This document summarizes the key challenges in understanding researchers' behaviors and needs regarding information for their work. It discusses how the volume of research is increasing yet costs are rising, placing more importance on cost-effectiveness. It also examines researchers' information gathering process, the types of content and services they require, and who provides these resources, with questions around sustainability. Skills development is another area explored in terms of user needs and who provides training. In conclusion, more understanding is still needed around digital information use while balancing constraints on funding with growing research volumes.

1. Researchers’ Behaviours, Needs and Expectations: Some Challenges Michael Jubb Research Information Network The Changing Face of Learned and Professional Society Libraries 5 August 2009

2. Some propositions the volume of research undertaken worldwide has increased, is increasing, and will continue to increase and more of it will be done collaboratively researchers are both producers and consumers of research outputs but they don’t necessarily share the same interests Governments invest in research because they believe it has a positive impact on society and the economy and they want to maximise that impact the costs of research, and of higher education, have increased, are increasing (and ought to be diminished?) cost-effectiveness an increasingly-dominant theme in current economic climate

3. The Role of Information in Research: a crude model defining a set of research questions, issues or problems identifying relevant existing knowledge accessing, analysing, and evaluating existing knowledge and data designing a methodology for generating new knowledge applying the methodology and discovering new knowledge combining old and new knowledge to answer research questions and to enhance understanding disseminating the outcomes of research in a form that is both sustainable and retrievable

4. Information in the Research Process gather evaluate create analyse manage transform present and communicate

5. The Research Process: Animal Genetics

6. The Research Process: Transgenesis and Embryology

7. The Research Process: Epidemiology

8. The Research Process differs even in apparently similar areas of work, and also between teams………

9. Composition of Research Groups big science vs small science small teams typical in life sciences amorphous and overlapping associations with other teams “ primary research engagements tend to be local” divisions of expertise, labour and knowledge exchange PI/leader, senior researchers/lecturers, associates, computational specialists, postdocs, PhDs, technicians……… dangers of surveys that look at individual responses divorced from context

10. Key issues Skills Services Content Who provides what and how? Is that provision sustainable? What are researchers’ needs? How can they best be met?

11. Content: what do researchers want to find and use?

12. Content: user expectations and needs published and non-”published” grey literature, reports, working papers data: raw or refined? mine or yours? websites, blogs, wikis, emails quality-assured and non-”quality-assured”? the good-enough source and/or version? pre or post-publication peer review? digital and non-digital perdurance of the book? role of digitisation

13. Content: who provides? changing roles of researchers and research institutions personal websites, repositories etc publishers and aggregators direct relationship with authors and readers who aggregates? libraries from ownership to licensing consortia as aggregators?

14. Content: costs and sustainability continued growth in the volumes of research constrained university budgets sustainability of the publishing business under challenges of “ green” OA “ gold” OA

15. Services: user expectations and needs researchers as creators quality assurance and enhancement distribution and marketing researchers and others as consumers quality assurance search and navigation services access, 24x7 and permanent links and interoperability text mining (published text as data) funders and research institutions assessment and evaluation services

16. Services: who provides? publishing services still needed? competition from other providers search, navigation, access & preservation overlapping roles of search engines individual libraries and consortia individual publishers, aggregators etc

17. Services: sustainability search, navigation and access invigorating competition or wasteful duplication? levels of usage of services provided by publishers and libraries sustainability/preservation of digital content roles of publishers and libraries grey literature, websites, blogs, wikis, emails……. increasing interest in assessment and evaluation services RAE/REF in the UK; ERA in Australia

18. Skills, expertise and competences: user expectations and needs specialist research skills and specialist information skills what’s easy, and what’s not and how that changes ‘ information literacy’ approaches and their limitations enhanced needs in some areas eg business, management and communication skills; bibliometrics

19. Skills, expertise and competences: who provides? differences of view as between researchers, librarians and publishers changes in views over time de-skilling, up-skilling and complementarity

20. Skills, expertise and competences: sustainability continuing need for professional/skills development for both researchers and information providers and specialists generic and specialist skills complementarity engagement and communication

21. Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly 1. Users (creators and consumers) they are (or should be) the drivers but we are only beginning to understand how they use information resources and services imperfect understanding of the digital information environment; but they want content and services that are quick and simple to use are as comprehensive and interoperable as possible provide for both quality-assured and non-quality-assured content there’s an increasing demand for assessment and evaluation services

22. Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly 2. Providers growth in concentration of resources and services growth in overlaps (and competition?) between different types of provider researchers and research institutions libraries and library consortia publishers and aggregators search and navigation services complementarity and skill sets

23. Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly 3. Sustainability constraints on university funding, and need for a value proposition while research volumes continue to increase growing interest in the overall costs of the scholarly communications process, and in the (cost-) efficiency of the research process as a whole growth in support from Governments and funding agencies for “gold” OA policies; and from universities and research institutions for “green” OA growing concerns about the pace and the costs of transition

24. A particular view……….. from Microsoft

25. Questions? Thanks Michael Jubb www.rin.ac.uk