anytime, any place, anywhere science@cambridge yvonne nobis, head of science information services
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Anytime, any place, anywhere
science@cambridge
Yvonne Nobis, Head of Science Information Services
science@cambridge
Why?
Providers of expensive content
Quality Library websites not the starting point for research
Authoritative content
Provide proper citation skillsResearch skills support
Barriers broken down in virtual libraries
Infinitely superior to GOOGLE and GOOGLE SCHOLAR
What is science@cambridge?
Acknowledgment of the shift from physical libraries to the web
Easy to use - searching is by subject not by library
Resource discovery (using Cross search)
User guides at each subject level
Contextualisation - real time research information provided in context
Multiple RSS feeds – more than one source for each subject
Delicious
Local focus (reading lists & local author publications)
Collaborative effort –trying to bring information specialists together
Why science@cambridge?
Drivers 1 : Fear! Become relevant or become redundant
OCLC 2006 College Students’ Perceptions of the Libraries and Information Resources
• 89 per cent of college students use search engines to begin an information search (while only 2 per cent start from a library web site)
• 93 per cent are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall experience of using a search engine
• Search engines fit college students’ life styles better than physical or online libraries and that fit is almost perfect’
College students still use the library, but they are using it less (and reading less) since they first began using internet research tools
Why science@cambridge?
The environment that library users operate in has changed in recent years. Behaviours and expectations have been reconfigured in a network environment as more of what people do enters a network space.
Discovery happens elsewhere: People discover items of interest in a variety of ways: on search engines,in their RSS aggregators, in the resource networks created on social network sites, in consumer recommendations, on collaborative bookmarking sites, in reading and course lists, and so on. Increasingly, we cannot expect users to seek out individual Web sites or resources.
In the flow: Now that readers and writers increasingly organize their work in network environments, we must build library services around their workflow (or learnflow, or researchflow, or…).
Information is abundant; attention is scarce: As resources, tools, and environments proliferate so does the attention available for any single one of them decline.
Dempsey, Lorcan. 2008. “Reconfiguring the Library Systems Environment.” Guest editorial. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 8,2 (April). E-print available online at:
www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/2008/dempsey-portal.pdf
Why science@cambridge?
Drivers 2: Changing expectation of the “customer” now “the net gen user”
JISC/CIBER briefing paper 2008: The Information behaviour of the researcher of the future
Their (libraries) traditional role as intermediaries, helping users to navigate large and complex library systems, is being threatened by services, like Google, that seem to offer almost unlimited information choice and bypass the library’.The implications of a shift from the library as a physical space to the library as virtual digital environment are immense and truly disruptive. Library users demand 24/7 access, instant gratification at a click, and are increasingly looking for `the answer’ rather than for a particular format: a research monograph or a journal article for instance.
So they scan, flick and `power browse’.
Why science@cambridge?
Drivers 3: If it’s on the web, it’s free!
Problems with user perception of information delivery – many local users were not aware of the fact that they were using library resources when accessing subscription information on the web.
This attitude is not restricted to Cambridge!
Why science@cambridge?
The (in)visibility of the Library and of science in particular… Ithaka
An important lesson is that the library is in many ways falling off the radar screens of faculty. Although scholars report general respect for libraries and librarians, the library is increasingly disintermediated from their actual research process. Many researchers circumvent the library in doing their research, preferring to access resources directly. Researchers no longer use the library as a gateway to information, and no longer feel a significant dependence on the library in their research process. Although the library does play essential roles in this process, activities like paying for the resources used are largely invisible to faculty. In short, although librarians may still be providing significant value to their constituency, thevalue of their brand is decreasing.
As our findings make clear, however, despite this growing significance of information to scientists, the role of the library is diminishing in importance fastest amongst this group.
Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education Ihaka.org
Why science@cambridge?
Drivers 4: Google is too easy to use
The JISC/CIBER study highlighted worrying trends concerning information skills
CIBER deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, `flicking’ behaviour in digital libraries. Power browsing and viewing appear to be the norm for all. The popularity of abstracts among
older researchers rather gives the game away. Society is dumbing down.
Erosion of research skills
Why science@cambridge?
Drivers 5: “The unknown unknowns”
Students- don’t know where to start – only use google/reading lists
Library staff often have to offer support across multiple subjects
Researchers – need know what resources are available, may need help with choosing where to publish
Why science@cambridge?
Local Research
Central Science Library Review 2007
• 694 respondents – clear preference for electronic data
• Physical library visits were a last resort (the one exception was undergraduate text books)
Visits to Heads of Departments in the Schools of Biological and Physical Sciences and the School of Technology
What next?
In progress
Collaborative filtering – if you liked this, you might like...
“everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask” camtasia
Future developments
Plagiarism
RAE no more – h-index; researcher support; new models of publishing
Open access / institutional repository
M-user
More better focused tailored support
science@cambridge
Online 24/7
Google Generation
Why? Google Scholar
Expensive Content
Blogs
Learning Experience Wikipedia Facebook Libraries
What?
Social NetworksInformation RetrievalDigital Natives Authority
Virtual Libraries Participation
Rich User Experience Libraries
Instant Gratification ‘to facebook’ Google
CIBER/JISC
Academic Research
Plagiarism
Web 2.0Social Networking