Federal Science eLibrary Pilot Project Final Report

Pilot Objectives

In 2005, the Strategic Alliance initiated a pilot project to further strengthen the case for investing in a Federal Science eLibrary. The pilot was undertaken to evaluate the impacts of expanded access to digital content at the desktop for researchers at three regional sites, understand and resolve any connectivity or performance issues that might impact the pilot user's experience, prove the value of integrated access to information and demonstrate and communicate the benefits of a Federal Science eLibrary.

Objective 1

To evaluate the impact of easy desktop access to a core collection of e-journals on pilot users.

Changes in work practices were recorded as users moved from an environment with modest access to e-journals, to one with significantly increased desktop access. The data collected was analyzed to determine the extent to which reliable, easy and seamless desktop access contributed to pilot users' ability to perform their work productively and efficiently.

Objective 2

To evaluate the impact of delivering increased access to e-journals on pilot libraries and librarians.

Feedback on the pilot site was gathered from the pilot site librarians and analyzed to determine the extent to which the pilot positively or negatively affected their work.

Objective 3

To evaluate whether NRC-CISTI's existing infostructure could reliably support and deliver a Federal Science eLibrary servic.e

NRC-CISTI's infostructure was monitored and tested to:

1. determine if it could reliably connect and deliver to the pilot sites and remote users;
2. determine if any major upgrades would be needed to support a Canada-wide Federal Science eLibrary; and
3. determine if there were any interface functionality and usability issues related to the digital repository.