Abstract: A survey was conducted of 969 science researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This long survey concluded with three questions requesting users’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the campus libraries, and what single improvement the libraries could make to support scientific research and education. While the scope of these questions was more limited than large-scale surveys such as LibQUAL+TM, the results largely confirmed information from a local implementation of that survey. In addition, an interactive visualization tool was developed to help with analysis of the resulting comments. A summary of the major findings, recommendations for library improvements, and overall conclusions is given.
From the body of the paper:
...Negative comments cluster around issues of access to materials and fees for services and overdue materials....
There is a tension in the wish responses between researchers who clearly want to be able to do their research any time and any place – and on their own – and those who want to “have someone else retrieve and search for me and locate relevant sources and information.” The vast majority of people belong in the first camp, and requested “ALL scientific literature (back to the invention of printing)… online, searchable, and accessible cheaply or free.” ...
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/07/2009 09:54:00 PM.
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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
