Ithaka appointment announced

[hm@jstor.org]

Ithaka announces the appointment of Kate Wittenberg to the position of
Project Director, Client and Partnership Development

New York, NY, January 27, 2009 - Kate Wittenberg has joined Ithaka's
Strategic Services group as Project Director, Client and Partnership
Development.

In her new role, Wittenberg will focus on building partnerships among
scholars, academic centers, publishers, libraries, technology providers,
societies, and foundations with an interest in promoting the development
of digital scholarship and learning. From proposal creation to market
research, business development, and product planning, she will draw on her
years of work with scholars and experience building online academic
resources to help digital publishing stakeholders identify, build, and
sustain innovative initiatives. "Ithaka's work is at the very center of
the unprecedented changes taking place in digital research, teaching, and
scholarly communication," said Wittenberg. "I am so pleased to have an
opportunity to contribute to this endeavor, and to expand Ithaka's
partnerships with the scholars, libraries, publishers, societies, and
other stakeholders who are shaping the future in this new environment."

Wittenberg spent most of her career at Columbia, where she was the
Editor-in-Chief of Columbia University Press until 1999, and went on to
found and direct EPIC (the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia)
for the university. EPIC was a pioneering initiative in digital
publishing, and a model publishing partnership for libraries, presses, and
academic IT departments. Some of the ventures produced by EPIC include
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online), Gutenberg-E (a reinvention
of the monograph as an electronic work), and Jazz Studies Online.
Wittenberg brings to Ithaka more than two decades of experience working
with faculty, a deep understanding of libraries, first hand experience of
digital projects centered within academic institutions, and a wide
knowledge of the digital landscape and disciplinary trends. She has worked
closely with a number of foundations, and has built a strong reputation in
the community through her work at Columbia, her many speaking and
consulting engagements around digital publishing, and her numerous
publications.

Ithaka's Strategic Services group specializes in helping promising digital
projects to develop sustainable organizational and business models, and
working with established institutions to rethink the ways they serve their
core constituencies. "We are honored to add Kate's knowledge and range of
skills to Ithaka," commented Laura Brown, who leads the group. "It is hard
to imagine a more respected or resourceful voice in the field of digital
publishing and we look forward to her help identifying and cultivating
promising new initiatives within the scholarly community."

About Ithaka

Ithaka (www.Ithaka.org<http://www.Ithaka.org>) is an independent
not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the academic community
use digital technologies to advance scholarship and teaching and to
reducing system-wide costs through collective action. It pursues this
mission by managing innovative services that benefit higher education,
including JSTOR, Portico, and NITLE, and by providing research and advice
to the scholarly community through its research and strategic services
groups.

Media Contact:

Heidi McGregor

Director, Marketing & Communications

Ithaka

212-358-6406

heidi.mcgregor@ithaka.org<mailto:heidi.mcgregor@ithaka.org>