In 2009 Ithaka S+R investigated the sustainability strategies of twelve digital content projects in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Egypt. Two years and one economic crisis later, Ithaka S+R, with the generous support of the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, decided to revisit the original twelve case studies to see how their models had held up, where weaknesses might be starting to show, and what new strategies project leaders were adopting in response.

Updating the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability revealed many changes: two projects have significantly re-imagined their core mission, one radically so. Several have faced severe budget cuts, leading them to consider other approaches; some have been quite successful by continuing to build on what was already a strong value proposition and show continued signs of entrepreneurial drive and a willingness to experiment with new revenue streams.

Final Report

Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability (report only)

Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability (report plus all case studies, framework and toolkit) 

Executive Summary

Case Studies

• The Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King’s College London (formerly the Centre for Computing in the Humanities)
• DigiZeitschriften
• eBird
• Electronic Enlightenment (EE)
• Hindawi
• L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA)
• The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways, National Science Digital Library (MSP2)
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)
• University of Southampton Library Digitisation Unit (formerly the BOPCRIS Digitisation Centre)
• The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae® (TLG)
• The National Archives (TNA)
• V&A Images

 Toolkit

Briefing Paper

Framework