The Research Information Network: what is it and what does it do

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The Research Information Network what is it and
what does it do?

• Stéphane Goldstein
• USTLG Summer meeting
• University of Liverpool, 22 June 2006

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Fundamental premise

• "It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so
  little useless information"
• Oscar Wilde

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RIN sponsors

• The four UK Higher Education Funding Councils
• England (HEFCE), Scotland (SHEFC), Wales (HEFCW),
  Northern Ireland (DELNI)
• The eight Research Councils
• Arts and Humanities (AHRC)
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences (BBSRC)
• Central Laboratory (CCLRC)
• Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPSRC)
• Economic and Social (ESRC)
• Medical (MRC)
• Natural Environment (NERC)
• Particle Physics and Astronomy (PPARC)
• The three National Libraries
• British Library (BL)
• National Library of Scotland (NLS)
• National Library of Wales (NLW)

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RIN structure

• Funders Group
• Advisory Board
• Consultative Groups
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
• Life Sciences and Medicine
• Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology
• Library and Information Sciences
• Executive team
• Michael Jubb (Director)
• Stéphane Goldstein (Planning Project Officer)
• Jackie Van Bueren (PA to Director)

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RIN interlocutors

• In addition to our 15 sponsors
• Libraries and representative organisations (CURL,
  SCONUL)
• JISC
• MLA
• Research funders
• Data centres
• UUK
• Publishers
• Government Departments
• International (OCLC/RLG, JSTOR, European Union)
• And others

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RIN mission

• To lead and co-ordinate new developments in the
  collaborative provision of research information
  for the benefit of researchers in the UK
• all disciplines and subjects
• all kinds of information sources used by and
  produced by researchers (digital and non-digital)
• the research base both in the HE sector and
  beyond

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What do we mean by research information?

• Information produced by researchers
• Journal articles
• Monographs
• Reports
• Datasets
• Other outputs (software, performances, tools)
• Information used or needed by researchers
• Publications produced by other researchers
  (articles etc)
• Data and other outputs produced by other
  researchers
• Publications, reports and data produced by a
  wide range of individuals and organisations
• Manuscripts, artefacts, sounds, images

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RIN strategic aims I

• To develop, with the active involvement of key
  stakeholders, a strategic framework for enhancing
  the UK research information infrastructure
• To ensure that the research community contributes
  to and collaborates in a programme of action
  tailored to its needs
• To act as an advocate for research information
  provision at the highest levels of policy-making
  in the UK, and to represent the interests of UK
  researchers in relevant international forums

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RIN strategic aims II

• To co-ordinate action to improve the arrangements
  for researchers to find information sources
  relevant to their work, and how they may gain
  access to them
• To lead the development of a programme to sustain
  and enhance management and development of the
  aggregate UK collection of published hard copy
  research resources
• To co-ordinate action to ensure that the outputs
  researchers produce and need are retained and
  made available for use in the most effective way

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RIN activities search and discovery

• Consultancy study of researchers behaviour and
  perceptions in the use of resource discovery
  services and tools
• Preparation of a map of current services
• Telephone interviews with 450 researchers
• To be completed by mid-July
• Discovery services for library and archive
  holdings
• COPAC, SUNCAT, ZETOC, Archives Hub and similar
  services
• Workshop for key stakeholders
• JISC Review
• What are the priorities now in retroconversion?

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RIN activities access

• Report on the RSLP Access Funding Scheme
• Further work on the impact of recent developments
  and initiatives, and how researchers are making
  use of them
• Forthcoming study on extending the coverage of
  online catalogues
• Support for SCONUL Research Extra
• Linkages with Inspire and UK Libraries Plus
• Relationships with M25
• Looking to develop a relationship with USTLG
• Expert group on walk-in access for members of the
  public to academic journals

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RIN activities researchers and libraries

• If UK is to sustain its position as the leading
  research nation outside the US, it needs a
  world-class research information infrastructure.
  What role do libraries play in this?
• Researchers interest less in the collections of
  individual libraries, more in the information
  resources to which they can provide access
• Need for better understanding of
• how researchers are using libraries, and want
  them to develop
• how effective libraries are in providing services
  for researchers and in meeting their information
  needs
• RIN study about to be commissioned

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RIN activities scholarly communications I

• Work with key stakeholders from funding agencies,
  Government, libraries and publishers developing
  a collaborative, shared agenda
• Impact of new technologies on all the key
  stages/functions in the scholarly communications
  process
• doing research and producing research outputs
• identifying and protecting intellectual property
  rights
• quality assurance and the peer review of research
  outputs
• presenting, publishing and disseminating outputs
  in both digital and printed forms
• providing access to quality-assured and authentic
  published outputs
• assessing usage and impact
• preserving and providing access to published
  outputs in both digital and printed forms, for
  the indefinite future
• Changing roles of the key players, and resulting
  tensions between them

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RIN activities scholarly communications II

• RIN study into the policy and practice of UK
  research funders nearly completed
• Looking at how a selection of funders manage the
  information outputs of their funded research
• Issues covered include institutional repositories
  and data management
• Workshop planned for the autumn
• Ongoing analysis of available data on scholarly
  journal publishing to be completed in September
• Including data on journal demand-side and
  supply-side economics, usage and alternative
  dissemination models
• Study jointly commissioned with RCUK and DTI

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RIN activities digital content I

• Increasing need to manage and provide access to
  digital data, as well as formal publications
• Little consistency in policy and practice across
  major research funders and institutions
• Need to recognise different requirements that
  arise in handling different kinds of data from
  different sources
• Increasing international interest
• OECD, US National Science Board, Australian DEST
• Increasing need for guidelines and protocols

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RIN activities digital content II

• Work with JISC, BL and others on a co-ordinated
  framework of principles and best practice for the
  provision of online e-content
• Work with JISC, CCLRC, E-Science programme on
  framework of principles for the handling of data
  and access to it
• First draft of principles has been the subject of
  limited consultation
• Workshop planned in the autumn to test the
  principles notably with data centre managers, but
  also orgs such as DISC-UK
• Further work needed to establish how such
  principles might be disseminated

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RIN activities collaborative collection
management and storage

• Sustaining and building on what has been achieved
  through CoFoR and other initiatives
• Evaluation of CoFoR and scope for extension
• Development of the National Research Reserve
  proposal set out in the CURL/BL study on
  Optimising Storage and Access
• Focus on low-use material
• Permanent preservation
• Efficient, cost-effective and sustainable access
• Encourage disposals, to release space, and to
  avoid need for investment in additional storage

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E-Infrastructure

• OST-led E-infrastructure Steering Group
• Aim to produce a roadmap for developing the
  infrastructure for the support of UK researchers
  over the next ten years
• Context is the 2007 Spending Review
• Six sub-groups, one on search and navigation, led
  by RIN

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Challenge for the future

• To make the case for investment and co-ordination
  in developing a distributed information
  infrastructure that provides essential services
  for researchers

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Find out more about the RIN at

• www.rin.ac.uk