Topic: Libraries
Research Report
April 30, 2014
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians
This study, funded by the Getty Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, looks at how art historians' research practices are evolving in the digital age. Intended primarily for the museums, libraries, academic departments, and visual resources centers that support research in art history within the U.S., this project focused on five key areas: 1. The emergence of "digital art history," and how it is diverging from the broader understanding of the digital humanities. 2. The interconnected scholarly communities that…
Blog Post
April 29, 2014
New Report: Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians
During the last year, Ithaka S+R interviewed more than 70 faculty members, curators, librarians, visual resources professionals, and museum professionals in order to learn how art historians’ research practices are evolving in the digital age. Today, we are pleased to announce the publication of that study’s results: Supporting the Research Practices of Art Historians. Intended primarily for the museums, libraries, academic departments, and visual resources centers that support research in art history within the U.S., this project focused on…
Blog Post
April 14, 2014
Discovery in the Library—Shifting Ground?
Helping users find content is one of the fundamental services that academic libraries have historically provided. As we have tracked in the Ithaka S+R survey of library deans and directors, it is also an area where there have been important and fast-moving changes. In the 2010 survey, library directors saw discovery as an area for increased investment, and many libraries subsequently put money into new-to-the-market index-based discovery services that promised to bring their collections together into a single search…
Blog Post
April 7, 2014
Notes from the Regional Print Management Symposium
At the end of March, OCLC Research, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and Ohio State University, hosted a very interesting symposium on print collections management. The symposium’s focus was on how collections of print books might be more effectively managed given changing usage patterns and needs for print books, and changing priorities for the allocation of library spaces. The symposium’s jumping-off point was a new research report by Brian Lavoie and Constance Malpas, which analyzes Ohio State…
Blog Post
March 27, 2014
Sustaining Digital Resources for the Long Term
With generous funding from the Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance (SCA), Ithaka S+R has developed A Guide to the Best Revenue Models and Funding Sources for Your Digital Resources. The report will support project leaders who are actively maintaining digital resources—and who seek funding models that support continued investment in their projects for the benefit of their users, over time. The world of digital creation has moved beyond major research institutions. It now includes museums, small historical societies, and local…
Blog Post
March 25, 2014
Leveraging the Liaison Model
From Defining 21st Century Research Libraries to Implementing 21st Century Research Universities
What role might librarians play in building the 21st Century research university? How can librarians effectively assess the impact of the expertise, services, and resources they deliver to the academic community? In our latest issue brief, Anne Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell University, explores how librarians can leverage the liaison model to demonstrate “that the library is more than a purveyor of content and that its expertise is an essential component of the academic knowledge infrastructure…
Issue Brief
March 25, 2014
Leveraging the Liaison Model
From Defining 21st Century Research Libraries to Implementing 21st Century Research Universities
What role might librarians play in building the 21st Century research university? How can librarians effectively assess the impact of the expertise, services, and resources they deliver to the academic community? In this issue brief, Anne Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell University, explores how librarians can leverage the liaison model to demonstrate “that the library is more than a purveyor of content and that its expertise is an essential component of the academic knowledge infrastructure on and…
Blog Post
March 24, 2014
The Ithaka S+R Local Survey at Swarthmore
In our recent report on the 2013 US Library Survey, we noted that faculty members and library directors have different views on the role librarians play in information literacy education. Seventy-two percent of library directors agreed with the statement “Developing the research skills of undergraduate students related to locating and evaluating scholarly information is principally my library’s responsibility,” compared with just 22% of faculty. This is an area where participants in our local faculty survey have paid special attention…
Blog Post
March 17, 2014
Sustaining Public History Projects
On March 22, at the National Council of Public History meeting in Monterey, California, we will be presenting on “From Antiquarians to Deadheads. Lessons from ‘Searching for Sustainability: Strategies from Eight Digitized Special Collections’” with our colleagues James David Moran from the American Antiquarian Society and Robin Chandler of UC Santa Cruz (home of the Grateful Dead Archive Online). We’re looking forward to learning from our audience of public historians how they approach the creation and ongoing preservation of…
Blog Post
March 13, 2014
News Coverage of the Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2013
The March 11 publication of the Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2013 has garnered some immediate media coverage: Ian Chant, “Ithaka Study Shows Shifting Priorities Among Academic Librarians,” Library Journal. Jennifer Howard, “What Matters to Academic-Library Directors? Information Literacy,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Carl Straumsheim, “Beyond eBooks,” Inside Higher Ed. Michael Todd, “State of the Stacks: Academic Libraries in a Digital Age,” Social Science Space.
