At Texas Digital Learning Week on November 14, held by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board OERTX, Ithaka S+R’s Dylan Ruediger will participate in a roundtable discussion on “Adapting to Innovation: Perspectives from Across Sectors.” The session will feature a distinguished panel of professionals who have successfully navigated the ever- evolving landscape of their respective sectors, and they’ll discuss how the integration of AI has become a pivotal driver of innovation in their areas. This panel can inform educators,…
Past Events
Catharine Bond Hill, John B. King, Jr. and David Brooks at the ATI Presidential Summit
Higher Education in Prisons at the Digital Crossroads: The Present and Future of the Field
NCHEP 2023
At the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison’s 13th National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP), Ithaka S+R’s Kurtis Tanaka and Ess Pokornowski will review results from our survey of technology in higher education in prison programs, breaking down key facts and figures and discussing how insights from the survey inform their current and future work. They will also be joined by Stacy Burnett of the JSTOR Access in Prison Initiative in a conversation on technology access,…
Increasing Adult Learner Enrollment and Resolving Stranded Credits
“Stranded credits” are credits that students have earned but can’t access because their former institution is holding their transcript as collateral for an unpaid balance to the institution. Ninety-five percent of institutions withhold transcripts when students have a balance, and Ithaka S+R estimates that 6.6 million students nationally have stranded credits. Like student loan debt, stranded credits are inequitably distributed: institutions with higher shares of students of color and Pell-eligible students are estimated to have more former students…
Four Perspectives on Re-Enrolling Adult Learners and Supporting Them Through Completion
In this session at the CAEL Conference on November 8 at 1:40-2:30pm ET in Key Ballroom 1, panelists will discuss the challenges they see and their approaches to supporting adults to complete their postsecondary education. Ithaka S+R’s Liz Looker will speak on stranded credits and Ithaka S+R’s projects to support adult learners seeking to complete their credentials, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact. Other panelists include Steve Ast, Mike Krause, and Dr. Mark Sorrells. Learn more about the…
Large Publishing Organizations
2023 Charleston Conference
The largest publishing organizations in the research sector grapple with some vital issues because of their scale, helping to drive the agenda for others while also being targeted for influence and advocacy on several important issues. A plenary panel at the 2023 Charleston Conference moderated by Roger Schonfeld will bring together executive leaders from some of these largest publishing organizations to discuss a few of the biggest issues facing scholarship and scholarly communication in the decade ahead. The session…
Unpacking the Open Access Impact on Print Book Sales
Association of University Presses Webinar
In September, Ithaka S+R and the Association of University Presses published the report “Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study,” as well as its affiliated data set. On October 24 at 10am ET, join authors of the study in a webinar during OA Week 2023 to discuss the findings in this report, and share ideas about how university presses can use the information to develop sustainable OA monograph publishing solutions. This research was funded by a…
Break Bureaucratic Barriers Through College Fluency Collaborations
“For me the college is just so big. Sometimes you get bounced back and forth from department to department‚ and you get lost in bureaucracy.” Sound familiar? Students can struggle to navigate bureaucratic barriers harming their well-being and academic success. One solution is college fluency—the knowledge and abilities to effectively locate and use services, programs, and resources. Join us at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Conference on Thursday, October 19 at 12:10 – 1:00pm ET…
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…
Student and Credit Mobility: Key Topics in Research and Practice
Modern students are increasingly mobile and acquire validated learning and college credits from more sources, and over longer periods of time, than ever before. But far too often processes, policies, inaccurate or invisible information, and poor inter-institutional collaboration block students from applying their past learning to college degrees. Institutions, state systems, and organizations across the country are working to better understand and overcome these challenges and boost degree completion. At the Oklahoma Statewide Transfer Student Success Conference, on October…
The American Prison, a Site of Digital Exclusion
Digital Inclusion Research Forum
