Slides from Joe EspositoThe publishers and vendors on whom academic libraries rely for materials and systems are undergoing substantial strategic change. As user expectations advance, usage data afford new service opportunities, and the economic postures of academic libraries shift, the more sophisticated publishers and vendors are informing their strategy with various types of largely proprietary research. Libraries and other publishers and vendors have little access to certain types of data and research that would be helpful to them in understanding changes in the marketplace in which they operate. We believe there are opportunities to mitigate this challenge with a focused program of ongoing community research in these areas.
Ithaka S+R is organizing this session as a roundtable discussion about the types of research that fall “between” libraries and their publisher and vendor partners that would be useful to conduct. Deanna Marcum, Ithaka S+R’s managing director, will serve as moderator. Providing some introductory remarks on the topics will be our panelists, Joseph J. Esposito, Processed Media, Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka S+R; and Susan Stearns, Boston Library Consortium. Much of the session will be given over to a roundtable discussion, not limited to the panel but including all session participants, to consider components of a research agenda in “the space between.”
