Creating a buzz for
NECTAR
Miggie Pickton
Research Support Specialist and NECTAR Queen Bee
Repositories Support Project
Professional briefing and networking event
University of Northampton
Thursday 15th November 2007
Outline
• Some background
• NECTAR scope and principles
• Winning support from the research community
• Stakeholder reactions
• Incorporating stakeholder views
• Promoting NECTAR: honey or sting?
• Dissemination mechanisms
• Maintaining the buzz
Some background
• Prompted by the RAE
– Initial contact from Prof Hugh Matthews – Dean of Graduate
School and Director of Knowledge Exchange (mid 2006)
– Repository seen as support for research
• Accepted as priority for Information Services (Jan 2007) and
project kicked off
• Steering Group of senior managers (with influence)
• Project Team - liaison, technical & metadata skills
• Purpose and principles of repository agreed
• Name for repository agreed
Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses And Research
NECTAR scope and principles
• Showcase and preserve the research outputs of the University of
Northampton
– articles (refereed and non-refereed), books, book chapters,
performances, exhibitions, conference papers, research
reports, maps, patents etc
• Research theses (PhDs & MPhils – later, other doctoral theses)
• All formats – including multimedia
• Mediated deposit – at least to begin with
• NECTAR to be owned by the university research community, not
the library
…these principles outlined on a short ‘briefing sheet, circulated to
stakeholders (Deans, research leaders, Information Services staff
etc.) with an invitation to comment
Winning support from the research community
• Presentations to
– University Research Committee (minutes to Senate)
– Readers and Professors Forum
– School of Health Research Forum
• Convene focus group of senior researchers
• Personal representation to PVC Research
• JISC bid - letter of support from VC
Stakeholder reactions
• Generally positive about NECTAR
• Welcomed the idea of using NECTAR as data source for
research reporting (surprisingly amenable to ‘mandatory’
submission)
• Greatest concerns:
– Copyright
– Work being deposited without author permission
– Author privacy
– Ethical issues e.g. extreme art
• Reluctance among academics to become NECTAR
champions (pressure of time)
Incorporating stakeholder views
• Focus group
– Only ‘quality’ research to be permitted in NECTAR, i.e.
items previously available in the public domain
– Members of focus group willing to form advisory group if
necessary
• ‘Regional interest’ subject tree – aligning NECTAR with
institutional priorities
• Need for clear information and promotional materials
• Annual Research Report confirmed as major selling point various changes required to Eprints
Promoting NECTAR: honey or sting?
• The honey (flavour depends on audience)
– For authors: visibility and accessibility => IMPACT
– For university senior managers: regional/community agenda
– For research administrators: multipurpose tool
– For everyone:
• the moral high ground – the principle of open access
• opportunities for collaboration (internally and externally)
• The sting
– For academics - Annual Research Report – be in there to be
counted
– For research students - mandatory submission of e-theses
(changes to university regulations are currently under
consideration)
Dissemination mechanisms
• Targeted emails to key stakeholders
• Blanket emails to all staff via ‘Mailmaster’, global emails
• Announcements on TUNIS, the UoN intranet
• Pieces for in house publications – Update and BiblioTech
• Personal contacts with research community
– Existing library liaison channels e.g. Academic Boards
– Research Support Specialist
• Shush! – the library blog
Maintaining the buzz…
Advocacy will be key to the acceptance and uptake of NECTAR
Some ideas:
• Celebrate NECTAR milestones (e.g. official launch, 100
papers deposited, 1000 downloads, 10,000 visits)
• Appoint NECTAR champions – academics, research
administrators, library liaison
• Exploit usage stats – ‘paper of the week’, access/download
counts, departmental league tables?
• Promote links to/from other repositories and databases e.g.
Northamptonshire Observatory
Acknowledgement
Thank you to the JISC for £30,000 ‘repository start-up’
funding, awarded September 2007 to March 2009.
miggie.pickton@northampton.ac.uk