CLIR Press Release

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: December 12, 2001

Report Examines Humanists' Research Needs in Digital Environment

WASHINGTON, D.C.Changes in the information environment have led to changes in the needs, expectations, and behaviors of academic library users. Libraries are trying to understand and respond to those changes, but assessing expectations and changes in users' behaviors can be difficult, and needs vary greatly among disciplines.

A new report from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Digital Library Federation (DLF) looks at the changing needs and expectations of humanities scholars in the digital environment. Entitled Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving Information Environment, the report updates our understanding of how humanists conduct research. The authors, William S. Brockman, Laura Neumann, Carole L. Palmer, and Tonyia J. Tidline, began extensive observation of selected humanities scholars in 1999 to examine in detail how they work, how they are integrating technology into their work, and how future technologies might offer new opportunities in line with the goals of humanities research.

The study clearly shows that humanities scholars have adapted well to rapid technical change. It demonstrates the extent to which scholars are able to harness information technologies to tried, tested, and somewhat traditional research functions. Such functions include, for example, keeping abreast of a broad secondary literature that surrounds their fields of inquiry, and locating, acquiring access to, and using primary resources that are relevant to a particular area of investigation.

The study also shows that humanities scholars are used to, and in some cases even prefer, information that can be accessed from their desktops. This is especially true with finding aids; abstract, indexing, and citation services; and online journals. Where primary research materials are concerned, however, the scholars have yet to be convinced by digital editions. The scholar's purview is so typically broad that it defies the narrow boundaries that surround the current generation of digitally reformatted collections.

The findings of the report suggest a number of points for the library to consider. For example, the report reaffirms the importance of cataloging first. It also underscores the importance of developing virtually integrated services that allow scholars to search across and use digitally reformatted materials from many locations as if they made up a single online collection. Because such services require adherence to accepted benchmarks that ensure some degree of persistence and interoperability among online collections, the study encourages libraries to develop and adopt such common standards as a matter of high priority. Finally, the report points to the value of close cooperation between librarians and scholars in forming digital collections to support specific research aims.

Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving Information Environment is available on CLIR's Web site at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub104/pub104.pdf. Print copies will soon be available for ordering through the Web site.

The Digital Library Federation is a nonprofit consortium of libraries and related organizations that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technology to extend collections and services. It operates under the umbrella of the Council on Library and Information Resources, which acts on behalf of libraries, archives, and universities to develop and encourage collaborative strategies for preserving and providing access to scholarly resources.

# # #