AC+erm Project. Transforming Information & Records Management through Research & Development? Proceedings of the 3rd Northumbria International Witness Seminar Conference

These proceedings capture the content of the third Witness Seminar hosted by Northumbria University’s School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. It built on the success of our two previous witness seminars, in terms of its format and style, but was also different in some important ways. Firstly, it represented the final event of a 3-year Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project – Accelerating positive change in e-records management (AC+erm); secondly, the seminars took a series of questions, rather than articles, as their starting point; and thirdly, it was much shorter, lasting only half a day. Although it was the final AC+erm project event, and therefore show cased some of the project’s outputs, the sessions and discussions were deliberately designed to revolve around the broader context of research and development in records and information management

Meaningful measures for individuals' realities: evidence from the JUBILEE project

Reality differs according to the individual's perception : this is a statement of the obvious. How to deliver appropriate library and information services to fulfil those individuals' requirements is not obvious. Measures of success are needed to form the basis of service planning.These measures must be meaningful for individuals, both users and managers, if the goal of designing and delivering library and information services to meet individuals' realities is to be realised. Contexts are changing for individuals: the fast developing world of electronic information services (EIS) provides individuals with new opportunities and new threats. It is against this background that the JUBILEE project was launched.This paper will use evidence from JUBILEE to present the issues underlying the development of an evaluation toolkit for managers of EIS, which will take into account differences between individuals, between disciplines, and between institutions

Evolutionary Subject Tagging in the Humanities; Supporting Discovery and Examination in Digital Cultural Landscapes

In this paper, the authors attempt to identify problematic issues for subject tagging in the humanities, particularly those associated with information objects in digital formats. In the third major section, the authors identify a number of assumptions that lie behind the current practice of subject classification that we think should be challenged. We move then to propose features of classification systems that could increase their effectiveness. These emerged as recurrent themes in many of the conversations with scholars, consultants, and colleagues. Finally, we suggest next steps that we believe will help scholars and librarians develop better subject classification systems to support research in the humanities.NEH Office of Digital Humanities: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant (HD-51166-10

Collaborative yet independent: Information practices in the physical sciences

In many ways, the physical sciences are at the forefront of using digital tools and methods to work with information and data. However, the fields and disciplines that make up the physical sciences are by no means uniform, and physical scientists find, use, and disseminate information in a variety of ways. This report examines information practices in the physical sciences across seven cases, and demonstrates the richly varied ways in which physical scientists work, collaborate, and share information and data. This report details seven case studies in the physical sciences. For each case, qualitative interviews and focus groups were used to understand the domain. Quantitative data gathered from a survey of participants highlights different information strategies employed across the cases, and identifies important software used for research. Finally, conclusions from across the cases are drawn, and recommendations are made. This report is the third in a series commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN), each looking at information practices in a specific domain (life sciences, humanities, and physical sciences). The aim is to understand how researchers within a range of disciplines find and use information, and in particular how that has changed with the introduction of new technologies