The University Library has a leading role in establishing standards, procedures and services to help researchers preserve their original data. We were therefore delighted to meet Robin Rice, who visited this month.

In a meeting with our Discipline Librarians in February, Robin shared some of her expertise in data sharing, data libraries and roles for librarians in providing data management services for researchers.

As the Data Librarian at the University of Edinburgh, Robin is the service manager for that university’s Data Library, a collection of information produced by Edinburgh scholars in the course of their research activities. Robin is also project manager of DISC-UK DataShare, a JISC-funded project to establish institutional data repositories at three UK universities.

Conducting university research often involves creating new data, processing it, analysing it and perhaps transforming it through visualisation or other methods. Modern technologies allow us to create enormous quantities of data and analysis . Once the research is completed and an article or other ‘finished’ output has been published, the original data needs to be preserved and possibly made available to other researchers in the future. Some data can be destroyed after just a few years; other information will be preserved indefinitely, just like other historical documents.

Whilst in Melbourne, Robin Rice spent most of her time at Monash University. Her presentation to the Victorian eResearch Strategic Initiative (VeRSI) group is available as an MP3 (streaming or download) and presentation slides (PDF 1 Mb).

1. E-publishing Your Thesis and Research Papers
2. Copyright, Your Thesis and Future Publications
3. Research Data Management – humanities
4. Research Data Management  – sciences
5. Tools for Collaboration and Networking – wikis, blogs and social bookmarking
6. Using the Web for Surveys
7. Legal Framework for Your Thesis

The e-research workshops are designed for new research students, and for those considering a research higher degree (master’s or PhD). Participants will gain familiarity with skills, methodologies, tools and issues to enable them to participate effectively in the e-research environment.

New technologies are transforming the research environment in every academic discipline. E-research is any research activity that uses information and communication technology (ICT) and embraces new research methodologies.

The e-research training program for graduate researchers is a joint venture of the School of Graduate Studies and the University Library.

Library consultant Jennifer Warburton also provides specialist support for graduate research students throughout the year.

Launched as a pilot project in 2007, the Readings Online service now provides free digital reading packs for over 50 subjects.

This semester, Joe Arthur and the digitisation team have scanned more than 10,000 new pages of history-related readings.

The reading packs are free to students. Students can access the Readings Online materials via the Learning Management System (LMS).

Readings Online has the potential to significantly reduce the University’s ecological footprint by reducing our printing requirements. The service enables us to better comply with copyright laws and helps to ensure that students with disabilities are not disadvantaged by delays in the digitising of required course materials.

The University Library manages both the LMS and the Readings Online service.

Responding to feedback collected last year from students and staff, our fabulous Library Systems team spent this summer making changes to SuperSearch and the online catalogue.

From the start of Semester One 2009, searching for a journal article or library book should now be much easier and faster. We have also created links between the catalogue and other systems so that, if an item is unavailable at Melbourne, you can easily request an inter-library loan without abandoning your current search.

There are a few problems we can’t yet fix. For example, you may still need to retype your password occasionally when using SuperSearch – but we have significantly reduced the number of times this is likely to happen.

Students, staff and alumni can access SuperSearch and the Library catalogue directly from the Library’s home page, or via the Learning Management System (LMS). The main catalogue is also available to the public.

Bouquets, comments and suggestions for further improvements are always welcome – email  info-futures at unimelb.edu.au to let us know what you think of the SuperSearch and catalogue searches.

The aspirations and principles in the Scholarly Information Future strategy have now been incorporated with the University’s long-term vision, known as Growing Esteem.