Research Report
March 11, 2014
Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2013
In the Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2013 report we examine how the leaders of academic libraries are approaching systemic changes in their environment and the opportunities and constraints they face in leading their organizations. While exploring key topics covered in our 2010 survey of library directors, such as strategic planning, collecting practices, and library services, in 2013 we also introduced a new emphasis on organizational dynamics, leadership issues, and undergraduate services. The 2013 Ithaka S+R Library Survey was sent…
Blog Post
March 6, 2014
Opening the Textbook
New Opportunities for Libraries and Publishers?
What solutions might we find within our community to solve the problem of rising textbook prices? In our latest issue brief, Nancy Maron, Ithaka S+R’s Program Director for Sustainability and Scholarly Communications, looks at recent trends in textbook publishing and suggests that collaborations between university presses and academic libraries might yield a new breed of textbook more aligned to the needs of faculty and students. Interested? Download “Opening the Textbook: New Opportunities for Libraries and Publishers?”…
Blog Post
February 14, 2014
Designing a New Academic Library from Scratch
In our latest issue brief, Ithaka S+R Senior Anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster asks what it would be like to design academic libraries based not on precedent, but rather on everything we can learn right now about the work practices of the people who already use them. Foster demonstrates how through participatory design we can build a new type of library that considers both the practical needs of the community and the higher ideals of cultural institutions. Interested?…
Issue Brief
February 14, 2014
Designing a New Academic Library from Scratch
In this issue brief, Ithaka S+R senior anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster asks what it would be like to design academic libraries based not on precedent, but rather on everything we can learn right now about the work practices of the people who already use them. Foster demonstrates how through participatory design we can build a new type of library that considers both the practical needs of the community and the higher ideals of cultural institutions.
Blog Post
February 12, 2014
The Ithaka S+R Local Faculty Survey at SUNY Potsdam
Twenty-eight colleges and universities have signed on to administer Ithaka S+R’s Local Faculty Survey since we initiated this service, and librarians are beginning to tell us about the impact of the surveys on their campuses. We recently caught up with Jenica Rogers, Library Director at SUNY Potsdam, who is using the survey results as she drafts her library’s next strategic plan. SUNY Potsdam’s provost also plans to incorporate the data from the survey into her proposal to create a…
Issue Brief
December 10, 2013
Stop the Presses
Is the monograph headed toward an e-only future?
Can we expect the print monograph to disappear anytime soon? While the road to a fully digital future for scholarly monographs is not clearly in sight, the widespread availability of ebooks is already transforming researchers' reading habits. As librarians and publishers consider their options, they must take into account how the usage behavior of academics is evolving. In this Issue Brief, Roger Schonfeld explores the challenges and possibilities if we "Stop the Presses."
Research Report
November 20, 2013
Searching for Sustainability
Strategies from Eight Digitized Special Collections
This report aims to address one of the biggest challenges facing libraries and cultural heritage organizations: how to move their special collections into the 21st century through digitization while developing successful strategies to make sure those collections remain accessible and relevant over time. Through a cooperative agreement as part of the National Leadership Grants Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in partnership with Ithaka S+R, to undertake in-depth case studies…
Research Report
November 20, 2013
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Sustainable growth through collaborative partnerships The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), created in 2006, is the result of a collaboration of ten natural history museum and botanical garden libraries seeking to digitize core taxonomic literature and to make it free and openly available throughout the world. Today, the BHL includes fifteen member institutions whose efforts have shaped a collection of over 60,000 titles. It has developed beyond project status to become a service that researchers in systematic biology have integrated into…
Research Report
November 20, 2013
Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History
Cornell University
Upfront investment in user-friendly back-end systems allows for continual growth The Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History (HEARTH) is a digitized collection of academic and popular monographs and journals comprising the core literature of home economics, or, as it is more commonly known today, human ecology. Created at Cornell University’s Mann Library, which serves primarily Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology, HEARTH was launched in 2003 with the support of a two-year…
Research Report
November 20, 2013
Grateful Dead Archive Online
University of California at Santa Cruz
Cultivating a targeted user group for support and content Few archives come with a built-in fan base. The Grateful Dead Archive Online is distinguished from many other academic special collections by the variety of media it holds, from concert tickets to audio files and art created by fans of the band, and by its potential audience, the many thousands of fans of the Grateful Dead. Support for the Archive has come from grant funding, private donors, and from this fan…