Ithaka’s Impact at Illinois (Ithaka Study Panel and Discussion)
The Ithaka findings at Illinois and in other institutions’ reports have led me to prioritize services and initiatives that I otherwise might have overlooked. As an interim library head, I was struck by the challenges facing agriculture faculty when their students have struggles beyond the agricu ltural content, such as poor writing and data management skills. While the library has provided data management support for several years now, I am proactively seeking partnerships that would enable the library to better support agriculture students, although these are admittedly nascent partnerships at this point. As an individual liaison librarian, I took notice of the findings related to open access, which personally has been an area of limited interest and awareness. The findings point to a need for information and education, so I have been increasing my knowledge and promoting the library’s expertise and services related to open access and scholarly communication.