Ithaka S+R Announces Launch of “Canceling the Big Deal” Project in Partnership with 11 Research Libraries

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by Danielle Cooper:

Earlier this spring we announced that we were going to begin a new collaborative project on the impact of Big Deal cancellations on users, including their strategies for accessing content, and their perceptions of the library’s role in providing access. While at the time Ithaka S+R was only just beginning to anticipate the conditions universities and their libraries are facing now, it is already clear that the research is more important than ever. Ithaka S+R is excited to share that the project launches today in partnership with 11 research libraries.

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Our project is not only timely but also takes a novel approach. Previous research has focused primarily on how a Big Deal cancellation might affect one institution or system, and typically this analysis is conducted for the purposes of identifying which journals a library can cut. But our research seeks to understand the long-term effects of cancellation on researchers. Half the members of our diverse cohort have cancelled one or more Big Deals in the past three years and will be examining the impact on researchers at their institutions. The remaining half will be exploring the potential effects on their researchers should they cancel one of their existing Big Deals. Ithaka S+R has designed a collections assessment exercise to ensure that each institution creates an effective sampling strategy to target researchers to interview about their evolving practices and perceptions holistically. Ithaka S+R will then analyze the data collected across the cohort and publish a report of the findings.

Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post

Research Libraries Partners

• Florida State University
• Freie Universität Berlin
• Ohio University
• Oklahoma University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
• University of Denver
• University of Kansas
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Wyoming
• Wesleyan University

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