The Robert Gordon University

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The Robert Gordon University
Research and the Library Service
Dr. Susan Copeland Senior Information
Adviser s.copeland_at_rgu.ac.uk
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Outline of presentation

• The Robert Gordon University
• Geographical environment
• Academic environment
• RGU Library Support for Research
• RGU Library Research Projects

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Statistics/Demographics

• Approx. 6800 Full time undergraduates
• Approx. 1300 Full time postgraduates
• Approx. 1400 part time undergraduates
• Approx. 2800 part time postgraduates
• Wide age range of students
• Approx. 6300 UK, 700 EU and 1100 other
  international full time students.
• 56 of non-EU overseas students come from China,
  Taiwan, India, Malaysia and Nigeria.
• The reminder come from 86 other countries

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The Academic Environment

• 18th century origins of RGU
• 1992 awarded university status
• 3 Faculties
• Faculty of Health and Social Care
• Faculty of Design and Technology
• Aberdeen Business School
• Subject Areas
• Applied Social Studies, Health Sciences, Life
  Sciences, Nursing Midwifery, Pharmacy
• Computing, Engineering, Art, Architecture and
  Surveying
• Accounting and Finance, Business Management,
  Communication and Languages, Economics and Public
  Policy, Hotel, Tourism Retail Management, Human
  Resource Management, Information Management, Law,
  Marketing

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Committee Structure

• Board of Governors
• Standing Committees Audit Committee, Chairmans
  Committee, Estates and Buildings Committee,
  Finance Committee, Nominations Committee,
  Remuneration Committee, Staff and Student Affairs
  Committee, and the Staff Disciplinary Appeals
  Committee
• Academic Council
• Standing Committees Assessment Boards, Faculty
  Boards, Honorary Degrees Committee, Quality
  Assurance and Enhancement Committee, Research
  Committee, Research Degrees Committee, Student
  Academic Appeals Committee, and the Student
  Disciplinary Appeals Committee.

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Library Support for Research

• Representation on the Research Committee,
  Research Degrees Committee and Research
  Student/Staff Liaison Sub Committee
• Provision of Services User education (databases,
  referencing, software, etc), ILLs, reciprocal use
  of other university libraries, etc.
• Provision of information sources increasingly
  electronic resources, teaching vs research needs,
  etc.
• Collaborative projects eg. NHS Scotland and
  Scottish Executive funded project with the School
  of Nursing and Midwifery

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Library Research Projects

• E-measures
• LibQUAL surveys
• Small in-house user surveys
• Internal RDI funded projects
• JISC funded projects

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The JISC FAIR Programme (2002)Focus on Access
to Institutional Resources

• 14 Projects in 3 clusters
• Museums and Images
• Institutional Portals
• E-Prints and E-Theses
• 3 Projects are related to ETDs
• Daedalus (The University of Glasgow)
• Theses Alive! (The University of Edinburgh)
• Electronic Theses (Consortium led by the Robert
  Gordon University)
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?nameprogramme_fa
  ir

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Electronic Theses project 2002 - 04
Consortium Members
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Electronic Theses ProjectAims and Timescale

• Phase 1 (July 2002 July 2004)
• To evaluate a wide range of existing practices
  of e-theses production, management and use
  against a set of criteria in order to produce
  models for use within the UK information
  environment.
• Phase 2 (October 2003 September 2004)
• To develop e-theses in a service environment
  taking account of the needs of an independent
  repository and a broader Virtual Research
  Environment (VRE).

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After the FAIR program

• ITT UK HE e-theses Test-bed Project
• A Project to Support e-theses for UK Higher
  Education
• Proposals are invited to undertake a test-bed
  implementation project to deliver an
  infrastructure to support the deposit, access and
  use of research theses for the UK Higher
  Education (HE) sector.
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?namefunding_ethe
  ses

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EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) 2004 -
06

• A CURL-BL Project to Support e-Theses for UK
  Higher Education
• The purpose of EThOS is to deliver, over a
  period of 18 months, a
• fully operational, easily scaleable and
  financially viable prototype
• UK e-theses online service, and supporting
  infrastructure, that will
• enable end-users, via one single web interface,
  to access the full
• text, in secure format, of electronically stored
  theses after a
• selection from a UK Database of Theses (UKDoT).
• (Extract from the Ethos Project Proposal
  Executive Summary)

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EThOS Project Consortium

• The University of Glasgow
• The British Library
• The National Library of Wales
• The University of Birmingham
• Cranfield University
• The University of Edinburgh
• The Robert Gordon University
• The University of Southampton
• The University of Warwick
• SHERPA (Consortium led by University of
  Nottingham)

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EThOS project workpackages

• Project management
• Central host search interface
• Harvesting data from institutions
• Retrospective digitisation
• IPR permission
• Toolkit for institutions
• Business models
• Dissemination and advocacy

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Purpose of the toolkit

• To assist institutions to make theses available
  online
• To offer guidance on the alternative options for
  participating in EThOS
• To provide advice on the legal, cultural,
  technical, administrative and resource issues
  that need to be considered

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RGU, EThOS, ACRL / STS / SBASM
and WVU

• Initial liaison between Cranfield University and
  WVU
• WVU representation on the Association of College
  and Research Libraries, Science and Technology
  Section, Subject and Bibliographic Access to
  Science Materials Committee
• Cranfield University and RGU involvement in the
  ACRL / STS / SBASM project relating to electronic
  theses and dissertations
• EThOS support for the above
• RGU / WVU liaison

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Future Research

• Building on experience
• New areas
• Collaboration and partnerships

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Thank you for Listening