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OCLC Releases "Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment"

January 29, 2009

"Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment: Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development," a report prepared by GSLIS's Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship and commissioned by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership, has just been released. The report was written by Carole Palmer, director of CIRSS and GSLIS associate professor; Lauren Teffeau, project coordinator and interim assistant director of CIRSS; and Carrie Pirmann, GSLIS graduate assistant.

from the OCLC news release:

This report provides an expert review of the burgeoning literature on disciplinary research behaviors, synthesizes findings from decades of research on scholarly information practices and identifies key implications for libraries.

It was commissioned by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership to increase awareness of the diverse evidence base on this topic and to stimulate further reflection on its importance for the research library community.

Conceived in support of the RLG Partnership's Research Information Management work agenda, the report summarizes recent literature on changing research practices in the online environment and synthesizes relevant recommendations for library service development, focusing in particular on opportunities for library cooperation. Analysis on the literature on scholarly information work in this report is organized around five core scholarly activities: searching, collecting, reading, writing and collaborating, with two or more primitives distinguished for each activity.

This report should find a wide audience among researchers in information science, as well as managers and directors of research libraries. Its findings are directly pertinent to RLG partners and the broader research library community, where much recent attention has focused on the importance of moving library collections and services "into the flow" of current scholarly practice.

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