News
Generation Y not so different, says study
Tomorrow’s researchers aren’t too different from researchers today in the ways they seek information, according to the first results from a study commissioned by the British Library and JISC.
The two organisations are conducting a three-year study into doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994 (so- called Generation Y scholars) and their older counterparts. According to the first annual report from the study, Generation Y researchers share with older researchers a desire for an all-embracing, seamless accessible research information
network in which restrictions to access do not restrain them. However, most Generation Y students do not have a clear understanding of what open access means, and this negatively impacts their use of open access resources. Another feature in
common with older students is exasperation regarding restricted access to research resources due to the limitations of institutional licences. However, there were differences between the younger and older researchers in where they turn for help and in attitudes to their research
environment. Generation Y scholars are more likely to turn to their supervisors for research resource recommendations than older doctoral students. Also, 33 per cent of Generation Y students say they have never used library staff for support in finding difficult-to-source material.
The study is being
conducted by Education for Change, in association with The Research Partnership, and builds on the study by CIBER of the ‘Google Generation’, which was published by the British Library and JISC in January 2008.
EC plan includes open access to environmental research
The European Commission’s latest round of funding includes an open access requirement for environmental research results. Within the seventh framework funding about 205 million euros will be devoted to environmental
research projects. Successful recipients of this funding will be required to make any publications arising from their research freely available after a certain embargo period. The European Commission will be investing nearly 6.4
billion euros in research and innovation in total. The package is the biggest ever and covers a vast range of scientific disciplines, public policy areas and commercial sectors. It is expected to create more than 165,000 jobs.
Researchers want copyright reform, says UK study
A new report compiled by the British Library reveals that researchers face challenges because of copyright law in the UK. The report, which was sourced directly from researchers, also proposes some ways that UK intellectual property legislation could be
reformed to reflect the needs of today’s researcher.
‘The British Library presents this report on behalf of the research community, raising their thoughts and ideas on how to create a copyright system fit for the future. We hope it will provide a useful contribution to
8 Research Information August/September 2010
the debate,’ commented Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the library.
The report has been published under a creative commons licence, enabling others to copy, distribute, and make derivative non- commercial works.
Goportis and FIZ Karlsruhe work
together
Goportis, the Leibniz Library Network for Research Information, and FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure have entered into a partnership agreement. The aim of these German partners is to collaborate closely in developing, offering, and hosting new e-Science services in the future. The activities will focus on providing electronic content on a sustainable basis. Existing offers and services (such as eSciDoc and DataCite) will be combined and enhanced, say the partners.
Uwe Rosemann,
spokesman of the Goportis network, which represents three major libraries in Germany, said: ‘Providers of infrastructural services for scientists in Germany need to work closely together in order to fulfill their future task of jointly handling large web repositories.’
The first joint activities will focus on hosting. A large amount of digital publications from publishing houses will be processed. E-journals, e-books and databases will be stored, administered and made available to scientists via a sustainable infrastructure. Another project is to collaborate in the fields of long-term preservation and full-text provision.
www.researchinformation.info
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