Melbourne Students & Learning - Research Publications

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    Information Futures Commission: final report of the Steering Committee, July 2008
    O'BRIEN, LINDA ; BRODSKY, MARK ; Ruwoldt, Margaret L. ; Newton, Sally ; GILBERT, LYNDA (The University of Melbourne, 2008)
    The Information Futures Commission was formed to explore how the scholarly information landscape is changing, understand what those changes mean for scholarly communication practices and make recommendations about how the University of Melbourne might respond. This report describes the Commission's extensive consultation process. We begin by briefly describing the environment in which we operate. We follow with a summary of what we have learned from our community and from assessments of the world in which we operate and our place within that world. We provide an analysis of the key points of agreement and, more importantly, the strategic questions and difficult choices that emerged from the consultation process. These are the matters where trade-offs must be made, where challenging decisions must be taken. We conclude with a set of principles derived from our understanding of the environment in which we operate. These principles have been applied in the development of the proposed strategy, providing the foundation for the choices we are about to make.
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    Scholarly information in a digital age: choices for the University of Melbourne
    O'BRIEN, LINDA ; BRODSKY, MARK ; RUWOLDT, MARGARET ; Newton, Sally ( 2008-02)
    Melbourne University’s future is defined through the metaphor of the triple helix: a public-spirited institution defined by tightly-bound strands of research, internationally recognised teaching and continuous knowledge transfer, each reinforcing the other. Binding these strands is the process of scholarly communication: the creation, evaluation, synthesis and dissemination of knowledge through scholarly information and technologies. How should we develop our scholarly information and technologies, services and infrastructure to achieve our research, learning, teaching and knowledge transfer aspirations over the next decade? This consultation paper aims to stimulate a vigorous conversation among members of the University community and with relevant external stakeholders. In the paper, we consider how changes in society and technology, changes in scholarly practice, and the public mission of universities influence the place and use of scholarly information. We outline the history and current state of scholarly information at the University of Melbourne, and examines how other institutions compare and the changes they are undertaking. Finally, we examine the University's aspirations and the questions they raise for the future of our scholarly information, infrastructures and spaces.
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    Sustainable paths for data-intensive research communities at the University of Melbourne: a report for the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories
    SHADBOLT, ANNA ; VAN DER KNIJFF, DIRK ; YOUNG, EVE ; WINTON, LYLE ( 2006-08)
    In 2006 the University of Melbourne participated in an eResearch auditing project with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The focus of this project was to look at the data management needs of a selection of data intensive research communities at the university. A multidisciplinary team within Information Services documented researcher community activity around research data management, storage and sustainability. Eleven research communities from diverse disciplines were selected including: Applied Economics; Astrophysics; Computer Science and Software Engineering; Education; Ethnography; Experimental Particle Physics; Humanities informatics; Hydrology and Environmental Engineering; Linguistics; Medical informatics; Neuroscience, and the Performing Arts. Project findings provided information about general sustainability issues of data management policies and practices at the university. Recommendations around ICT infrastructure and support needs of eResearchers were proposed for consideration by management.
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    Transparency and credibility: presenting corporate publications online
    RUWOLDT, MARGARET ( 2004-07)
    Corporate publications are an important marketing tool for a university, particularly in a national environment of increasing competition for non-government funding sources. Corporate publications such as strategic plans and annual reports can demonstrate an organisation's stability, prospects for growth and overall quality. Nevertheless, a comparative study in June 2004 found that most Australian universities do a poor job of presenting their strategic plans, annual reports and other corporate publications online. The study comprised a literature review followed by visits to 40 Australian university web sites.
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    Navigation and content on university home pages
    RUWOLDT, MARGARET ; Spencer, Claire (Ausweb 2005, 2004-10)
    The home page is the most visible online representation of a university's style, activities and reputation. We studied the home pages of 68 universities in Australia, Canada, the United States of America, south-east Asia and Europe, looking for emerging industry standards and opportunities for improving our home page's quality and usability.