Efforts to formalise international collaboration in scholarly information infrastructure

Abstract

This article describes recent attempts to formalise relationships between the university sector in Australia, and equivalent bodies in the UK and the USA, in the development of information infrastructure through the creation of international liaison positions. The article provides a historical overview for collaborative activity of this kind, and gives an organisational perspective on the current developments. It describes the process by which potential issues for international collaboration were selected, discusses the opportunities for collaboration in each - library purchasing consortia, subject-based information gateways, mirroring of databases, authentication systems, and the scholarly communications crisis - and reports on progress with those issues. The strengths and weaknesses of this formal, nation-to-nation approach are also discussed.