Federal Science eLibrary Pilot Project Final Report

Executive Summary

The proposed Federal Science eLibrary is "an initiative to deliver scientific, technical and medical (STM) digital resources seamlessly to the desktops of federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers." ¹ The Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries (Strategic Alliance), a collaboration of six science-based Departments/Agencies, as well as representatives of the Council of Federal Libraries Secretariat is spearheading the initiative.

The Strategic Alliance has made significant progress in demonstrating the value and feasibility of the proposal for a Federal Science eLibrary. A feasibility study was conducted in 2003 and a business case was developed in 2005, both of which can be viewed at the Strategic Alliance Web site.

In 2005, the Strategic Alliance initiated a pilot project to further strengthen the case for a Federal Science eLibrary. During the three-month pilot, more than 500 researchers at three regional sites across Canada had desktop access to a digital repository of more than four million journal articles, loaded on servers located at the NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI). This digital repository is part of NRC-CISTI's information and technology infrastructure or "infostructure" network.

The results of the pilot clearly demonstrated the benefits of expanded access to digital content at the desktop to users and pilot site libraries, and proved the readiness of NRC-CISTI's infostructure to reliably support and deliver a Federal Science eLibrary service. 80% of survey respondents indicated that having access to a larger collection of electronic journals had a positive or very positive impact on their research activities and productivity. 71% of impact survey respondents used the tool several times or more per month.

More specifically, pilot participants cited timesaving advantages, which allowed them to concentrate on critical activities such as manuscript preparation, peer review activities, professional reading and other research and laboratory activities, as well as an improved ability to remain current in their chosen field. Librarians highlighted increased efficiencies in offering coordinated access to more electronic journals, allowing them to serve their clients better and better meet their expectations for e-content.

It is important to note that a fully implemented Federal Science eLibrary would include content far beyond what was available in this pilot, as well as a user group made up of more than 22,000 ² federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers. The impacts of a fully implemented Federal Science eLibrary would be far-reaching, benefiting all science-based activities of the federal government.

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¹ Strategic Alliance Web site (Date Published: 2005-09-30; accessed March 2006).

² The number of federal employees in the scientific and professional occupational category (Dec. 2001)