Some funding was allocated for 2009, to enable us to start implementing the Scholarly Information Future strategy. The new funding will support five high-priority activities:

1. Embed information/scholarly literacy training into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula: pilot projects in 2009, with full rollout over 5 years
2. Innovation Grants scheme: internal competitive grants to support projects that explore or change scholarly communication
3. Plan and implement a fundraising strategy to support renovation of the main Library building (Baillieu), maintenance of Cultural Collections, development of other collections and development of a new Research and Cultural Library building
4. Develop long-term plan for collection management and development. Includes principles, criteria and quality measures to ensure best possible use of available storage and floor spaces, both on and off campus. Must take into account temporary or permanent relocation of selected collections to allow for building renovations and campus developments
5. Detailed planning for further implementation of the 10-year Scholarly Information Future strategy: investigation, costing and documentation of 2010-2012 initiatives; initial discussions about the Research and Cultural Library building and for the development of a centre of excellence in the study of library/information sciences

A sixth project, to upgrade our Identity and Access Management System, had been planned and funded to commence in 2010. This IT project has been brought forward to 2009 because it is a pre-requisite for achieving other medium-term goals in the Scholarly Information Future strategy.

As well as the six funded priorities, the University Library and the IT Services division have incorporated other Information Futures goals and principles into their day-to-day operations. (Last week I posted some examples from the Library’s 2009 operational plan.)

The University Librarian, Philip Kent, and Director IT Services, Sendur Kathir, are overseeing the implementation of the Scholarly Information Future strategy. The Enterprise Information Architecture and Strategy group (which I manage) is responsible for day-to-day coordination and reporting on progress.

I will post regular progress reports on this blog during 2009. These will be informal updates based on conversations and meetings I’ve attended. The posts will be tagged “implementation 2009” – click that tag to see a list of all updates posted so far.

Formal progress reports will be submitted to relevant University managers and committees throughout the year.

In addition, the University Library and the IT Services division have incorporated Scholarly Information Future goals into their operational plans for 2009.

The list below is from the University Library’s operational plan for 2009. These are examples of Scholarly Information Future initiatives that are being funded from the Library’s existing programs – that is, no additional project money has been allocated by the University for these activities.

Learning and teaching initiatives:

• Continue redeveloping library/Student Centre precincts to provide improved physical and virtual environments for individual and group study
• Continuing improvement of LMS and online service provision for Library users

Research initiatives:

• Develop policies, processes and services to encourage contributions to, and use of, digital repositories of primary research data and scholarly output
• Improve the support available to researchers who need to create, manage, analyse and share research data
• Further improvements to research management systems
• Improve public profile of University research via a web-enabled expertise database and links to research publications
• Provide research training to established researchers and students in the discovery and management of scholarly information that support the research and e-research effort

Knowledge transfer initiatives:

• Access for alumni to selected digital collections held or licensed by the Library
• Establish large-scale digitisation capability for the University
• Digitise selected cultural and other materials, provide online access for researchers and the public
• Publicise the University’s cultural collections as an integral part of learning, teaching and research, and as an enriching and differentiating factor of the Melbourne experience
• Host the annual series of Information Futures Forums: guest lectures by external experts addressing current topics in scholarly communication
• Influence national information infrastructure policy and advance developments in national information infrastructure and open-access scholarly publishing

Other initiatives that support the Scholarly Information Future strategy:

• Identify key service and support processes for students, and re-engineer these to provide a consistent, seamless student-centred service across the University through more effective use of information and communication technologies
• Improve internal use of management and other information for decision-making, service quality, compliance, streamlined processes and procedures

The lower levels of the ERC reopened in Semester Two 2008, with beautiful new spaces for individual and quiet group study and improved library facilities.

Additional self-checkout machines and a new check-in room are on the way, and renovation work is continuing on level 3.

The Engineering general collection has arrived in its new home at ERC and is now available on the main shelves. Once the shelf bracing (strengthening) work is complete, the reference collection will be placed back on shelves for easy browsing and searching.

ERC opening hours in 2009 will be the same as for the Baillieu Library.

Selected journals from the ERC have been moved to the Library store in Brunswick. Selected monographs will also be moved into the store, freeing shelf space in the ERC, Baillieu, Law and Economics libraries.

To request an item from the store, first find it online in the main Library catalogue or in SuperSearch. Click the relevant link in the item’s record and provide a few details. The Library will then arrange to deliver the requested item to your campus, usually within one business day.