Using collaborative projects to improve access, availability and services

Dr. Hazel WoodwardUniversity Librarian & Director of Cranfield

University Press

Partnerships, Consortia & 21st Century Library Services,

23rd IATUL Conference, Kansas City, USA, 2-6 June, 2002

LOCATION

ACTIVITIES

Scope and Scale

SilsoeSilsoe CranfieldCranfield ShrivenhamShrivenham

Bioscience & technology Agriculture,

engineering & food technology

Water & environmental management

Land use & the environment

Aerospace

Engineering

Industrial & manufacturing science

Management

10% 65%

Electronics & electro-optics

Mechanical, materials & civil engineering

Computing and IT

Applied mathematics

Defence management

25%

EURILIA –EURopean Initiative on Libraries and Information in Aerospace

Three year project 1995-1997 Funded by EC Action Programme for Libraries Project partners:

– Cranfield University (UK)– University of Limerick (Ireland)– Technical University of Delft [TUD] (Netherlands)– Digital Equipment Corporation (Netherlands)– Sup’Aero (France)– Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (Spain)

Aims of EURILIA

To develop a new pan-European service to extend access to, and availability of, major aerospace collections via participating library OPACs

To develop a multi-site, multi-country document retrieval and delivery system, with a standard user-interface and including facilities for image browsing

Main results of EURILIA

Z39.50 access to the OPACS of all participating libraries Access to the full image of over 200 of Cranfield’s

aerospace theses Internet links to relevant elements of the ESA/NASA

aerospace thesaurus Development of software to manage a multi-site, multi-

country document delivery system Analysis of different document delivery pricing systems to

minimise cost and maximise benefit Pre- and post-EURILIA user studies to determine user

perception and commercial viability

AIM-UK Aerospace Information Management

An investigation into the effectiveness of information management processes with the UK aerospace industry

1996-98 Funded by the (UK) Department of Trade and Industry

(DTI) and supported by the Society of British Aerospace Companies

Based on interviews with over 400 senior managers and aerospace engineers and scientists engaged in aerospace research and development

AIM-UK findings (1)

Nearly half of senior managers regard their information systems as ineffective

Existing IT infrastructure were inadequate, desktop access is far from universal, and seamless user-friendly access to internal and external information resources is required

Security issues are inhibiting access

AIM-UK findings (2)

Ineffective project close-down procedures and an over dependence on the knowledge in people’s hands constrains the exploitation of knowledge assets and information

There is a huge amount of scientific and technological information generated by the sector which is difficult to retrieve and considerable caution is exercised by companies in releasing information to external bodies

AIM-UK – Key Recommendations:

production of a comprehensive directory of aerospace information resources

development of a current awareness service establishment of a database or network of

interconnected databases to facilitate remote access to key collections

the development of an aerospace and defence subject gateway to quality information resources on the Internet

the development of a research skills training course

AIM-EU Project started 2001

The Resource Discovery Network (RDN)

Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Free Internet service dedicated to providing effective access to high quality Internet resources for the learning teaching and research community

Data provided by five hubs– BIOME – Health & Life Sciences– EEVL – Engineering, Mathematics & Computing– Humbul – Humanities– PSIgate – Physical Sciences– SOSIG – Social Sciences, Business & Law

MAGiC – Managing Access to Grey Literature Collections

Aims & objectives

To enhance awareness, access and use of key collections of technical reports (grey literature) for the benefit of UK engineers and UK plc.

– Collection development and management– Improving the visibility of key collections– Enhancing access via electronic storage and document

supply

Cranfield University (lead partner) British Library Document Supply Centre DSTL (formerly DERA) Loughborough University, Dept of Information Science The Public Records Office SIRSI Limited

MAGiC Partners

Assessment of the use and value of engineering grey literature

– literature review– online use/value questionnaire

Mapping & collection management– Mapping collections

preliminary reports holdings questionnaire preliminary reports producers questionnaire

– Collection analysis methodology quantitative indicators qualitative indicators use of electronic discussion forums

MAGiC - Progress to date

National Reports Catalogue (NRC)

– Options for the NRC: Z39.50academic libraries, BL & PROlibraries in government and industrydoes nothing for collection rationalisationconcerns over unresolved technical and

performance issues associated with distributed searching

MAGiC - Progress to date

National Reports Catalogue

– Options for the NRC: local database & metadata harvesting

Open Archives Initiativefacilitate collection rationalisationconsistent resource descriptionsmetadata without constraints of MARCInteroperability via Z39.50 and OAI-compliance

MAGiC - Progress to date

Full text archive– Digitisation

Options ARC Reports & Memoranda

– Investigate document supply options– Widening coverage/expanded detail

NACA reports AIM-EU

MAGiC - Progress to date

METReS(http://magic-reports.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/)

The MAGiC demonstrator service

Enhanced online access to bibliographic information, and increasingly full text electronic resources, across institutions

Increased visibility and awareness of collections (particularly grey literature)

Enhanced access to printed materials via partner initiated document delivery services

Increased understanding of collection management and collection analysis methodology

Benefits and outcomes of collaborative projects

Benefits and outcomes - continued

Skills improvement in partner institutions leading to improvements in local services

Better understanding of user needs leading to development of user friendly interfaces and content aggregation

Raising the profile of partner institutions – locally, nationally, internationally

Marketing, public relations, branding of services

Thank you for your attention

Any questions?