Suzanne M. Lodato, Associate Program Officer
Introduction
In The Idea of the University: A Reexamination, Jaroslav Pelikan
identified four core functions of higher education:
research, teaching, the dissemination of knowledge through publication,
and the preservation of and access to the scholarly record in libraries.
The latter two functions refer to the life cycle of scholarly resources
that are produced and used in teaching and research and are the objects of
scholarly communications. As part
of its support for higher education, the Foundation has a long-standing interest
in scholarly communications.
History
Throughout its history of support in this area, the Foundation has been
interested in the applications of technology in the development of scholarly
resources. The Foundation played an
instrumental role during the 1970s, for example, in the development OCLC and its
regional networks and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) and its Research
Libraries Information Network (RLIN). More
recently, it has explored how emerging digital technologies could be applied
principally in the humanities and social sciences to help scholars make more
effective uses of primary sources and to improve the ways that secondary sources
in the form of journal and monographic publications are produced and
disseminated.
The distinctiveness of the scholarly communications program, however, lies not only in its technological focus, but also in the ways in which it supports and complements (not replaces or supplants) the traditional concerns of the Foundation in supporting leading institutions in higher education, the arts and the performing arts, population, and ecology. Staff formulate their technology initiatives based on an essential principle: technology is merely a tool, a means of production and distribution, and digital technologies are increasingly the tools of choice. If used wisely and effectively, these tools can improve quality, lower costs, speed up work, open new perspectives, or make work possible that is otherwise difficult or impossible. If not used wisely or seen as an end in itself, technology may be nothing more than an expensive drag on research and teaching.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the scholarly communications program is its comprehensive attention to all stages in the life cycle of scholarly resources. Complementing fellowship and other kinds of support for research and teaching at research universities, liberal arts colleges, independent research centers, libraries, and museums, the Foundation also supports the development of scholarly resources from their creation, to their dissemination through various forms of publication, as well as their accessibility through cataloging and other means and their preservation for future generations.