IGeLU 2012 Program Preview (pdf, 109 kB)
Keynote Address
Knowledge and Wisdom: the role of research libraries in supporting the European research agenda
Dr Paul Ayris, Director of UCL Library Services & UCL Copyright Officer; President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries)
The paper will begin by setting the scene for research libraries in Europe. University provision in the United Kingdom (UK) will be used as exemplar of the challenges facing European research universities. LIBER's work on the U-Multirank benchmarking developments will also set the scene for the work of continental European Universities in global University measurement and League Tables.
The second section of the paper will look at pan-European development to bring resource discovery to the network layer. The paper will look at two developments: Europeana, Libraries and Research; and, as a case study, the introduction of the Primo search engine into UCL Library Services (University College London) in the UK. A video from the EU Commission will set the baseline for provision in this area. Gaps in current provision will be identified, particularly in the area of Digital Curation.
The third section of the paper will look at Open Access to research publications and its potential impact on the dissemination of scholarly research outputs. The findings of the PEER project will be analysed and their significance for European Universities identified. PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research), supported by the EU e-Contentplus programme, is investigating the effects of the large-scale, systematic depositing of authors' final peer reviewed accepted manuscripts (so-called Green Open Access) with the aim of providing input for evidence-based policy-making in the area of Green Open Access. A video of reactions to Green Open Access by UCL academics will underline these findings.
The paper will then progress to look at the plans of European research Universities for Gold Open Access publishing. Two examples will be illustrated: Gold Open Access monograph publishing and the development of Gold 'overlay journals'.
The fourth section of the paper will look at Research Data. The importance of data-driven science will be explored. Three exemplars from the UK will demonstrate how Universities are tackling this issue. The requirements for the storage and preservation of research data will be explored and the potential of tools offered by Ex Libris investigated to see what it required.
The final section of the paper will map the findings of the paper in terms of network developments, Open Access to research publications, and the storage and re-use of research data against the findings of the opening section – the strategic needs of European research Universities. This paper will end by identifying how the technical developments outlined in the paper need to be aligned with the top-level strategic needs of European Universities in order for research libraries to support their home Universities.