Building an Institutional Discovery Layer for Virtual Research Collections

Abstract

University libraries are under pressure to ensure that their strategies and services to support researchers are aligned with the parent organization's research goals. Important to researchers are not only research information needs-which necessarily underpin their research-but also the discoverability and accessibility of their own research outputs. While libraries have a history of designing discovery systems, new research paradigms are presenting both challenges and opportunities for libraries to reconceptualise such systems within a broader context. This paper describes a nationally funded Australian university initiative to build a research repository which feeds data into both a national research data service and university library discovery tools. Challenges and benefits are discussed.