Building a collaboratory in an engineering R&D organization

• Autor(es): Correia, Zita ; Egreja, Catarina ; Barrulas, Maria Joaquina ; Gil, Rui ; Ferreira, Diogo R. ; Cunha, Luís Arriaga da
• Data: 2009
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/576
• Origem: Repositório do LNEG
• Assunto(s): Information audit; Information management; Information culture; Information behaviour
• Tipo de Documento: Documento de conferência
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

This is a reprint from a paper published in the Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference 2009 IADIS Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems http://www.iadis.org This paper presents the results achieved so far in the process of preparing the ground to develop a collaboratory in an Engineering R&D organization. This case study is part of a broader research project engaged in building a collaboratory in order to share knowledge and resources among the Portuguese State Laboratories. In the process of preparing the ground to develop the collaboratory in the first of the State Laboratories studied, an information audit was conducted and an online survey was launched. The survey targeted 240 people, including mainly professional researchers (c. 160), but also research trainees and some technical staff integrating the research teams. The questionnaire was designed so as to collect data on the information management and information culture of the organization, on the researchers’ information needs and information seeking, and on the information flows taking place, and was composed of two distinct and independent parts. The first obtained seventy nine responses, while the second achieved ninety two, corresponding to 33% and 38% of the total sample, respectively. The work carried out will provide the basic requirements for the task of developing an infrastructure and tools for the collaboratory, addressing the various aspects of collaborative software tools, information archiving and intelligent search, remote control of scientific instruments and multi-channel access to the services.