Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment
Introduction to a Data Set Assembled by the Digital Library Federation and Outsell, Inc.
Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information
Resources
Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2002 by the Council on Library and Information Resources. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transcribed in any form without permission of the publisher. Requests for reproduction should be submitted to the Director of Communications at the Council on Library and Information Resources.
Contents
Narrative-
Introduction
Data Collection
Part 1: Faculty and Students
Part 2: Infrastructure, Facilities, and Services
Part 3: Formats Observations and Implications
References
About the Author
Amy Friedlander is special projects associate at the Council on Library and Information Resources. She is primarily responsible for CLIR's work with the Library of Congress on its National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Before joining CLIR, she was the founding editor of D-Lib Magazine and iMP: The Magazine on Information Impacts. She has published on the implications of higher education for the historical role of women and on the history of large-scale technology-based infrastructures.Preface
We know from anecdotal evidence that users' expectations of libraries are changing as they find more information directly from the Web. Anecdotal evidence, though, is hardly enough for developing persuasive plans for new library services. The Digital Library Federation (DLF) and Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) commissioned Outsell, Inc., to conduct a large-scale study of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members from academic institutions ranging from the small liberal arts college to the largest research university. Our hope was that a picture of user behavior would emerge.This report presents a summary of the findings and 158 selected data tables; it should be viewed as an entry to a much larger data set. The full set of 659 data tables provided by Outsell will be mounted on CLIR's or DLF's Web site. We encourage readers to make use of these tables and ask that you share with us your analyses of the data. In addition, CLIR will deposit the raw data tapes with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
CLIR and DLF expect to commission additional work based on the data. We welcome proposals from readers with an interest in performing more detailed studies.
Deanna B. Marcum
President, CLIR