Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey 2009: Key Strategic Insights for Libraries, Publishers, and Societies

Similar to the 2006 study, "Ithaka 2006 Survey of US Higher Education Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors" (ICPSR 22700), this survey examined faculty attitudes and behaviors on key issues ranging from the library as an information gateway and the need for preservation of scholarly material, to faculty engagement with institutional disciplinary repositories and thoughts about open access. Respondents were asked to identify the primary resource they used for locating information for their research, provide their opinion on the transition of hardcopy library collections to electronic versions, as well as accessing or disseminating scholarly content, and gauge their dependence on college or university libraries in conducting research. In addition, respondents were asked how important various library resources and library and scholarly societies were to their research or teaching, and how important they expect library resources will be in five years. Respondents were queried about their use of electronic search engines, and how often certain methods were used to find information in academic journals. In addition, the survey gathered respondent information on whether they deposited various types of electronic materials or used content deposited by others, the type of repository to which they deposited content, and the importance of long-term electronic data preservation. Lastly, respondents were asked whether they owned an electronic reading device, whether audio or video recordings of their courses were available online, and to rate the importance certain characteristics of academic journals had on influencing their decision of whether or not to publish an article in that journal. Demographic and other background information includes age, gender, job title, primary academic field, number of years in current position and field, and view of self as a researcher or teacher.