Topic: Libraries
Blog Post
February 28, 2019
Landscape of Library Service Quality Tools
During the course of the past year, I have had a chance to speak with many assessment librarians, library deans, and others in academic libraries about the types of tools they are using, or considering, for their planning and assessment projects. We typically connect because they have fielded, or are thinking about fielding, one or more of the Ithaka S+R Local Surveys, which primarily focus on the ways in which students and faculty…
Blog Post
February 25, 2019
On Being Student-Centered
Reflections on the CCLASSS Project and DREAM 2019
What does it mean for us to be student-centered in our work at Ithaka S+R? In our collaborative research initiative on student success and community college libraries, the Community College Libraries & Academic Support for Student Success (CCLASSS) project, being student-centered means that we have positioned student voices as not only valuable but essential to our work. While our ultimate aim for the CCLASSS project is to design new library…
Past Event
June 11, 2019
Library Acquisition Patterns: How Do Libraries Buy from University Presses?
Roger Schonfeld at the AUP Meeting
In June, Roger Schonfeld will present on “Library Acquisition Patterns: How Do Libraries Buy from University Presses?” at the Association of University Publishing Meeting in Detroit, Michigan. He will be joined on the panel by Jon T. Elwell (EBSCO) and Terry Ehling (MIT Press). The conference will run from June 11-13, 2019, and more information will be forthcoming on the AUP website. About the panel Ithaka S+R’s Library Acquisition Patterns (LAP) project is a national study that examines…
Blog Post
February 21, 2019
Reflections on PASIG
Advancing Digital Preservation Through Community Cultivation
From February 12-14, I attended the PASIG Conference where 150 individuals from 12 countries gathered to share experiences and insights on organizational, technical, social, business, and political aspects of digital preservation and archiving. Digital preservation involves the management and endurance of digital objects to ensure the authenticity, accessibility, and usability of content over time in the face of technological and organizational changes. Since 2007, the Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (…
Past Event
May 31, 2019
Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer at SSP
The Great Divide: Communicating Scholarly Research to Practitioners
On Friday, May 31, Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer will speak on “The Great Divide: Communicating Scholarly Research to Practitioners” at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Conference in San Diego, California. Danielle and Rebecca will be joined on the panel by Angela Cochran (American Society of Civil Engineers), Amy Rechenmacher (University of Southern California), and Ingrid Tomac (University of California San Diego). The panel will run from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm. For more information and to register, please see the…
Past Event
April 13, 2019
When Enough Isn’t Enough: Rethinking Research Support in the Sciences
Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer at ACRL
On Saturday, April 13, Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer will present “When Enough Isn’t Enough: Rethinking Research Support in the Sciences” at the ACRL Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Their talk is scheduled for 8:30 am. For more information and to register, please see the conference website. About the presentation What would it take for university libraries to develop the same kind of buy-in with scientists as they often have with humanists? A major challenge is that how libraries offer…
Past Event
April 8, 2019
Holistic Approaches to Research Data Management: Scholars as Collectors
Danielle Cooper and Oya Y. Rieger at the CNI Spring Meeting
In April, Danielle Cooper and Oya Y. Rieger will present on “Holistic Approaches to Research Data Management: Scholars as Collectors” at the CNI Spring Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference runs from April 8-9. For more information and to register, please visit the CNI website. Presentation abstract In conjunction with their research and teaching activities, scholars create and assemble complex personal collections of information. These collections vary widely depending on the…
Past Event
March 22, 2019
Roger Schonfeld Leads Workshop at RLUK
Beyond Open: Transformations in Scholarly Publishing
On Friday, March 22, from 11:30 am -1:00 pm, Roger Schonfeld is facilitating a workshop on “Beyond Open: Transformations in Scholarly Publishing.” Roger will be joined by Toby Greene (OECD) and Daniel Hook (Digital Science). The workshop is part of the RLUK19 Conference in London, England. For more information and to register, please see the conference website. About the workshop Open access is transforming the scholarly publishing landscape. In just the past year, the academic sector has asserted itself through…
Blog Post
February 13, 2019
The Right Tool for the Job
Fostering Strategic Approaches to User Research
In October 2018 we had the opportunity to engage with attendees to at the Digital Library Federation (DLF) conference about fostering strategic approaches to digital library assessment. During the session we briefly presented a framework for thinking through various user research avenues and related methodologies (suggesting that the user survey isn’t the only useful tool libraries could employ even if we use them a lot!) and then invited participants to consider what they…
Past Event
February 13, 2019
Oya Rieger at PASIG 2019 in Mexico City
On February 13, Oya Rigier is giving a lightning round talk at the PASIG conference at El Colegio de México in Mexico City. Her talk will begin at 3:50 pm. For more information, please see the conference website. About PASIG The Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) is dedicated to advancing the practice of digital preservation and archiving. It brings together practitioners, industry experts and researchers to share experience in a vendor-neutral forum on how to put preservation and…
Blog Post
January 29, 2019
Do Physical Books Still Spark Joy?
