1.3 CISTI's Three Programs

National Science Library

NRC-CISTI is mandated under the NRC Act to provide NRC and other Canadian researchers with access to the world’s scientific, technical and medical (STM) information. CISTI supplies documents to research institutions and researchers around the world on a cost recovery basis.

For over 75 years CISTI has provided information services to Canadian researchers in academic institutions, industry and other government organizations from a world-class collection of journals, conference papers, monographs and technical reports. Services include document delivery, loans, quick reference, literature search and referral. The NRC Virtual Library was launched in 1997 to provide NRC researchers from coast to coast with desktop access to full-text electronic journals and information resources.

Today, the National Science Library is in the process of transitioning from print to digital information access and delivery, and is positioning to become a national gateway to the world's digital STM information, including research data. CISTI is strategically moving towards providing Canadian research and innovation communities with value-added information tools and services to enable knowledge discovery, cross-discipline research, innovation, and commercialization.

Support to Canada's health sector

CISTI has offered specialized services to Canada's medical community since 1974, in part by collaborating with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in the United States and by coordinating Canadian access to NLM programs and services such as MEDLARS and DOCLINE. This coordination role includes the provision of training and client support to Canadian institutions.

Snapshot:

Serving NRC

• Access to 26,000 electronic resources
• Access to 11,900 full-text e-journals
• Access to 47 specialized online databases
• 90 percent fill rate from CISTI Collection, delivered to NRC researchers' desktops across Canada
• NRC Expertise Database coordination
• NRC Web Office for NRC and sector-specific web portal development

Serving Canadians-National Science Library

• Access to 9,000 scientific, technical,
• medical journals
• Access to 7M full-text e-journal articles
• Reduced copyright fees for Canadians 
• Coordination of NLM services for Canada
• Book and eBook lending
• Reference services

Serving the World-Document Delivery

• Contributor to the international STM information marketplace-40,000 document delivery registered accounts world-wide
• Resource-sharing agreements with international STI Centre partners (U.K., China, France, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, US)
  

NRC Research Press

CISTI supports the dissemination of Canadian research through its publishing arm on a cost recovery basis. The NRC Research Press (RP) published the first issue of the Canadian Journal of Research in May 1929. Today it uses a state-of-the-art digital publishing platform to publish 16 NRC journals with worldwide reach-scientists and institutions in over 100 countries have subscriptions. Fifteen of those journals are currently available online free to Canadians, thanks to funding from the federal government's Depository Services Program (DSP) operated by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC).

Considered to be Canada's foremost scientific publisher, the NRC Research Press also publishes conference proceedings and is the only Canadian publisher of peer-reviewed scientific monographs.
The NRC Research Press publishes an additional 15 client journals on behalf of Canadian scholarly societies and is in the process of developing a digital publishing platform and Web 2.0 features to offer to these and new clients for publication of their journals. As Canada's most technologically-advanced S&T publisher, the NRC Research Press is well-positioned to assist others to electronically publish and disseminate Canadian research.

Snapshot:

• Largest and most advanced sci-tech publisher in Canada
• Publishes in English and French
• 16 journals, 13,800 subscribers
• 6,744 authors in 2006-2007
• 8.8 million article downloads in 2006-07 (DSP)
• Global reach: journals delivered to 101 countries
• Publishing services and platform
  • 15 Canadian S&T society client journals
  • Canada's only S&T monographs program
  • several titles per year (books, conference proceedings)
• Open access journal trial (Genome)

Information Intelligence Services

CISTI continues to offer traditional reference services to NRC institutes across Canada. In response to demand from IRAP's industrial technology advisors, technology clusters, and NRC commercialization initiatives for business intelligence and specialized information services, in 2001 CISTI leveraged its reference service competencies in global STM information to recruit and train business and information professionals to fill that demand.

Today, networked teams of information specialists and technical business analysts provide information research and analysis services and competitive technical intelligence to private and public sector researchers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) associated with NRC institutes, industrial partnership facilities and technology clusters across Canada. CISTI staff contributes synthesis and analyses of global research as well as patent and market information in order to identify promising research directions, market potential, and commercialization partners. Demand for CISTI's information intelligence services is growing quickly.

Snapshot:

• Over 60 information specialists, client service officers and technical business analysts at NRC Information Centres (NICS) located at NRC institutes in thirteen cities across Canada
• Clients are NRC researchers, IRAP SMEs, ten clusters, industry partnership facilities (IPFs)

Valued research and development (R&D), commercialization, and innovation support:

• Competitive technical intelligence (CTI)
• Business and patent information analysis
• Referrals to experts
• Information intelligence searches, analysis and reports to
  • Validate market demand
  • Identify competitors & potential partners
  • Propose technology applications

Benefits to small and medium enterprises (SMEs):

• Reduced R&D costs and risk
• Improved chances of commercial success
• Faster time to market
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness
• Better partnerships and alliances

Benefits to NRC Institutes:

• Improved project and program selection
• Reduced R&D project costs
• Early identification of S&T trends
• Improved commercialization strategies
• Increased visibility and leadership for NRC
• Increased impact on creating wealth for Canada

CISTI's NRC Information Centre products and services 

• technical information
• literature searches
• company and market intelligence
• supplier, distributor, product and other company information
• patent and trademark information
• rapid delivery of full text articles from online sources
• current awareness services
• referrals to experts or organizations