Scientific and technical --------------------------- information in the digital age Scientific and technical information plays a key role in research performance. CNRS works with its partners to provide tools for the French scientific community as a whole. S to facilitate access to information producedcientific and Technical Information (IST), intended by—and necessary to—research activities, needs to evolve with the digital revolution. ‘Each of the parties involved has defined its own strategy in order to face the challenges spawned by the development of digi- tal publishing, the accelerated circulation of scientific work, and the creation of open archives,’ says Serge Bauin, Director of the CNRS Scientific and Technical Information Department (DIST). ‘This lack of coordi- nation does not always ensure optimal service, which has prompted the public authorities to implement a national strategy, spearheaded by the Digital Scientific Library project.’ Bringing together IST stakeholders The Digital Scientific Library (BSN) is part of the natio- nal road map for scientific infrastructure. The BSN at- tempts both to meet researchers’ needs and improve the visibility of French scientific production. ‘The chal- lenge for the BSN is to entice the main stakeholders Isidore, a new search engine and website, developed by the Adonis very large-scale in higher education and research to work together for infrastructure for social sciences and the humanities, provides unified access to over the benefit of the scientific community,’ he adds. ‘Its one million digitized documents. prominent position in the world of research and its partnership policy account for CNRS’s key role in this project.’ planned acquisition of digital resources, and the creation of a national platform for hosting and using them. It will provide numerous value- A national platform added services such as the possibility for researchers to access ‘cus- tom-made’ portals or launch queries across an entire corpus, whatever The ISTEX1 project, selected in December 2011 as part of the Invest- the original publication and discipline.’ CNRS, which heads the project, ments for the Future program, was a decisive step forward. ‘This pro- will also develop the platform in cooperation with the University of Lor- ject will serve all researchers,’ says Serge Bauin. ‘It is twofold, with the raine, which will arrange the associated services. Two other BSN-related projects moved forward in 2011: the Héloïse site identifying publishers’ policies concerning free access; and a new project for a one-stop shop connecting CNRS with the university library A pan-Mediterranean initiative network in order to facilitate access to digital publications. Other pro- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- jects resulting from recommendations made in 2011 by BSN work CNRS is involved in the MedOANet (Mediterranean Open Access groups will be launched in 2012. Network) project selected by the European Commission in December 2011. Its objective is to promote free access to digital resources in six Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and bers include CNRS, the University of Lorraine acting on behalf of the CPU, the-1. Initiative of Excellence for Scientific and Technical Information. Project mem Turkey. The partners will first map the existing strategies, structures, and Bibliographic agency for Higher Education (ABES) and the Couperin consortium. policies in this field, and then jointly define guidelines to better coordinate their policies. 68 A year at CNRS 2011
ra2011
To see the actual publication please follow the link above