Drs Charles Pallandt Director Africa & Middle East Iran, 12 th of June 2006

1. Information literacy… Is there a gap between where Iran is and where it could be…?the importance of electronic scholarly information in the research process Drs Charles Pallandt Director Africa & Middle East Iran, 12th of June 2006

2. Let’s look at the Middle East and the Gulf and compare but also globally.

3. The Middle East… a gap to history … before the pre-Renaissance period, during a 700 hundred year period, Arabic Science was at the forefront of scientific development… Whereas nowadays: … 20% of the world population consists of Muslims, they only possess 1% of the scientist… … the brain drain in the Arab region is among the world’s worst with roughly 25 percent of graduates in science, medicine and engineering emigrating each year… (United Nations Development Program report of 2003) … a Institute of Science receives 17 percent of its annual $180 million budget from donations. Can wealthy Arabs rival their counterparts in their support of research?... (by Dr Faisal Sanai, Armed Forces Hospital in Riyad) Do Iranian universities profit from private funding or foundations? Yes, there is a gap… and if this leads to less access to e-resources and a slower advancement of science, Iran should try to close it.

4. The macro economicsCorrelation between; output and journal spend/R&D spend per researcher • CIA website: the world fact book: www.odci.gov/cia/ • UNESCO: http:www.uis.unesco.org/profiles/EN/GEN/countryProfile_en.aspx?code=3560 • www.irandoc.ac.ir

5. The macroeconomics • relatively low number researchers per Mio population: 698 compared to UK and Sweden very low • R&D as % of GDP also relatively low: 0.3% (globally 1.3%) • Journal / content spend per researcher low (based on Elsevier spend) • Article output only 6.5 article per researcher. Let’s escalate this situation with appealing evidence to the government, deans or rectors of universities to close the gap. We also know that globally (Iran no solid information): • University budgets increase by 7-8%... • But the library budget increases at (much) lower pace (2-3%)… Equally important to promote / market the library within the university !!!

6. Iran Next to macro economic factors (R&D spend); what are other factors to look at… or the arguments to use? 1. Listings of top research institutes 2. Quality of your research output 3. Comparison of usage of electronic resources 4. Are further efficiency gains possible? (case studies/research data) 5. Status of current Iranian Digital Library and where could you be?

7. # of universities in the Times top 200 2005 Time’s list

8. 70 62 60 50 40 30 30 20 9 10 6 1 0 India Japan China UK US # of universities in the Times top 200 No university from Iran in top 200 yet…

9. Top institutes per country by article output ’04 In the region may be on par or ahead but internationally a gap to bridge.

10. Scientific output (country level) Source: Thomson Scientific

11. Scientific output (country level) Source: Thomson Scientific

12. Scientific output (country level) • Turkey and Iran: faster growth than global average (2-3%) • Turkey and Iran; longest on Science Direct (and other • e-resources) • However, Iran; approximately 4 times lower output compared to • Turkey! • Oxford or Cambridge University alone have a higher output than • Iran as a country • Good cases for budget holders or decision makers in Iran Source: Thomson Scientific

13. It’s not (only) about quantity; The H-index To compare the quality of your authors amongst each others, within your institute or with any other author in the world.

14. Hirsch-index • Published by Jorge E. Hirsch in August 2005 • Consequently, subject to discussion amongst scholars • Generally well-received (Ball, 2005; Van Raan, 2005; Moed, 2005; Popov, 2005) • Now gaining a lot of momentum. Nature (2005): ‘The h-index is the highest number of papers a scientist has published, at least having that number of citations.’

15. H-index 2 mouse clicks away in for instance Scopus… Author A Author B

16. Scientific output / impact on a country level Source: ISI

17. Scientific output / impact on a country level • Iran and Lebanon; highest impact and Iran most • output; there seems to be a correlation between access • to e-resources and good usage… • However, still not even having half the impact of • countries such as UK or France (1.3) • Again good cases for decision makers for investment • proposals.

18. Usage Iran is good; however, room for improvement… • Iran and Turkey (excl. Gov research): accelerated growth • In countries such as France usage is four times higher than in Iran.

19. Let’s have look at potential usage per researcher.

20. http://web.utk.edu/~tenopir

21. Ave. Readings per Univ. Scientist www.dlib.org/dlib/october03/king/10king.html Average number of articles read per scientist Year of Studies

22. UKB research (374 respondents/ Oct 2004)Dutch Consoria (‘mature’) Prof. Hans Roosendaal

23. Percentage of researchers reading a certain amount of articles UKB Research Oct. 2004

24. Usage (SDOL) per researcher (2003)

25. Benefits of Digital Library (atos/kpmg) Effects on library and faculty processes/costs: the library’s perspective Case of Utrecht University with wide variety of content sources, back files, integration tools etc.

