Dear colleagues,

Librarians and information service providers on this list may be interested in a new report we released yesterday: “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Historians.” Funded with support from NEH, this is the first in a series of new studies we are conducting that look at the needs of today’s scholars on a field-specific basis and provide guidance for how librarians and other research support providers can better serve them. 

I presented findings from this work along with Deanna Marcum, Ithaka S+R Managing Director, at the CNI meeting in Washington DC yesterday afternoon.  Attendees spurred quite a bit of discussion about the connections between researchers’ use of digital cameras and scanners while visiting archives and special collections, and libraries’ and archives’ priorities to make their collections more discoverable and accessible. There were also some great ideas about future subjects for our research, including ideas for interdisciplinary fields.

We are eager to hear any feedback you may have on this work, and specifically about the actionable recommendations at the conclusion of the paper.  Discussion on-list or off is welcome.

Roger

Roger C. Schonfeld
Director of Research
Ithaka S+R

Twitter: @rschon
Tel: 212-500-2338

Ithaka S+R (www.sr.ithaka.org/) is a strategic consulting and research service that focuses on the transformation of scholarship and teaching in an online environment, with the goal of identifying the critical issues facing our community and acting as a catalyst for change.  Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA (www.ithaka.org), a not-for-profit organization that also includes JSTOR (www.jstor.org) and Portico (www.portico.org).