Mass incarceration impacts millions of Americans and its toll on families and communities of color is exacerbated by the digital exclusion of people in prison. When the digital divide is the prison wall, there are special challenges in conducting research that might inform effective interventions. Nonetheless, highlighting existing research and the opportunities for advancing digital inclusion at this critical moment has the potential to unlock opportunity for people in prison nationwide. At a session at the…
Expansion of the TX SSPI & Assessing Potential for Impact
Texas Conference on Student Success
Throughout 2022, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and Ithaka S+R collaboratively built the Texas Student Success Program Inventory (TX SSPI), an online resource that organizes information about innovative and impactful student success programs in Texas. In the second year of the TX SSPI, the inventory has expanded to include new programs, piloted new features such as Groups, changed the way new programs can be added or existing entries updated, and hosted a new rubric tool to help…
Content Discovery, Indexing, Dissemination, and Archiving
At the 2023 New Directions in Scholarly Publishing seminar hosted by the Society for Scholarly Publishing, Ithaka S+R’s Dylan Ruediger will moderate a reverse roundtable discussion on “Content Discovery, Indexing, Dissemination, and Archiving,” along with Taylor & Francis’ Kay Burrows. Learn more about the session, taking place on October 4 at 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET.
Pell 101
Information for Librarians and Those Serving People in Prison
As of July 1, 2023, people who are incarcerated are once again eligible to receive the federal Pell grant, ending an almost 30 year ban. While this represents a long sought victory for advocates working to expand access to postsecondary educational opportunities inside, the process by which Pell restoration is being implemented is complex, involving many stakeholders across Departments of Corrections, colleges and universities, accreditors, and federal agencies. People who are incarcerated will be the critical stakeholders in ensuring access…
Collaborative Collections Lifecycle Project (CCLP) Fall Public Update Webinar
In December of 2022, Ithaka S+R announced participation in a multi-institutional partnership to facilitate the cross-industry development of collaborative library collections, funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services in a grant 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. The project aims to create a suite of best practices, prototype middleware, and improve standards in order…
Transforming Metadata
Valuing metadata in changing environments
Transitioning to the next generation of metadata comes at a time of change in the social, political, and economic contexts in which libraries operate. This Transforming Metadata webinar features speakers whose recent publications help us better understand how these forces are shaping scholarly communication and metadata ecologies. Ithaka S+R’s Ioana Hulbert and Tracy Bergstrom share insights from recent studies that track perspectives and priorities among library deans and directors, focusing on challenges for articulating the value of technical and…
Approaches to Digital Preservation Product and Service Sustainability
Comparing Alternate Approaches
How do we apply the lessons of ongoing evaluations of digital preservation sustainability within single institutions to the products and services on which this sector increasingly depends? A session at the iPres 2023 conference will look at this key question from different viewpoints to pool best practice and explore the issues to ensure the community can expect more durable systems however they are delivered. Panelists include Ithaka S+R’s Oya Y. Rieger alongside Jack O’Sullivan, Kelly Stewart, Thib Guicherd-Callin, David…
What’s Next for Generative AI in Higher Education?
As AI technologies continue to rapidly evolve, how can universities make strategic decisions about when and how AI can support student learning and faculty research? In a presentation at the Tulsa Higher Education Consortium on September 15 at 11am – 12pm, Dylan Ruediger and Claire Baytas will share early insights into an Ithaka S+R project, key issues raised by generative AI, and strategies for harnessing the technology in the longer term. Register to attend the virtual event.
Solving the Stranded Credits Problem
Today, 6.6 million students are facing the challenge of “stranded credits”—credits that cannot be transferred between colleges. In a system of competing higher ed institutions, a never-ending discussion on which courses count toward credits has resulted in a portion of the US population left in a perpetual state of near-completion toward a degree. Sometimes, these students have unpaid bills to colleges, so their transcripts are withheld. Underprivileged students are often disproportionately affected. In an upcoming virtual forum on September…
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…
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…