Research Information Network Report

"Changes in researcher behavior: Researchers “seem to be becoming more limited in the range of tools they use as Google becomes better at delivering a result they see as satisfactory…..over 70% of researchers use it routinely to find scholarly content.” Librarians support is needed in the “last mile” to achieve access once the item is “discovered” online.

Demand for electronic resources is on the rise while print use continues to decline. The report found that “when presented with a locally-held option in print or microform researchers are also more likely to abandon their quest than to pursue it.” This is particularly true in the sciences where “if the article cannot be read – or at least located and requested – within minutes, it remains unread”

While e-books are still in their infancy, spending on e-books is predicted to rise to 20% of monograph collection by 2011

Collaborative/Interdisciplinary Research: Technology is facilitating collaborative/interdisciplinary research involving different researchers, at different institutions, in different locations geographically and in different disciplines. Posing a challenge to libraries who want to provide adequate and equitable support.

e-Research: “Rapid growth in the volume of digital research outputs in many different forms; these are likely to create new challenges for librarians in data management, storage and preservation.” . How do we manage all of the data needed/being generated?

NEW ROLES FOR LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANS

In five years time researchers identified the following as roles for academic libraries: custodian (print and digital collections); manager of institutional repositories; administrator (purchasing/delivery of information services); subject-based information experts; teacher of information literacy and related skills; manager of datasets; and technology specialist. Many other researchers added copyright and intellectual property rights issues as well as support for facilitating the process of e-learning.

In essence, “the business and service model [of libraries] is evolving from acquiring, cataloguing and circulating physical collections to synthesizing, specialising, and mobilising Web-based services”