Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

December 2004 Volume 2 (6)

Aiming Higher

Making access to science easy

Catherine Nicholson provides an update on a group working towards a national approach to providing good, easily accessible science information for all Scotland's citizens.

'Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world' (Louis Pasteur)

Scientific endeavour, together with associated technological development, is the lifeblood of a successful modern society. Chemists, geneticists, geologists, physicists, botanists, mechanical and electrical engineers, pharmacologists and professionals from a range of other disciplines have a key role to play in everything from the vitality of the nation's economy to the health and welfare of its citizens. One of the tools they need to enable them to do this effectively is accurate, up-to-date, and readily accessible scientific information.

In 2001, the Scottish Executive published A Science Strategy for Scotland (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/ssfs-00.asp). The strategy set out five main objectives: maintaining a strong science base; increasing the effective exploitation of scientific research; ensuring that enough people study science to meet the future needs of Scotland; promoting the awareness, appreciation and understanding of science across society; and ensuring the effective use of scientific evidence in policy formulation and resource allocation by government

The provision of online access to scientific literature and data is essential to these objectives and has been the focus of SSISWG, the Scottish Science Information Strategy Working Group. SSISWG is a partnership of SCURL, SLIC and the National Library of Scotland. Other members on the group represent research, Learning & Teaching Scotland, NHS Scotland and the public libraries. The aim of the group is to widen access and improve the provision of science information for everyone in Scotland through schools, colleges and universities, the National Library of Scotland, the NHS, the Scottish Parliament and Executive and the public libraries.

This national cross-sectoral approach to the provision of electronic information is one that has been highly successful in other small countries such as Finland, Sweden, Eire and, most recently, New Zealand. In addition to widening access, other benefits are in reduced costs, reduced work through centralised administration, information gathering, trial co-ordination, licence and price negotiation, and the promotion of co-operation in the networked environment. In Scotland, a national approach to provision is now possible through JANET, the academic network, the establishment of the People's Network, and the schools network currently being developed.

SSISWG initially focused on two areas: the provision of e-content and a portal for content delivery. A Consultation and Focus Day held in February resulted in agreement to pursue a second content-related strand on Open Access. Three subgroups have now been established covering science content, Open Access and a portal for delivery.

Science Content: The range of resources under consideration now includes: scholarly and general interest scientific journals; health related resources; a scientific encyclopaedia; management/business journals; British Standards. Negotiation on national licences has been based on an initial three-year pilot period that would allow time for the integration of resources, training, publicity, promotion and evaluation.

Open Access: Scotland already has a strong science research base and is a heavy producer per capita of scientific information. We need to exploit this and expose Scottish research to a wider audience. This is being addressed by the Open Access Group, recently renamed OATS (Open Access Team Scotland). This group aims to promote the free availability of research output from Scotland through the establishment of institutional digital repositories and to increase awareness of this new model of scholarly publishing.

The Berlin and Budapest Declarations on Open Access are already well established, and these were joined by a Scottish Declaration launched in October. Many Scottish universities have already signed up to the declaration and further sign up from individuals as well as institutions can be done through the website.

A Science Portal for Scotland: A significant consideration will be accessibility and the need for access to be as seamless and user-friendly as possible. Purchasing content is not enough in itself, it must be easy to find and use with access through a web-based portal viewed as essential, as is the technical and organisational infrastructure to support it. Fortunately, we already have a possible basis for this in the work done for the Scottish Cultural Portal, a pilot funded by the Scottish Executive through SLIC. Further development would be required in areas such as authorisation and terminology services.

Next steps
It is hoped that this initiative will find support and funding from the Scottish Executive and other funding bodies and detailed proposals are being developed.

Comments, queries and suggestions are welcome and can be addressed to the Chair of the group Stuart James (stuart.james@paisley.ac.uk) or Catherine Nicholson (C.Nicholson@gcal.ac.uk).

Information

Scottish Executive (2001) A Science Strategy for Scotland
www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/ssfs.pdf

Open Access in Scotland edition of WIDWISAWN V2 No 4
http://widwisawn.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/issues/vol2/issue2_4_2.html

Open Access Group (OATS)
http://scurl.ac.uk/WG/OATS/

Scotland's Culture [Scottish Cultural Portal pilot]
www.scotlandsculture.org

Scottish Declaration on Open Access
http://scurl.ac.uk/WG/OATS/declaration.htm

Open Access Overview
www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm

Information Scotland Vol 2. (6) December 2004

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.

Last updated: 1 February 2005