Over the years, Ithaka S+R has routinely deposited datasets from our research projects with the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, better known by its acronym of ICPSR. In doing so, this ensures that our data is not only digitally preserved, enabling long-term access, but also thoroughly processed and made available in a variety of formats for download. Several new datasets from our research projects have recently become available in our Ithaka S+R Surveys of Higher Education Series.

Digitally preserving these data provides numerous benefits, and allows for others to reuse, validate, and replicate analyses, as well as conduct their own independent research. We are always delighted to see others building on our work in these ways, so please don’t hesitate to reach out (nicole.betancourt@ithaka.org) with questions or to share how you have used these data. In a subsequent post, we will explore the advantages and limitations of several approaches to data deposit in the social sciences.

Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018

The Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey, fielded on a triennial basis since 2000, tracks the changing research, teaching, and publishing habits of higher education faculty members in the US. In 2018, 10,919 respondents were asked about resource discovery and access; research topics and practices; research dissemination, including data management and preservation; instruction and perceptions of student research skills; the role and value of the academic library; open-educational resources; and learning analytics tools.

You may access the dataset for this project in ICPSR here. The public report of findings from this project is also available here.

University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning Library Strategies with Institutional Directions

Conducted in partnership with OCLC, “University Futures, Library Futures” establishes a new framework for understanding the fit between emerging library service paradigms and university types. Researchers examined the impact of increased institutional differentiation in universities on the organization of academic libraries and the services they provide.

As libraries move away from a collections model in which libraries measure their success by how large their collections are, this project puts a framework around library services, explores emerging patterns in different institutional settings, and gauges the importance of these services areas—now and for the future—according to 581 surveyed library directors.

You may access the dataset for this project in ICPSR here. The public report of findings from this project is also available here.

Community College Libraries & Academic Support for Student Success Survey

The Community College Libraries and Academic Support for Student Success (CCLASSS) student survey was conducted in Fall 2018 across seven community colleges and co-led by Northern Virginia Community College. The survey, with responses from 10,844 students, examines success from the perspective of students themselves, what challenges they face in achieving it, and what services can be developed to effectively support them in their attainment of that success.

Additionally, a series of service concepts were tested to determine how valuable a variety of services might be for students. These service concepts include: the aid of a social worker; the ability to borrow and access various technologies; child care services; civic engagement opportunities; workshops on digital privacy issues; access to a single point of contact for navigating college services broadly; access to a personal librarian; and opportunities to display and share coursework. 

You may access the dataset for this project in ICPSR here. The public report of findings from this project is also available here.

Organizing Support for Success: Community College Academic and Student Support Ecosystems

The Community College Academic and Student Support Ecosystems (CCASSE) survey, conducted in the spring of 2019, asked 249 chief academic and student affairs officers at community colleges across the United States about success measures, services offered, resource challenges and constraints, and vision for future service provision. The project examined how academic and student support services at not-for-profit associate-degree granting colleges are organized, funded, and staffed, and how these services can most effectively advance student success.

You may access the dataset for this project in ICPSR here. The public report of findings from this project is also available here.

Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2019

The Ithaka S+R Library Survey, fielded in the fall of 2019,  examines strategy and leadership issues from the perspective of 662 library deans and directors at not-for-profit four-year academic institutions across the United States. The project aims to provide academic librarians and higher education leaders with information about chief librarians’ visions and the opportunities and challenges they face in leading their organizations. Respondents were asked about their strategies related to services and collections, discovery, budget and staffing, their leadership roles within and outside of the library, and their vision for the role of the library. Given that this survey was fielded just months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are again surveying library directors in a special edition of the survey series this year focused on the impacts both of COVID-19 and of movements for racial equality.

You may access the dataset for this project in ICPSR here. The public report of findings from this project is also available here.