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Federal Science eLibrary Pilot: Seamless, equitable desktop access for Canadian government researchers

Beverly Brown (Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Canada)
Cynthia Found (Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Canada)
Merle McConnell (Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries, Science Library Network, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada)

The Electronic Library

ISSN: 0264-0473

Article publication date: 20 February 2007

674

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to describe a pilot project for the Federal Science eLibrary to measure the impacts on Government of Canada researchers when provided with seamless, equitable access to an expanded core of electronic journals in science, technology and medicine (STM). The Federal Science eLibrary is an initiative supported by the Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries to provide improved access to information at the desktop for the 22,000 Canadian federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers. The pilot project was designed to evaluate the benefits of increased access to e‐journals at the pilot sites and test network performance in connecting to a central digital repository.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 500 users in three Canadian government sites with limited access to electronic resources were provided with full text access to a digital repository of over 3,000 e‐journals over a 12‐week period. Questionnaires, teleconferences, usage statistics and e‐mail correspondence were used to gather and measure researchers' response and show impacts on their ability to do their work.

Findings

Pilot groups reported significantly reduced time finding and verifying information. Time saved was redirected into critical activities such as research, laboratory activities, manuscript preparation, peer review activities and professional reading. Participants found that increased desktop access had a very positive impact on their ability to do their work.

Originality/value

This study shows the benefits of expanded access to electronic journals for federal government scientists through a Federal Science eLibrary initiative.

Keywords

Citation

Brown, B., Found, C. and McConnell, M. (2007), "Federal Science eLibrary Pilot: Seamless, equitable desktop access for Canadian government researchers", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 8-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470710729083

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2007, Government agency

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