E-resources for research in the humanities and social sciences: a British Academy Policy Review
On 20 May 2005, the latest British Academy Review, ‘E-resources for research in the humanities and social sciences’, was launched at an event in the Academy attended by leading representatives from national institutions and the research community. Sir Brian Follett, who led the UK's Research Support Libraries Group which has led to the creation of the Research Libraries Network, chaired the launch event and welcomed the report. From the national point of view, he says, 'It is timely and provides a valuable contribution to the current debate as to how the UK provides, in this electronic age, for improved access to the primary and secondary resources that underpin research in the humanities and social sciences.'
British researchers in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) are making extensive use of developments in information and communications technology (ICT) that are changing the nature of resources for research, says the report. Its findings show that HSS researchers are conducting their research with as much e-sophistication as those in science, technology and medicine (STM), and are developing their research in new ways and across subject boundaries within and outside their disciplines. But the report finds that too many of the national strategies and practices that should support these activities are ad hoc and fragmented, or sometimes oriented towards research needs specific to science and technology. It therefore makes a series of recommendations addressed to pertinent stakeholders, notably national institutions and bodies, universities and libraries, and researchers themselves, recommendations aimed at improving resource provision for HSS researchers and thus helping to keep UK research in HSS at the international leading edge.
As Professor Spärck Jones, who chaired the Review Working Group, puts it: 'More strategic, coordinated and well-targeted action is needed, which must, moreover, be grounded in researchers’ actual, not deemed, requirements, so e-resources and access to them are designed, from the beginning, for researchers’ use. This action should recognise that HSS researchers, far more than STM researchers, have to live in a hybrid resource world, with a complex mix of non-e and e-resources, primary and secondary. Their information needs extend far back in time, and range across many languages.'
NOTES TO EDITORS
Published:
25 May 2005
- The report arises from a Review overseen by a Working Group, which was established by the British Academy to investigate the provision of, and access to, research e-resources for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, and to identify ways in which the needs of HSS researchers can be factored into current national policies, strategies and policies, so that they can take full advantage of electronic developments.
- The speakers at the launch event were: Sir Brian Follett, Chairman of the Research Support Libraries Group (RSLG); Professor Karen Spärck Jones, Chair of the Review Working Group; Dr Michael Jubb, Director, Research Libraries Network; Professor Hugh Mellor, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge; and Sir Alan Wilson, Director General for Higher Education, DfES.
- Printed copies are available from Vivienne Hurley: v.hurley@britac.ac.uk/020 7969 5268
- For further media enquires relating the Review please contact Michael Reade, External Relations Department m.reade@britac.ac.uk or telephone 020 7969 5263.
- The British Academy is the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Established by Royal Charter in 1902, the British Academy is an independent learned society promoting the humanities and social sciences. It is composed of Fellows elected in recognition of their distinction as scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
- Further details about the British Academy may be found at: http://www.britac.ac.uk