Blog

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…

Losing credits when transferring to a new institution is a major barrier preventing many college students from earning a degree. Providing better information about how credits transfer, and providing that information early enough to enable students and advisors to plan, are crucial steps to tearing down that barrier. With an additional $4.4 million in philanthropic funding, the groundbreaking Transfer Explorer is poised to take those steps, at scale.

If, as is widely expected, the US Supreme Court issues a decision in 2023 that significantly limits, if not completely prohibits, the use of race in college and university admissions, it would come at exactly the wrong moment in the ongoing struggle to address our racial history. To further socioeconomic mobility and racial equity in the United States, selective colleges and universities must create more opportunities for high-achieving students from racially minoritized backgrounds, not fewer. But even if the Court…

Since launching in 2018, ITHAKA has served over 30 fellows from across the nation and with a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Fellows at ITHAKA have the opportunity to work with one of ITHAKA’s services: Ithaka S+R, Reveal Digital, JSTOR Daily, or JSTOR Labs. Designed with the needs of early career researchers in mind, ITHAKA’s fellowship program offers an opportunity to focus on professional development through an immersive experience working with ITHAKA mentors and staff. In…

Attaining a postsecondary credential has the potential to improve the life circumstances of people across the country as well as the financial and economic health of states. As individuals secure jobs that pay living wages, they become less reliant on social services, increase their personal spending, and generate additional tax revenue for the state. These benefits are likely to increase the state’s GDP, attract new industry, expand labor market opportunities, and reduce necessary state spending. Prior research shows…

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US labor market has undergone dramatic ups and downs, with employment numbers dropping off a cliff in Spring 2020 and climbing back towards pre-pandemic levels in fits and starts since the vaccines became widely available. Over the past several months employers and employees have been navigating the complex repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic: return-to-office vs. work-from-home debates, continuing social reckonings following the murder of George Floyd, rising inflation, and the looming possibility…

What happens when a student asks a librarian for information related to registering for classes, signing up for financial aid, or accessing mental health counseling services? These are questions community college librarians routinely respond to, though they are not directly related to librarians’ typical functions of supporting coursework or research. How might a librarian better support such a student? Last year, Ithaka S+R and the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library embarked on a two and a half year long…

With 2023 coined the “year of data” by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and data-intensive research methods growing across disciplines, campuses throughout the US and Canada are recognizing the strategic need to build a centralized approach to providing data support services to researchers. These services are often provided by the library, in addition to other campus units scattered across the university. Developed over time and with minimal coordination, data support services tend to exist in silos,…

On Tuesday, January 31, we published the A*CENSUS II Archives Administrators Survey findings. The Archives Administrator Survey Report is the second report in the A*CENSUS II series, the first being the All Archivists Survey Report published in August 2022. The Archives Administrators Survey gathered data from the most senior archives leaders and decision makers regardless of the size of the archives, including administrators who oversee large archives organizations, archives units within broader institutions, and small community archives collections.

Almost exactly one year ago, I added “Streaming Video Coordinator” to my portfolio at Cornell University Library, a role which includes looking strategically at our streaming media offerings. In this capacity I started thinking about what a collection policy focused on streaming video might look like. In fact, libraries don’t collect streaming video at all, but rather prioritize timely access to films needed to support course instruction.

Instructors from all disciplines have incorporated video into their syllabi, and—unsurprisingly—streaming video is now the dominant format to which they turn. Faculty and students appreciate the flexibility of streaming video, which students can access on a variety of platforms ranging from YouTube to subscription services licensed by university libraries. Libraries are now making significant investments to license streaming content for educational use and anticipate that their spending in this area will double over the next five years. As the…

Established in 2018, the ITHAKA fellowship program offers a unique opportunity to early career researchers seeking to gain real-world experience and further their careers by working with one of ITHAKA’s services: Ithaka S+R, Reveal Digital, JSTOR Daily, or JSTOR Labs. We spoke with Colette Johnson, director of strategy and operations at Ithaka S+R, who established the fellowship program, to learn about the inspiration behind the program and goals for future development. What inspired you to start…

As publishers shift their business strategies to meet higher education’s open access priorities, universities must continually re-assess the extent to which their readers still require access to content behind paywalls, and by extension, whether the bundled subscription packages that provided a discount to that content still constitute a “big deal.” Understanding the costs of these subscriptions to institutions relative to the benefits to its readers is made complicated by the uneven pace of open access uptake across disciplines as well…

We’re thrilled to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), through its Research and Development Program, has granted funding to a new Ithaka S+R project to explore how the stories of people who are justice impacted can best be preserved and develop strategies to make these first-hand experiences of mass incarceration accessible. In partnership with the Justice Arts Coalition (JAC), “Preserving Their Stories” will explore how creative works generated by people in prison circulate beyond prison…

Our latest US Faculty Survey examined faculty perspectives and attitudes about using and creating Open Educational Resources (OER). Not only were we able to track how these perspectives changed over time, but we were also able to understand how the pandemic affected OER consumption and creation. As expected, the adoption and creation of OER textbooks, course modules, and video lectures increased since the last national survey cycle, yet faculty indicated that they are less interested in creating and using…

Over the last 13 months, New Jersey state legislators have considered four bills related to transcript withholding—or the practice of postsecondary institutions withholding a student’s transcript until they have paid their full balance. It appears now that the state may be one step closer to banning the practice—but only some of the time. Assembly Bill 1198 was recently assigned to the Senate Higher Education Committee, which may now move forward with discussing, debating, and amending the legislation before sending…

Ithaka S+R is proud to announce our participation in a new multi-institutional partnership to facilitate the cross-industry development of collaborative library collections. The project is generously funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant for Libraries, awarded to the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), the Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration & Innovation (PALCI), Lehigh University Libraries, and Ithaka S+R, along with 27 other partner organizations.

Each year, Ithaka S+R welcomes a cohort of early-career researchers to join our team as fellows. Over the course of 12-16 weeks, the program immerses the fellows in our projects and partnerships, providing the opportunity to make real contributions to research that tackles critical challenges in higher education, advances equity, and fosters innovation.

Community colleges have developed a variety of services to support their students’ success, but too often these offerings are siloed in different campus units, minimizing their impact. Over the past four years, Ithaka S+R has conducted IMLS-funded research to surface the most effective collaborative strategies to break down those siloes. This action plan summarizes best practices for faculty, librarians, administrators, and others as they implement these services.

We’re excited to announce that the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library and Ithaka S+R are partnering on new IMLS-funded research exploring librarians’ role in college fluency. The College Fluency Capacity Building research project will equip library faculty and staff to address new and urgent challenges they are facing in their profession as they are called to meet the changing information needs of the students they serve.