Digital scholarship study from the ARL

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education has a story about a new report on the current status of digital scholarship, "Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication," from the Association of Research Libraries. The final report identifies eight principal types of digital scholarly resources:

1. E-only journals Reviews
2. Preprints and working papers
3. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and annotated content
4. Data
5. Blogs
6. Discussion forums (listservs, message boards)
7. Professional and scholarly hubs

The report profiles each of these eight types of resources and discusses how and why faculty reported using the resources for their work, how content is selected for the site, and what sustainability strategies the resources are employing. The Appendices provide links to examples of digital scholarship.
The report discusses several ways that librarians can play a central role in sharing information about these digital resources with the campus community, and in guiding new projects toward success. The report also concludes that "field team" methodology used in the study was highly successful at gathering good information and is something ARL will continue to develop.