Topic: Libraries
Past Event
February 17, 2022
Melissa Blankstein at the DREAM 2022 conference
On Thursday, February 17, from 3:00-3:30 pm EST, Melissa Blankstein will present on “Leveraging the 21st Century Academic Library: Opportunities for Collaboration for Student Success” at the DREAM 2022 conference. Abstract How can your library best position itself to support students holistically? Current library programs often straddle both missions of academic and student affairs–how can this unique role be maximized to enhance both institutional and student success? Join representatives from Bunker Hill Community College and the Community College of Rhode…
Past Event
January 25, 2022
Melissa Blankstein Presents on Collaborating to Support Student Success
ACRL Choice Webinar
On, Tuesday, January 25th at 2:00 pm EST, Melissa is speaking at an ACRL Choice Webinar, “Leveraging the 21st Century Library: Opportunities for Collaboration to Support Student Success.” To register for this free webinar, please visit the ACRL Choice website. About the webinar The library is well positioned to play a key role in supporting student success—helping to increase student learning, develop a sense of community, provide technological resources, and act as a hub for many other services. How…
Blog Post
January 12, 2022
Preprints: Their Evolving Role in Science Communication
New Publication
We are pleased to announce the publication of Preprints: Their Evolving Role in Science Communication by Iratxe Puebla and Jessica Polka, both of ASAPbio, and Ithaka S+R’s Oya Y. Rieger. It is part of the Charleston Briefings: Trending Topics for Information Professionals series. This briefing discusses the history and role of preprints—scholarly manuscripts posted by the author(s) to a repository or platform to facilitate open and broad sharing of early work without any limitations…
Blog Post
January 5, 2022
Providing Library Services for Higher Education in Prison
An Interview with Jessica Licklider and Jeannie Colson
In a previous blog post I interviewed Jeanie Austin of the San Francisco Public Library about their new book on providing library services to incarcerated people. With the restoration of Pell funding for incarcerated students set to take place in 2023, the field of higher education in prison (HEP) is currently grappling with how to prepare for this long-awaited expansion of funding and opportunity, and academic libraries that wish to serve this student group must likewise prepare to meet…
Blog Post
December 20, 2021
Leading by Diversifying Collections
Announcing a New Project to Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academic Libraries
As academic libraries seek to meaningfully engage with calls to improve practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) it is important that the library’s collections align with that mission. Yet, Ithaka S+R’s recent survey of library directors found that most libraries have not developed criteria for evaluating and making decisions related to the diversity of their collections. A library-wide strategy for diversifying collections also involves leveraging staff and resources in new ways…
Blog Post
December 15, 2021
Building Sustainable Data Sharing Communities
Announcing the Participants in an NSF-Funded Incubation Workshop
Across the country and around the world, communities of researchers are voluntarily sharing data across disciplinary and institutional borders. Understanding the motivations, practices, and challenges faced by members of these communities is important to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funders seeking to promote and normalize data sharing and reuse. However, questions remain about how to best support data communities as they emerge and mature. Some of the most urgent issues involve documentation,…
Blog Post
December 7, 2021
Providing Library Services to the Incarcerated
An Interview with Jeanie Austin on Their New Book
Providing library services to people held in prisons and jails can be a challenging endeavor. Those who take on this work will need to navigate complex, and not always welcoming, corrections’ bureaucracies and face censorship or be themselves co-opted into censoring in ways that are antithetical to the ethical tenets of librarianship. Yet the information needs among incarcerated and detained people are immense given their limited access to the internet or other technologies…
Research Report
December 6, 2021
What Is a Research Core?
A Primer on a Critical Component of the Research Enterprise
As clusters of state-of-the-art instruments and research enablement services, research cores are not only the cornerstone of research activities at university campuses but also critical assets that provide competitive differentiation for their host institutions. However, these research cores are highly expensive for academic institutions to manage. Despite the growing recognition and impact of these research cores, there are few studies that describe the business models for sustaining and funding research cores or their increasing significance to the larger academic community.
