Publications
Issue Brief
May 18, 2017
Finding a Way from the Margins to the Middle
Library Information Technology, Leadership, and Culture
Given the number and variety of significant information technology projects led or supported by research libraries, one could incorrectly assume that information technology has been successfully integrated into our organizations. Unlike other recent library service program developments—namely, information literacy and scholarly communication, which also started on the margins—information technology has not found its way to the “middle” in most of our organizations. Information technology workers, not solely but in particular, experience a lingering divide between the culture of the information…
Research Report
April 3, 2017
US Library Survey 2016
The Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2016 examines strategy and leadership issues from the perspective of academic library deans and directors. This project aims to provide academic librarians and higher education leaders with information about chief librarians’ visions and the opportunities and challenges they face in leading their organizations. In fall 2016, we invited library deans and directors at not-for-profit four-year academic institutions across the United States to complete the survey, and we received 722 responses for a response rate of…
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Research Report
February 15, 2017
Funding Socioeconomic Diversity at High Performing Colleges and Universities
This report is published on behalf of the American Talent Initiative (ATI). ATI is a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Aspen College Excellence Program, Ithaka S+R, and a growing alliance of top colleges and universities collaborating on a national goal: educating an additional 50,000 low-to-moderate income students by 2025. ATI members are working together to identify the best ways to attract the talent pool that is now missing from top colleges and to share the best practices for providing those…
Research Report
February 8, 2017
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Religious Studies Scholars
Danielle Miriam Cooper, Roger C. Schonfeld, Richard Adams, Matthew Baker, Nisa Bakkalbasi, John G. Bales, Rebekah Bedard, Chris Benda, Beth Bidlack, Sarah Bogue, Trisha Burr, Gillian Harrison Cain, Ina Cohen, Wesley Custer, Virginia Dearborn, Gerrit van Dyk, Suzanne Estelle-Holmer, Kathryn Flynn, Jenifer Gundry, Trevan Hatch, Justin Hill, Bill Hook, Thad Horner, Hye-jin Juhn, Andrew Keck, Michael Kohut, Gloria Korsman, Graziano Krätli, Ryan Lee, Rebecca Lloyd, Reed Lowrie, Margot Lyon, Jean McManus, John Meeks, Christine Pesch Richardson, John Robinson, Kay Roethemeyer, Robert Roethemeyer, Ramona Romero, Fred Rowland, Veronica Simms, Kate Skrebutenas, Jacqueline Solis, Steven Squires, Maria Stanton, Naomi Steinberger, Chris Strauber, Elka Tenner, Amanda Thomas, Paul Allen Tippey, Nancy Turner, Nicholas Weiss
Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services Program is a series of projects that investigate the research support needs of scholars by their discipline. In 2016 Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of academic religious studies scholars in the United States, with the goal of identifying services to better support them. The project was undertaken collaboratively with research teams at 18 academic libraries and the American Theological Library Association with guidance from an advisory committee. The goal of this…
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Research Report
November 15, 2016
An Academic Policy Framework for Technology-Mediated Content
I. Introduction In this report, we recommend a set of policies regarding governance, conflicts of interest, conflicts of commitment, and intellectual property to guide academic institutions in developing ways to create and promote technologically-mediated content. These policies are intended to encourage innovation in the development of new educational technologies by creating incentives for both institutions and their faculty to produce new scholarly materials in support of teaching and learning. We address these policies in the context of three…
Issue Brief
October 26, 2016
Finding the Public Domain: The Copyright Review Management System
The public domain is the ultimate open access. It is key to the bargain of copyright. Rather simplistically, in order to incentivize authors to produce works, the public, through Congress, grants authors copyrights in those works. While there is a range of opinion about the purpose and nature of copyright, they all have one common idea: copyright is limited by time. A copyright is a monopoly that lasts for a limited time and is limited by certain conditions. Those limitations…
Case Study
October 20, 2016
Institutional Transformation for Student Success
Lessons Learned from Ithaka S+R’s Case Studies
Over the past decade, U.S. colleges and universities have faced increasing pressure from funders, policymakers, and advocates to improve degree completion rates and demonstrate their value to students.[1] At the same time, researchers have produced substantial evidence about the efficacy of a number of structural and pedagogical changes institutions can make to help students succeed. These changes include remedial course redesign, proactive advising and coaching, active learning pedagogies incorporating technology, and streamlined pathways through institutions.[2] Yet…
Case Study
October 6, 2016
Engineering Learning at Kaplan University
Facilitated by growth in the availability of data about learners, scholars in cognitive science, psychology, computer science, and other disciplines have developed sophisticated insights about how people learn and succeed in academic contexts.[1] Yet, growth in the field of “learning science” has far outpaced higher education institutions’ efforts to apply its insights to their students’ experience. Leaders at Kaplan, Inc.,[2] a company serving over a million learners in various programs, believe that a practical corollary to…
Research Report
October 4, 2016
Canadian Association of Research Libraries Faculty Survey
Executive Summary of Findings
Since 2014, eleven member institutions from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) have administered the Ithaka S+R Local Faculty Survey on their campuses.[1] The survey instrument covers many scholarly research and teaching-related topics, in part overlapping with the 2015 Ithaka S+R U.S. Faculty Survey and other previous iterations of the Ithaka S+R U.S. Faculty Survey.[2] Each of these Local Faculty Surveys included a core set of questions on preferences and practices related to discovery, digital…
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Research Report
September 29, 2016
Higher Ed Insights: Results of the Spring 2016 Survey
Introduction In fall 2015, Ithaka S+R invited a select group of higher education administrators and experts to join a panel of advisors. One activity of the panel, which currently consists of 111 members with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, is to take part in semi-annual surveys on issues of national importance in higher education. The first of these surveys was administered in the fall of 2015.[1] Ithaka S+R analyzes and publishes the results of these surveys to inform…