On the Material Reality of Today’s Academic Libraries
Marie Kondo of Tidying Up, the decluttering-as-self help phenomenon, recently met controversy for declaring that she strictly limits the number of books in her home to thirty. She has since clarified that the optimal physical book collection size is a personal metric, however, the underlying controversy echoes an issue that many academic libraries are facing around the role and presence of physical books.
Blog Post
January 29, 2019
National Study Examines How Book Acquisitions at Academic Libraries Have Evolved
Library Acquisition Patterns
Academic books are an important part of scholarship and have traditionally been integral to academic libraries as they develop collections to support the research needs of students and faculty members. However, as library budgets shrink and students and scholars turn toward away from the liberal arts, university presses and other associated organizations have begun to express concern that book sales are in decline. But another phenomenon started happening simultaneously in this industry: Amazon began selling academic books, competing for customers…
Research Report
January 29, 2019
Library Acquisition Patterns
The Library Acquisition Patterns (LAP) project was undertaken with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with the aim of examining trends in US academic libraries’ book purchasing. The findings of this report consist of two distinct areas: 1) an analysis of library book acquisitions within the specified sample for fiscal year 2017 at 124 US academic institutions, and 2) a trend line analysis of print and e-books acquired within the specified sample, the university press presence in these…
Past Event
February 14, 2019
Roger Schonfeld Delivers Plenary Address at NFAIS
On Thursday, February 14, Roger Schonfeld is delivering a plenary address on “The Role of Library Consortia in the Transition to Cloud-based Infrastructure and Open Access Publishing” at the NFAIS Annual Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. His session will run from 10:45 am to noon, and registration is now open on the NFAIS website. Abstract Library consortia and systems have played a major role in the development of collaborations to expand the availability of collections and licensed content and reduce…
Blog Post
January 24, 2019
A New Issue Brief on Revenue-Generating Library Services
Academic libraries are grappling with how to respond to the the continuing introduction of increasingly more business-like approaches to the academy, such as through the popularity of “responsibility center” approaches to management, and “customer” or “client”-focused approaches to service. For example, while some embrace the concept of “entrepreneurial librarianship” others are taking an anti-capitalist stance through the lens of “critical librarianship.” Undergirding these rhetorical moves are the material challenges that academic libraries, and their institutions, are facing as…
Issue Brief
January 24, 2019
Doing More, With More
Academic Libraries, Digital Services, and Revenue Generation
The axiom to “do more with less” in university research libraries is increasingly untenable, as budgets continue to shrink and demand for novel services continues to rise. The impacts of such existential uncertainties are self-evident and widely discussed in the current literature—staff burnout, lowered morale and increased toxicity, weakened local collections, and limited capacity for ambitious and genuinely innovative work. Like many institutions, the University of Maryland (UMD) Libraries has found itself reinventing many of its services and initiatives to…
Blog Post
January 16, 2019
Supporting Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
Recommendations by and for Academic Librarians
In Ithaka S+R’s newest Research Support Services project – highlighted in our capstone report released today – we partnered with teams at 11 academic libraries in the United States and Canada to study the research practices and support needs of civil and environmental engineering scholars. (They join teams at 77 other universities who have participated in similar Ithaka S+R-led projects, including Asian studies and public…
Blog Post
January 16, 2019
Engineering for Impact: Practices of Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholars
The latest installment in Ithaka S+R’s series of Research Support Services projects investigates the research practices and support needs of civil and environmental engineering scholars. Today we are excited to publish the project’s capstone report. The field of civil and environmental engineering tackles pressing issues relating to our built and natural environments – from climate change to urban drinking water, bridge and highway upkeep to natural disaster planning. The need for research solutions to these problems…
Blog Post
January 16, 2019
Announcing a New Project on Teaching with Primary Sources
We are excited to announce a new research project designed to support effective teaching with primary sources. Teaching undergraduates with primary sources promotes student engagement and critical thinking skills and is a key ingredient in the current pedagogical push toward “inquiry-based” or “research-led” learning.* Although leveraging physical collections remains important, technological affordances have additionally transformed possibilities for teaching with primary sources: not only by increasing content availability, but by enabling digital discovery, curation, and annotation. The…
Research Report
January 16, 2019
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholars
In 2017 and 2018 Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of civil and environmental engineering 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 civil and environmental engineering scholars.