Headquartered in New York City, Ithaka S+R is a nonprofit organization that has operated since 2004 under the parent company, Ithaka Harbors, Inc. which was founded in 1995. Ithaka Harbors includes JSTOR, the digital preservation service Portico, and the research and consulting group Ithaka S+R as part of its operations.
Ithaka S+R’s mission is to help the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. The organization works with leaders in higher education, academic libraries, museums, foundations, and publishers to research, evaluate, and provide strategic guidance in four strategic areas:
- Access and success - Expand educational opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds, and improving student learning outcomes, graduation rates, and time to degree
- Organizational leadership - Provide guidance on strategic collaborations, organizational structure, and measures of equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Collections and preservation - Secure access to and preservation of scholarship
- Research and teaching practices - Develop strategies, services, and products to meet the evolving needs of faculty and students
Examples of Projects
Income Distribution and Pell Share at Selective Institutions
- Developed a dataset that provides an in-depth exploration of economic diversity at highly selective institutions. Users interact with the dataset via a dashboard to explore enrollment distribution by income group at specific institutions, compare them with others, or benchmark against averages from our defined selectivity tiers. Users can explore how the undergraduate Pell shares at these institutions have changed over time and compare them across schools.
Credit Mobility
- Universal Credit Transfer Explorer is a public, nonprofit, national credit mobility website that shows how credits earned elsewhere transfer and apply toward degree programs at multiple destination colleges and universities featured on the site which went live in 2024 (data from inaugural set of institutions across three states - Connecticut, South Carolina, Washington) with support from Ascendium Education Group, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ECMC Foundation, and the Ichigo Foundation.
- CUNY Transfer Explorer streamlines the information, advising, and administrative processes around how credits—earned anywhere in the CUNY system, at other colleges and universities, and through dual enrollment or workforce training—transfer and count towards a degree at each CUNY institution. CUNY Transfer Explorer is a product of the Articulation of Credit Transfer project, a collaboration between CUNY, Lehman College, and Ithaka S+R. CUNY Transfer Explorer was created with funding from The Heckscher Foundation for Children and has received additional support from Ascendium Education Group, the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, ECMC Foundation, The Ichigo Foundation, and CUNY. CUNY Transfer Explorer builds on the pioneering work of Queens College professor emeritus Christopher Vickery.
- Ithaka S+R serves as independent evaluator of the Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts initiative, supported by Teagle Foundation and Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, which provides funding to state and regional associations to pursue consortium-level pathways from community colleges to private liberal arts colleges.
- Holistic Credit Mobility – To better support students to gain credit for validated learning, Ithaka S+R developed a framework for understanding student mobility and devising solutions that center student success, with support from the Ascendium Education Group. A 2024 project is Next Steps in Student Mobility: Ithaka S+R and Complete College America Partner to Support Student Success through Holistic Credit Mobility Policies, Practices, and Technologies
Exploring Basic Needs Support Across Public and Community College Libraries
- The Maximizing Public-Academic Library Partnerships project, funded by ECMC Foundation, explores opportunities and provides actionable guidance to libraries seeking to create or strengthen collaborations to enhance the basic needs resources and services they offer. The project developed an inventory of how libraries use their websites to publicize information about the basic needs resources and services they provide.
Resources
Ithaka S+R
Income Distribution and Pell Share at Selective Institutions
Credit Mobility
Exploring Basic Needs Support Across Public and Community College Libraries