26. Personnel Housing Out of pocket IT Hardware IT Support Data carriers costs expenses costs Select Catalogue Assist customer Store Manage lib. system Etc. 17 in total Acquisition Info. access Supply Info. mgmt. Infrastructure mgmt. Full text access Borrow books Work space Search assistance Etc. 10 in total View periodicals Future situation = bottom-up approach Print To Electronic - Activity Based Costing (ABC) Main budget 2001 Step 1:Define cost types Step 4:Allocate costs to activities Step 2:Define activities & processes Step 5:Assign activities to services Step 3:Define services

27. Print To Electronic – Example Utrecht (atos/kmpg) Total costs per service +33% -0% +13% +39% -8% -39% +66% -57% -26% -30% Efficiency gains: yes! Imagine if in Iran the whole library is digital… including archives! € 15,1 Mil. € 14,3 Mil. -5% +40%

28. The researcher’s perspectiveHow do researchers spend their time? Participants estimated their time spent per activity per phase for one research project Time spending per activity per phase for one project (overall estimation) Time spending per activity for one project(overall estimation) Explanation: all roles together spend 1,620 hours per annum on the experiments phase Source: UMCU / Elsevier Source: UMCU / Elsevier • The bulk of the work is concentrated in the experiments and development phases • Project definition, manuscripts and thesis also require considerable effort • Benchwork is by far the most time consuming activity • Content-related activities (browse/scan, search and read) account for 25% of all time spent on a research project. If we take write into account this percentage increases to 31%

29. Participants estimated how time spent per activity for one research project in an ideal complex of projects changed over the course of five years Time spending on content-related activities for one project (overall estimation) Key trends • Evolution of enabling technologies • Increase in the number of available titles • Search time being reduced • More need to read Explanation: increasing volumes at constant time spending per search and book or journal read Source: UMCU / Elsevier • Volumes of content increased by 100% • Time spending on content-related activities decreased by 25%

30. Conclusions from a pilot academic research study Conclusions • In the As Is situation UMCU appears to be a digital faculty already: • content-related activities (browse/scan, search and read) account for 25% of all time spent on a research project (or 31% if writing is taken into account) • time spending on content by participants is almost fully electronic • Compared to the As Was situation, in the As Is situation: • slightly less time is spent on content-related activities: researchers now spend less time on browse/scan (-30%) and search (-10%) and read slightly more (+5%) • however, searches in abstracting & indexing databases and internet search engines increased by an estimated 200% and the volume of books and P&E journals read increased by an estimated 25% Efficiency gains: more information consumption in less time.

31. Simplified picture of the Ideal Digital Library • Content • Wide variety of full text content sources • Starting at first publication date (back files / old issues also digital) • Specialised dbases • Own publications / research data B. Tools to disclose / search the content available easily • Integrated search functionality • Integrated with relevant search on web sources • Easy navigation; from search to full text in easiest way

32. Current status of ‘the’ Digital Library in Iran • move to e-only was an important step forward • good variety of current full text content available but still important • titles are missing (based on Elsevier titles) • depth is missing (back files) • true navigational tools, a large dbase, which may be used as first • point of entry or ‘portal’ is lacking • true tools to navigate optimally are not implemented yet: • e.g.; direct links from a search hit list to the full text paper is not • in place • specialised dbases in engineering, life sciences etc. could be added

33. Gains by moving to the ‘ideal’ Digital Library in Iran • depth is missing (back files): UP TO 30% OF INCREASED USAGE • IS EXPECTED BY INVESTMENTS IN BACK FILES • true navigational tools, a large bibliographic dbase, which may be used as first • point of entry or ‘portal’ is lacking: RESEARCH SHOWS THAT UP TO 40% • OF THE MATERIALS ACTUALLY CANNOT BE FOUND, DUE TO THE • LACK OF INTEGRATION… whereas they are available (in the library)! • true tools to navigate optimally are not implemented yet: such as; direct links • from a search hit list or navigational tool to the full text paper is not in place: • RESEARCH SHOWS THAT 40% OF THE USERS QUIT AT EVERY CLICK! • specialised dbases in engineering, life sciences etc. can be acquired: • INDEXED AND STRUCTURED DBASES INCREASE RESEARCH • EFFICIENCY BY STRONGLY REDUCING TIME SPEND ON SEARCHING • AND BROWSING

34. Conclusions / suggestions: You did qualify … (e-only, usage is good…)

35. …but it could be substantially better… And close the gap to bridge to best in class…

36. Conclusions / suggestions • Create awareness to invest more in access to e-information to improve efficiency • of research and increase output and quality. • To market and promote the library; use indicators such as: • GDP spend per capita on research • scientific output and impact to build the case • use the H-index to map and compare scientific institutes / authors / research groups • - potential usage / full text down loads per researcher (Prof Tenopir / Dutch Cosortia) • use rankings such as the Time’s List or the Shanghai Ranking • use the efficiency improvement shown by the case studies • …Turkey, Tunisia and other countries in the Middle East are making substantial • investments in archives/back files and large (bibliographic) dbases… let’s not get • behind…

37. What can Elsevier / suppliers do to close the gap? • I Business models / pricing models… think ‘international… act • local’… suppliers should help. • II Help you collecting the evidence build the case together. We • don’t want you to not close the gap.

38. New Sales Manager Iran and IIN, Integrated Information Network, our agent, play an important role

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40. Thank very much you for your attention!