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Research Report
September 27, 2016
Reflections on Ethnographic Studies in a Community College Library System
Montgomery College, the community college of Montgomery County, Maryland, has made an enormous contribution to the study of libraries in community colleges with a series of reports about ethnographic studies on all three of its campuses.[1] Tanner Wray, Director of College Libraries and Information Services, led the studies, which gathered information from students and faculty members on how students do their academic work and how library resources, spaces, and services support this work. The Montgomery College project was…
Research Report
September 20, 2016
Reconfiguring Auburn University’s Main Library for Engaged Active Student Learning
Marcia Boosinger, Bonnie MacEwan, Denise Baker, Ashley Goerke, Adelia Grabowsky, Cory Latham, Kasia Leousis, Christopher Mixon, Catherine Price, Juliet Rumble, Greg Schmidt, Cayce Van Horn, Lise McKean, Danielle Miriam Cooper, Nancy Fried Foster
Introduction The effects of technological innovation have been rapid, significant, and well documented, and libraries have responded to changes in the way people read, communicate, and do research by providing digital content and renovating buildings so that they support new, technology-enhanced ways of work. But what about teaching and learning? More and more colleges and universities provide “hybrid” courses, “flipped” classrooms, and “active learning.” Instructors put lecture material online and engage students in group exploration and problem solving during class…
Research Report
September 15, 2016
CIC Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction
Evaluation Report for Second Course Iteration Treatment
The Council of Independent Colleges, a membership organization of more than 700 institutions, aims to support independent colleges and universities and their leaders as they advance institutional excellence and help the public understand private education’s contributions to society. CIC members, historically, have taken considerable pride in their offerings of highly personalized instruction for their students. As online learning began to be discussed in the mainstream media, CIC members considered the implications of this new form of pedagogy for their institutions.
Research Report
September 6, 2016
Applications of Student Data in Higher Education
Issues and Ethical Considerations
The second Asilomar convention organized by Stanford University and Ithaka S+R in June 2016 brought together a group of academics to facilitate a review of how student data is currently used in higher education. The discussions aimed to synthesize current best practices to specify norms for the ethical use of student data; and inform institutional, national and global policies regarding the research, application, and representation of adult student data. This paper focuses on the applications strand which sought to yield…
Research Report
September 6, 2016
Student Data in the Digital Era
An Overview of Current Practices
Newly available data are making it possible to understand, improve, and represent student learning and other outcomes in profoundly different ways. With online learning platforms, technology-enabled educational tools, and other digital technologies, data about students and student learning in post-secondary settings have become unprecedentedly extensive and easy to access, interpret, and share. This growing ubiquity and granularity offer new opportunities for institutions, researchers, instructors, and other organizations to put student data to myriad uses: researchers can better understand student learning…
Research Report
September 6, 2016
Creating a Learning Higher Education Community
Every human undergoes a unique, life-long process of learning. Mostly, this process is informal, even accidental. Occasionally we choose to enter more structured learning environments – classrooms and seminars, schools and colleges – intentionally designed by more experienced individuals to foster, evaluate, and represent our progress. All of these experiences, from coincidental encounters to bureaucratized degree programs, make us who we are. Everyone involved in this process has decisions to make. Individuals engaged in learning make choices constantly: Should I…
Research Report
September 6, 2016
A Brief History of the Student Record
Abstract: This paper provides a brief history of the development and evolution of the student record. It argues that this history is best considered as generally consisting of three distinct periods: (1) an early period (1840-1910) that was characterized by large variation in student record keeping and a lack of defined relationships and hierarchy among educational institutions and levels. Uniformity in student record keeping—particularly with the adoption of the Carnegie Unit—became a way of solidifying practices of record keeping…
Research Report
August 18, 2016
Organizing the Work of the Research Library
Established in an era when the collection was truly at the heart of the library, and when building and maintaining it was the focus of its work, the research library is today moving away from organizational structures centered around building and supporting the general collection. Research libraries are undertaking a number of radical transformations: from print towards electronic, from local towards shared, from licensed towards open, from general towards distinctive, from collections towards engagement, from selector towards partner. To…
Issue Brief
July 14, 2016
Rethinking Research Libraries in the Era of Global Universities
As our world becomes increasingly interconnected politically, economically, culturally, and socially, higher education has followed suit. The 2011 survey by the American Council of Education’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement found a perceived acceleration of internationalization across campuses, from doctoral to associate degree institutions.[1] The definition of what that means for each institution varies. Graham Elkin, Faiyaz Devjee, and John Farnsworth developed a 13-scale model to assist universities in evaluating where they are presently and where they…
Research Report
June 16, 2016
Barriers to Discovery of and Access to the Scientific Literature in the Corporate Sector
The offices that provide scientific information resources in major research companies – sometimes still called libraries – seek to make these resources available as seamlessly as possible. Barriers exist both for discovery and access. Corporate information professionals also face barriers in administering these information resources. In this project, Ithaka S+R examined the degree to which these various barriers are seen to exist in pharmaceutical, chemical, and food companies. The project had as its objective to inform the design of solutions…