Case Studies in Sustainability 2009
Tens of millions of dollars, pounds, and euros are invested each year by government agencies and private foundations to develop and support digital resources in the not-for-profit sector. As budgets tighten, will these digital resources be able to survive and thrive?
This question is at the heart of the Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability project, a multi-year, international exploration of the strategies being used to support digital initiatives over the long term. Twelve detailed case studies present the steps project leaders have taken to achieve this, with special attention paid to their strategies for cost management and revenue generation. These studies include financial data, and explore the decision-making process that project leaders undertake when experimenting with different strategies to find the best fit for their organization.
Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today, serves as a guide to the cases, outlining the stages that successful projects undertake in developing sustainability models: from empowering leadership and developing accountability structures, to crafting a strong value proposition that responds to user needs, to securing the resources needed to help the project thrive.
By highlighting the benefits and challenges of a wide range of models, this work is intended to serve as a starting point to understanding the options and obstacles facing digital projects today. We hope that they prove to be as eye-opening and thought-provoking for you as they have been for us. We encourage you to share your thoughts with us and with the community by sending us your comments using the comment feature below.
Download the full document, Final Report, or each individual case:
Full Document
Download full document, including the Final Report and all 12 case studies, 135 pages (high resolution, 4.5MB)
Download full document, including the Final Report and all 12 case studies, 135 pages (low resolution, 2.8MB)
Final Report
Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today
Nancy L. Maron, K. Kirby Smith, Matthew Loy
Foreword by Kevin Guthrie and Laura Brown
Case Studies
BOPCRIS Digitisation Centre: Experimentation with Sustainability and Partnerships for Library Digitisation Projects
Hartley Library, University of Southampton
Southampton, United Kingdom
Centre for Computing in the Humanities: Leveraging Shared Infrastructure and Expertise to Develop Digital Projects in an Academic Department
King’s College London
London, United Kingdom
DigiZeitschriften: Library Partnership and a Subscription Model for a Journal Database
Göttingen State and University Library, University of Göttingen
Göttingen, Germany
eBird: A Two-sided Market for Academic Researchers and Enthusiasts
Cornell University Lab of Ornithology (Information Science Department)
New York, United States
Electronic Enlightenment: Subscription-based Resource Sold Through a University Press
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
Hindawi Publishing Corporation: The Open-Access Contributor-Pays Model
Cairo, Egypt
L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel: Free Content and Rights Licensing as Complementary Strategies
Bry-sur-Marne and Paris, France
The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways, National Science Digital Library: Early Sustainability Planning for a Grant-Funded Digital Library
The Ohio State University
Ohio, United States
The National Archives: Digitisation with Commercial Partnerships via the Licensed Internet Associates Program
London, United Kingdom
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Building an Endowment with Community Support
Stanford University
California, United States
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®: Specialised Historical Content for a Niche Audience
University of California, Irvine
California, United States
V&A Images: Image Licensing at a Cultural Heritage Institution
Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
Read more:
A Brief History of the Studies in Sustainability
Executive Summary
Methodology
Case Study Abstracts
Our Funders
Re: Key Factors
With regard to many of the sustainability planning principles we articulate in the report being well known, you are right; however, frequently they are less familiar to the academics and librarians that often start new digital initiatives and certainly not the types of things they necessarily think about and practice regularly. We hope this will be useful for them. Even for those who are aware, the value of the report may be in the way these principles are contextualized for a scholarly audience, particularly in the attention paid to the critical issue of how to best balance those concepts with mission-related goals.
Laura Brown
Executive Vice President, Ithaka S+R
Key Factors
- Have a strong project leader
- Make sure there's a monetary reason for doing it
- Control costs
- Diversify
- Clear accountability
etc...
Is that it? Well, duh. How much did this report cost / how long did it take?
You should have asked me, I would have written it in ten minutes / alternatively, pointed you at the hundreds of management text books that say pretty much exactly the same thing.
Disappointing. Yet another exercise in stating the obvious. Surely Ithaca has better things to do. Come on guys. If you are really going to add value as an organisation, you need to stop producing 'reports' like this, and start acting as a 'hub' for digital initiatives. A communication and sharing agent. You need to build a library of services and facilitate knowledge and the sharing of best practive / tools / development and resource.