In launching a major consultation exercise about what it should collect and what it should connect to, the British Library is looking to users to help formulate the right balance between connection and collection, print and digital....Caroline Pung, head of strategy and planning at the BL, and author of the content strategy document, says: “I hope this will give people a greater level of clarity about what we are trying to do and I hope it will lead to the BL making the right decisions as it prioritises today’scontent for the researchers of tomorrow.”...
A new technical solution is also likely to be needed to ensure that researchers can navigate easily between materials held by the BL, which is a requirement of the strategy. “A new system is likely but I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say exactly what is needed yet,” says Pung. “This will very much be part of the STM (science, technology, medicine) strategy, though it is not limited to STM. As part of the development of the STM strategy we have started looking at identifying priorities, and linking up with primary data sets is one of them.”
The BL has not yet set a date for the release of the STM strategy consultation document. This will come when it has had time to assimilate the impact of the content strategy consultation document, which is unlikely to be within the next 12 months. “The reason we are developing the detailed analysis of STM later is partly practical, as it would not work to put a lot of material in one document,” says Pung. “Also there are rapid changes in the STM landscape that are having a big impact on our service areas. We have ongoing work on our services strategy too.”
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/02/2006 09:16:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
