Queensland University of Technology CRICOS No J 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 J a university for the world real R 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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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?

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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?

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R METHOD 1.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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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)

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 3.The system for: creation production, and distribution of 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.

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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.

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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.

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R METHOD Focus groups with active research staff and postgraduate research students Ten focus groups conducted across all faculties 87 participants

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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

CRICOS No J a university for the world real R 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