Our recent consulting projects include:

• Business modeling for a scholarly society’s digital resource.  The leaders of a scholarly society wanted to build an online resource of images contributed by their member-scholars. We worked with the society to craft a business strategy for a contributed-content resource, helping them detail the costs for launching and operating the resource and explore models for governance and partnership.

• Examining the impact of the print to digital transition on library collections and services.  In June 2009, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) retained Ithaka S+R to propose a comprehensive framework for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) in response to changes in the environment for information dissemination and usage.  Ithaka S+R interviewed nearly 90 individuals, including librarians from 40 institutions and representatives from the Government Printing Office (GPO).  The final report provided a vision for how this program’s vital mission can be sustained to serve the needs of the American public.  Read More

•  Facilitating library collaboration.  The libraries of two major research universities―Columbia and Cornell―have entered into an innovative partnership that will allow them to pool their resources to provide a wider range of content, expertise, and services.  This collaboration, dubbed “2CUL,” demonstrates a shared commitment to reinvigorate their libraries in a challenging economic time and a changing digital environment.  Since the launch of their planning phase in 2009, Ithaka S+R has facilitated quarterly meetings, helped the project’s working groups to develop milestones and timelines, and worked closely with representatives from both schools to develop a robust communications plan.

•  Market analysis and business planning for libraries’ open source software.  As archives move into the digital age by creating searchable online catalogs and scanning physical materials, the challenge of managing these collections has only grown more difficult.  A pair of academic libraries developed an open source data management system to meet the needs of all types of archives.  Our team helped them conduct a large-scale investigation of the needs of archivists at different types of institutions, evaluate the potential for the project team to launch revenue-generating premium services for the software, and develop detailed multi-year cost and revenue models.

• New product design for PBS affilliate’s video library. The archival staff at a PBS television affiliate wanted to understand whether it would be economically feasible to launch an online video library for use by scholars.  Our team conducted in-depth interviews with historians and political scientists to understand how they use archival video and other primary source materials in their research and teaching and spent time on-site with the project team understanding their staff skills, capacity, and costs.  At the end of the project, we synthesized our research and presented the project team with a portfolio of demand-driven business models they could pursue to sustain the long-term development of the online video library.

• Strategic advisory services for a research center. The Bard Graduate Center, an MA and Ph.D.-granting research institute in New York City that specializes in cultural and material history recently undertook a series of digital projects designed to expand the reach of its faculty’s research and teaching output, and to disseminate scholarship in this field to the humanities research community. The Center asked Ithaka S+R to provide research and advice as it prepared to launch these new projects, which include a media lab for developing digital teaching, research and exhibition projects, a print and digital monograph series on cultural histories of the material world, and an online platform for its re-launched journal.

• Strategic and business planning for a university press. Ithaka S+R is providing assistance with strategic and business planning for the University of California Press. Ithaka S+R’s work is focused on market research, cost analysis, research on key new business areas, and organizational issues related to the press’s print to digital transition.

•  Strategic planning for a research and graduate center’s digital resource.  The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is developing a plan for the Ancient World Digital Library. As part of this effort, they asked Ithaka S+R to help investigate the logistical issues involved in planning a resource like this, and in developing a clearer understanding of the workflow, costs, and organizational issues associated with launching an online collection of materials in Ancient World Studies. The Ithaka S+R’s consulting work helped shape strategic choices about some of the basic characteristics of the project.

• Survey implementation for a membership organization. The Association for Research Libraries engaged Ithaka S+R to conduct an investigation into the range of online resources valued by scholars, paying special attention to those projects that are pushing beyond the boundaries of traditional formats and are considered innovative by the faculty who use them. To do this, Ithaka S+R  helped to mobilize a field team of over 300 ARL librarians at 46 academic institutions in the US and Canada to interview faculty on campus about the digital resources they use in their work.

To inquire about our consulting services, please contact us at consulting@ithaka.org