Ithaka S+R: Case Studies in Sustainability

Yesterday, Ithaka S+R released Case Studies in Sustainability 2011

In 2009 Ithaka S+R investigated the sustainability strategies of twelve digital content projects in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Egypt. Two years and one economic crisis later, Ithaka S+R, with the generous support of the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, decided to revisit the original twelve case studies to see how their models had held up, where weaknesses might be starting to show, and what new strategies project leaders were adopting in response.


Updating the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability revealed many changes: two projects have significantly re-imagined their core mission, one radically so. Several have faced severe budget cuts, leading them to consider other approaches; some have been quite successful by continuing to build on what was already a strong value proposition and show continued signs of entrepreneurial drive and a willingness to experiment with new revenue streams.

 All of the case study updates are worth examining, but those with particular relevance to Antiquity include:

• The Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King’s College London (formerly the Centre for Computing in the Humanities)
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)
• The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae® (TLG)