Blog Post
December 1, 2021
Supporting Big Data Research
New Report Offers Recommendations for Stakeholders
As “big data” has moved from the margins to the center of a growing number of academic disciplines, how well are universities, funders, and publishers supporting researchers? To better understand how big data research is pursued in academic contexts, Ithaka S+R partnered with librarians at more than 20 colleges and universities, interviewing over 200 faculty members, to explore how researchers work with big data and identify the challenges they face. “Big Data Infrastructure at the Crossroads:…
Research Report
December 1, 2021
Big Data Infrastructure at the Crossroads
Support Needs and Challenges for Universities
Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services program explores current trends and support needs in academic research. Our most recent project in this program, “Supporting Big Data Research,” focused specifically on the rapidly emerging use of big data in research across disciplines and fields. As part of our study, we partnered with librarians from more than 20 colleges and universities, who then conducted over 200 interviews with faculty. These interviews provided insights into the research methodologies and support needs of researchers working…
Past Event
December 9, 2021
COVID-19 and the Future of Scholarly Meetings
Danielle Cooper, Laura Brown, and Dylan Ruediger at CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting
On December 9th, Danielle Cooper, Laura Brown, and Dylan Ruediger will present at the CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting and discuss how scholarly societies can address the business, content, and membership challenges faced when developing long-term planning for multi-modal conferences. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic forced scholarly societies to reimagine one of their signal offerings: academic conferences. In response, societies experimented with virtual and hybrid meeting formats on a scale that was difficult to imagine before March 2020. One clear take…
Past Event
December 2, 2021
Book Talk: Along Came Google
Deanna Marcum and Roger C. Schonfeld in conversation with Brewster Kahle
On December 2 at 4:00 pm (EST), the Internet Archive is hosting a virtual book talk with Deanna Marcum and Roger C. Schonfeld about their new book, Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization. Deanna and Roger will be joined in conversation by Brewster Kahle, the founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, as they discuss the history of library digitization projects and what these efforts hold for future scholars. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A.
Blog Post
November 11, 2021
Engaging Undergraduates in Primary Source Research
An Interview with the Authors of Two New Books
Creating meaningful learning encounters with primary sources involves dynamic collaboration between instructors and those who work with cultural heritage collections, including librarians, archivists, and museum professionals. Here at Ithaka S+R we have been engaging in a series of studies in collaboration with academic libraries, archives, and museums to understand instructors’ support needs in this area, including how to support their teaching with digital cultural heritage materials as classes went remote during the pandemic. In addition to understanding instructors’ experiences…
Past Event
December 14, 2021
Danielle Cooper at CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting
On December 14th, Danielle Cooper will present on “Licensing Privacy: Contractual Language and the Challenge of Monitoring Compliance” at the Fall 2021 CNI Membership Meeting. For more information on this event, please visit this website. Abstract The Licensing Privacy initiative, made possible in part by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to improve how academic libraries leverage licensing terms to advocate for reader privacy. In fall 2021, the Licensing Privacy initiative released: (1) “View from Library…
Blog Post
October 21, 2021
Working with Libraries to Navigate the Streaming Media Environment
The ascendancy of the streaming format has implications for how educational content is used and purchased within universities, even if universities do not appear to be a priority market for media providers. The pedagogical possibilities for streaming content extend far beyond access to feature films and documentaries, providing, for instance, the opportunity to access a wide variety of academic conference presentations, or observe lab demonstrations. Within universities, academic libraries are taking…
Blog Post
October 20, 2021
The A*CENSUS II: All Archivists Survey is Live
The A*CENSUS II: All Archivists Survey launched this week! This is the first broadscale survey of individual archivists and memory workers in the United States in 17 years. Nearly six thousand archivists participated in the original A*CENSUS in 2004, and the overwhelming response allowed the findings to be leveraged across the field in a myriad of ways. For institutions and professional organizations, the data informed the design of new curricula and the assessment of educational offerings; for archival institutions, the…
Past Event
November 10, 2021
Nicole Betancourt at 2021 Southeastern Library Assessment Conference
Nicole Betancourt will present during the 2021 Southeastern Library Assessment Conference on strategies that libraries have used successfully to encourage participation in institutional assessment efforts during the pandemic. For more information on the session and registration, please visit this link. See abstract below: Session: Lessons learned, and here to stay: Pandemic assessment marketing strategies for the “new normal” During the pandemic, libraries have been challenged more than ever to recruit faculty and students to participate in institutional assessment efforts,…
Past Event
October 13, 2021
Licensing Privacy: Views from Library Leadership
Danielle Cooper presents for Licensing Privacy project
On October 13th, Danielle Cooper will present at a webinar titled, “Licensing Privacy: Views from Library Leadership”. Danielle will share findings from interviews with library leaders about how privacy concerns inform their negotiations and agreements with vendors. To attend the webinar , please register here. For more information, please visit this site. The abstract is below: This webinar shares findings from interviews with library leaders about how privacy concerns inform their negotiations and agreements with vendors. Danielle Cooper,…
Blog Post
October 5, 2021
Censorship in Prisons
Recording from the San Francisco Public Library's Banned Books Event Now Available
Last week was Banned Books Week, an annual event meant to celebrate the freedom to read and draw attention to censorship and other threats to free expression. As a report by the free expression advocacy group PEN America points out, America’s prisons are the locus of the country’s largest and most extensive censorship regime. While the free and unencumbered access to literature is a challenge for all incarcerated…
Past Event
October 6, 2021
Living Through the Pandemic: Priorities and Organizational Models
Oya Y. Rieger presents during AAHSL Webinar
On October 6, Oya Y. Rieger will present during a AAHSL Webinar that will present results of the AAHSL/Ithaka S+R Study, “Academic Health Sciences Libraries: Structural Models and Perspectives,” and how health sciences libraries have pivoted during the pandemic to adapt services and respond to the evolving research, clinical and academic needs of our users. For more information, please visit this site. …