Location
CTICC- ROOM 2
Session Number
3B2
Description
One of South Africa’s premier research councils, the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) has been actively engaging with its researchers in a virtual space for more than a decade. The nature of the HSRC’s research business model has dictated a footprint which acts as research hubs across South Africa and involving Southern Africa as well. These research hubs are a fundamental inclusion in the virtual space, which is the HSRC’s Virtual Library. Essentially, the HSRC has dedicated research professionals in most of the major city centres in South Africa, namely Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Port Elizabeth. It is the mandate of Information Services at the HSRC to provide pro-actively and reactively for the information needs of these researchers which it serves. Essentially, this is done through a series of electronic, information “hubs” which are nested within a larger virtual information “hub”, namely our Virtual Library. The Virtual Library of the HSRC, as an electronic hub, drives the information provision process, assists with research outputs, guides researchers to new and innovative funding opportunities, and ultimately acts as a springboard to the generation of new knowledge, in all the research areas in which the HSRC is active. Ultimately, the questions which remain are the following: How does the Information Services at the HSRC take its already respected service delivery, to the next level? How do we take our information hubs and make them accessible to young researchers who are completely au fait with smart phones, tablets of all kinds and the interconnected digital environment? Our raison d’etre is to deliver information to our researchers that ultimately makes a fundamental difference in the policy driven research which the HSRC is actively engaged in. Are we ready for the next leap into making our information hubs even more accessible and researcher-friendly? This paper will examine these topics and ultimately explore new avenues for information delivery, within an African context.
Included in
The Human Sciences Research Council’s Virtual Library as an Information Hub which ultimately drives the creation of new knowledge.
CTICC- ROOM 2
One of South Africa’s premier research councils, the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) has been actively engaging with its researchers in a virtual space for more than a decade. The nature of the HSRC’s research business model has dictated a footprint which acts as research hubs across South Africa and involving Southern Africa as well. These research hubs are a fundamental inclusion in the virtual space, which is the HSRC’s Virtual Library. Essentially, the HSRC has dedicated research professionals in most of the major city centres in South Africa, namely Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Port Elizabeth. It is the mandate of Information Services at the HSRC to provide pro-actively and reactively for the information needs of these researchers which it serves. Essentially, this is done through a series of electronic, information “hubs” which are nested within a larger virtual information “hub”, namely our Virtual Library. The Virtual Library of the HSRC, as an electronic hub, drives the information provision process, assists with research outputs, guides researchers to new and innovative funding opportunities, and ultimately acts as a springboard to the generation of new knowledge, in all the research areas in which the HSRC is active. Ultimately, the questions which remain are the following: How does the Information Services at the HSRC take its already respected service delivery, to the next level? How do we take our information hubs and make them accessible to young researchers who are completely au fait with smart phones, tablets of all kinds and the interconnected digital environment? Our raison d’etre is to deliver information to our researchers that ultimately makes a fundamental difference in the policy driven research which the HSRC is actively engaged in. Are we ready for the next leap into making our information hubs even more accessible and researcher-friendly? This paper will examine these topics and ultimately explore new avenues for information delivery, within an African context.