4. The Digital Information Flow Model

Under the traditional model for information creation, dissemination, and use, the information flow, organized around print publishing mechanisms, was fairly well understood and straightforward. In the digital information environment, the flow of information is faster and more complex, and more opportunities exist for interactions among creators and users to create new knowledge. Based on the OCLC⁷ model, NRC-CISTI's version of the Digital Information Flow Model presented here provides a graphic interpretation of the highly complex, fully interactive nature of information flow in today's STM information environment.

This Digital Information Flow Model represents significant opportunities for NRC-CISTI to assume a greater role in harnessing information and turning it into actionable information that creates value for Canadians.

4.1 User information needs and expectations

The Information Flow Model represents the arena within which NRC-CISTI operates and creates value. To stay relevant, NRC-CISTI remains aware of and connected to the information needs and expectations of its clients. As an extension of its ongoing client feedback process, NRC-CISTI conducted a series of consultations with stakeholders representing all areas of the STM information environment. Their views on the future for STM information were collected and integrated. The five sessions produced remarkably similar results that related to access and content, search and analysis tools and services, and scholarly publishing.

4.1.1 Access and content

Today's users of STM information are web savvy and have high expectations of easy, barrier-free, seamless access to a wide variety of content, delivered directly to their desktop. They want continuing point-of-need access to validated, relevant information today and in the future: what they need — when, where, and in the format they want.

Users expect access to a wide variety of integrated content to support their research, innovation, and commercialization efforts — content that goes beyond the traditional sources, such as research journals, and includes:

• "Gray literature", such as conference proceedings, technical reports
• Commercialization-relevant information, including market studies and patents
• Community-based and evidence-based medical information
• Consumer health information
• Business and social science content
• Alternate formats, including print, electronic, video, 3-D, etc.
• Unpublished data that are relevant to published research papers

Issues relating to permanent access and digital preservation in the electronic environment need to be addressed. This includes linking institutional collections, creating national and institutional repositories and digital archives, and retro-digitizing print materials.

4.1.2 Intelligent search and analysis tools and services

In the digital information environment, new opportunities are available to aggregate and distill information. Users are looking for desktop tools that will allow them to exploit the new capabilities for searching, organizing, analyzing, and integrating scientific information to discover new knowledge. They want the process to be interactive, intuitive, seamless, and reliable. They envision multiple entry points and linkages to all sources, allowing customized, multi- and trans-disciplinary searches. The development of digital repositories facilitates this direction.

They are also looking for technology that is user-friendly and that allows secure, reliable, single-point access, with features such as voice recognition. They also dream of conversion and translation capabilities and a universally accepted medium.

Users don't expect to do it all themselves; they are also looking for affordable access to expert advice and services. They look to experts to analyze and synthesize relevant information and provide them with guidance and advice. In particular, they wish to rely on NRC-CISTI to provide them with competitive technical intelligence and patent information services based on both published and unpublished sources of information with analysis as the added value. The resulting business-sensitive information on external scientific or technological threats, opportunities, or developments has the potential to increase the competitive situation of a company or a research laboratory.

4.1.3 Scholarly publication

Efficient, timely publication of their findings is important to researchers. They want a sustainable, independent publishing system, based on a workable business model. They are concerned about speed to publication and a peer review/validation system that establishes and maintains standards to ensure the quality of the information published.

Supporting and promoting the peer review system to ensure the validity and quality of research results for publication is a challenge faced by scientific publishers, particularly not-for-profit scientific society publishers.

Researchers see a future where journals will contain diverse content, including manipulable data sets, 3-D modeling, and other interactive applications. They would like to have publishing tools that allow them to engage in informal communication and information sharing (communities of practice) in real time with their colleagues around the world.

Scientific publishers need to offer innovative publishing systems and communication tools that respond to the expectations and needs for research communication of the scientific community.

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⁷OCLC, 2003 Environment Scan: Pattern Recognition, USA, 2003. OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. http://www.oclc.org