Libraries Opening Paths to Knowledge

Ensuring access to knowledge has always been at the heart of the mission of research libraries. In the digital age, and with the growth of Open Science, this implies not only preserving and providing access to content but also opening up new pathways to interacting with and creating knowledge.

Implications:

1) Content and Processes

Working ever more closely with researchers throughout the research life cycle to encourage and help them to open up their research process and to make both their outputs and methodologies available during and beyond the life of a research project, libraries are moving from curation to creation and workflows.

2) Services

Engaging in user-led development of services, and a trend towards the creation of shared services as well as developing new methods and opportunities for user engagement.

3) Legal & Ethical

Keeping abreast of emerging legislative developments  and considering how to  act responsibly to address ethical issues in making data open. Opening up new pathways to knowledge and knowledge creation can also have legal and ethical implications related to copyright and data protection.

4) Space & Experimentation

Rethinking library spaces (physical and virtual) to open up opportunities for experimentation and the visualisation of data, and leveraging e-infrastructure to support collaboration and sharing across borders and disciplines.