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Research: Connecting you to regional research. David LaCrone Kansas City Public Library September 30, 2006. What is KCResearch?. Online database and website Research material about the KC region Managed by the Kansas City Public Library Grant-funded by Kauffman Foundation.
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Research: Connecting you to regional research David LaCrone Kansas City Public Library September 30, 2006
What is KCResearch? • Online database and website • Research material about the KC region • Managed by the Kansas City Public Library • Grant-funded by Kauffman Foundation
What do we consider “research?” • Reports • Studies • Surveys • Statistics • Articles • Plans • Local history? ---sometimes!
Who provides documents? • Governments • Cities, counties, state, federal • Research institutes • MARC, Institute for Human Devt, etc. • Academic institutions • Independent scholars • Non profit organizations
What are the topics? • Greater KC bi-state region • 18 counties, 200+ towns, 2 states • Wide variety of topics • Economic development • Social issues • Crime • Education • Environment • Health • Urban planning…
How do we locate documents? • Target specific organizations • Mine website for docs • Develop relationships • Outreach in the community • Libraries, research orgs, universities • Local news, blogs, listservs • Web & database searching
Challenges for Collaboration • Very few models • Who owns it? • Sharing the work • We are not selling anything • Sustainability
How does collaboration work? • Incentives for Contributors • Higher visibility for their work • Organization of info • Preservation • Mission to publicize • Free!
Future Directions • More content! • Website redesign & usability testing • More documents for permanent storage • Indexing & abstracting • High profile public launch • More interactivity • Interoperability w/ other institutions
More information… • www.kcresearch.org/about • www.blog.kcresearch.org • davidlacrone@kclibrary.org • 816.701.3693 Kansas City Public Library 14 W. 10th Street KC, MO 64105