of people who use the library's collections and resources to conduct research. This mixed methods project includes an online survey followed by interviews of selected researchers. The findings from this study will be used to help inform the Library of Congress’ strategy for supporting the researchers that utilize the library’s collections and resources.

As we’ve explored in our previous work, academic libraries build collections in the context of their parent institutions—primarily to support the institution’s research, teaching, and learning mission. They also build collections that document and preserve the cultural and scientific heritage of our society to represent a wide range of perspectives. In these efforts, universities and their libraries are developing approaches that address calls for greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) with a focus on creating space for the…

The scholarly publishing sector is undergoing its second digital transformation. In the first, we saw a massive shift from paper to digital, but otherwise publishing retained many of the characteristics of the print era. In this current second digital transformation, many of these structures, workflows, incentives, and outputs are being revamped in favor of new approaches that bring tremendous opportunities, and also non-trivial risks, to scholarly communication. In a report published today, with funding from…

For nearly 20 years, Ithaka S+R has partnered with libraries to navigate change, measure impact, and better serve their users—with projects including coordinating data support services for researchers and exploring how research libraries can advance their institutions’ strategic priorities Today, we’re pleased to announce a new project with the Library of Congress that aims to assess how researchers are engaging with the library’s services and collections at the Capitol Hill campus, as well as to expand its…

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…

The promise of the American Library Association annual conference is the opportunity to learn from many different colleagues, especially about issues that span public, academic, and research libraries. This year’s conference, held June 22-27 in Chicago, continued this cross-collaboration on a number of important topics. Discussions around intellectual freedom were front and center at this year’s conference. While ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom documented a record 1,269 demands to censor books or other materials within 2022, data gathered by the…

Earlier this month, Tracy Bergstrom joined Ithaka S+R as a program manager focused on collections and infrastructure. Previously she worked at the University of Notre Dame as director of the specialized collection services program within the Hesburgh Libraries. In this interview, we asked Tracy about her career trajectory, the challenges facing academic libraries, and what types of projects she will be undertaking in her new role. You worked at Notre Dame for a number of years. How did you get…