queensland university of technology cricos no. 000213j how researchers find information in the new...

Queensland University of Technology

CRICOS No. 000213J

HOW RESEARCHERS FIND INFORMATION IN THE NEW DIGITAL AGE

Gaynor Austen

Director, Library Services

Presentation at the IBERIC Seminar

Porto, Portugal - November, 2005

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

STUDY 1:

CHANGING RESEARCH PRACTICES IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT by John W. Houghton

Funded by the Research Evaluation Programme

of the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training


KEY QUESTIONS

• How do researchers conduct their research, and how is that changing?

• What are their major information sources, and how are these changing?

• How do researchers access, use and manage information, and how is this changing?

• How do researchers use sources to create new content, and how is this changing?


• How do researchers communicate and publish findings, and how are scholarly communication activities changing?

• How do researchers use technology, and how is this changing their activities?

• What are the implications of changing research practices for those resourcing research?


METHOD1. In depth individual interviews:

• 40 active senior (“leading edge”) researchers• from a range of fields and disciplines• from a range of institutions (universities and public

sector research institutions)• coverage of gender, locations, etc.

2. Workshops:• four Australian universities• researchers, librarians, research office

representatives• 35 participants


KEY FINDINGS

1. A new way of knowledge production is emerging:• increasingly interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and

transdisciplinary• focus on problems, not techniques• more collaboration and communication• more diverse and informal ways of communication


2. This creates new information and dissemination needs:• demand for access to a wider range of more diverse

resources• access mechanisms that cut across disciplines• access to, and management of, non-traditional, non-

text digital objects

“The rapidly expanding availability of primary sources of data in digital form may be shifting the balance of research away from working with secondary sources such as scholarly publications”. (US National Research Council)


3. The system for:• creation• production, and• distributionof scholarly knowledge must be viewed as a whole

“…a single research information infrastructure and scholarly communication system”

A structure of incentives and rewards which assists more effective research access and dissemination is essential.


4. New opportunities arise from the development of open access digital repositories, operating in parallel with commercial publishing

- a foundation for more effective and efficient access to knowledge production


AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH DIRECTIONS RECOMMENDED

• An incentive structure to provide holistic creation, production and distribution of research information.

• Infrastructure and tools which support collaborative research.

• Development of information access mechanisms and resources.

• Providing users with appropriate information access skills.

• Encouraging the development of a system of scholarly information and research dissemination based on open access.


This study is described in the article:

Houghton, John W. “Research practices, evaluation and infrastructure in the digital environment, Australian Academic and Research Libraries, v.35, no 3, September 2004.


STUDY 2:

QUT LIBRARY RESEARCHERS’ STUDY

This study sought to understand QUT researchers’• information seeking behaviours• satisfaction with library collections & databases• satisfaction with library services & facilities• unmet needs for information and services


METHOD

• Focus groups with active research staff and postgraduate research students

• Ten focus groups conducted across all faculties• 87 participants


KEY FINDINGS ON INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR

• Academic staff combining teaching and research are very “time-poor”

• The convenience of full text online resources outweighs all other considerations

• Web accessible library services are valued• There is little concern about drawbacks of the shift to

electronic publication• Hardly any researchers visit the library any more


• Wide use of WWW for information• Informal methods of keeping up to date and finding

information (industry contacts, colleagues, conferences) are important

• Fairly low use of alerting services• Rely on publisher full text databases rather than indexing

and abstracting services• Books are still important in most disciplines

queensland university of technology cricos no. 000213j how researchers find information in the new...

Documents