Press Release: Council on Library and Information Resources [October 11, 2012]

CLIR and Vanderbilt University Form Committee to Examine National-scale Digital Projects in Higher Education

Copyright (c) 2012 Council on Library and Information Resources

SummaryThe Council on Library and Information Resources and Vanderbilt University have established a committee to examine emerging national-scale digital projects and their potential to help transform higher education in terms of scholarly productivity, teaching, cost-efficiency, and sustainability. The group, called the Committee on Coherence at Scale for Higher Education, comprises college and university presidents and provosts, deans, university librarians, and association heads. The committee will provide the leadership necessary to ensure that these projects are designed and developed as elements of a larger and encompassing digital environment.

Oct. 11, 2012—Washington, DC and Nashville, Tenn. The Council on Library and Information Resources and Vanderbilt University have established a committee to examine emerging national-scale digital projects and their potential to help transform higher education in terms of scholarly productivity, teaching, cost-efficiency, and sustainability.

The group, called the Committee on Coherence at Scale for Higher Education, comprises college and university presidents and provosts, deans, university librarians, and association heads. The committee will provide the leadership necessary to ensure that these projects are designed and developed as elements of a larger and encompassing digital environment.

"The future of higher education rests on the ability to reconceive ourselves holistically," CLIR President Chuck Henry said. "The components of scholarly communication—discovering, reconstituting, publishing, preserving, and sharing knowledge—must be understood as interrelated and interdependent. New digital projects have begun to flourish within higher education that, if successful, could create genuine interdependencies—deep collaborations that could redefine our academic environment."

"The work of this committee will play a crucial role in shaping digital access to scholarly works for students and faculty as well as the broader public," Vanderbilt University Provost Richard McCarty said. "Vanderbilt is pleased to partner with CLIR on this exciting effort and we will engage our campus community as the project moves forward."

The committee will focus on research and analysis of the large projects and their correlation; initial costs, operating costs and business plans for sustainability; and benefits and transformational aspects. Examples of these projects include the Hathi Trust, the Digital Public Library of America, the Digital Preservation Network, and data curation centers. Results of the committee's work will be publicized regularly.

"This array of national-scale projects offers an enormous opportunity for educational organizations and institutions to build new bases of support, reach new constituencies, cultivate funding agencies, and build lasting, mutually sustaining connections between the public and private sectors," said Henry.

Members of the Committee include:

The committee will hold its first meeting in January 2013.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions and communities of higher learning.

Vanderbilt University is a private research university and medical center consistently ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report. Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development, as well as a full range of graduate and professional degrees to its nearly 13,000 students. Located in Nashville, Tenn., Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest private employer based in the state.

Publication Year:2012
Type of Material:Press Release
LanguageEnglish
Issue:October 11, 2012
Publisher:Council on Library and Information Resources
Company: Council on Library and Information Resources
Permalink: http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=17301
Record Number:17301
Last Update:2012-12-29 14:06:47
Date Created:2012-10-11 15:35:52