Library Hi Tech

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to look at the changes to library services that arose from the institutional adoption of virtual learning environments and discusses how these may influence the development of user facing information services for researchers using similar virtual research environments.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the impact of institutional VLEs on the provision of added value library services to learners and discusses the potential for these developments to influence the librarian-researcher relationship and the information services provided to the research community using an institutional VRE.

Findings – The wide-scale introduction of institutional VREs provides librarians with an opportunity to establish closer working relationships with academic researchers to support the development of a number of information discovery and management tools and services that are embedded in the workflows and virtual research workspace of the research community.

Practical implicatons – This provides a useful resource for librarians, academic researchers and university research policy makers who are engaged in the support of academic research.

Originality/value – The paper reviews the provision of information services to researchers and learners using virtual community environments in a contemporary context.