5 ways to achieve your goals with Research Libraries

By Trish Hyde, Chief Sales Officer, Morressier

In today’s world, we’re bombarded with more information every day than we could process in a lifetime. And every day, people have to sift through mountains of information to find what’s trusted, reliable, and accurate. There’s a glaring need to build knowledge databases affiliated with trustworthy brands and sources. Research libraries make things easier for learners: everything they need is easy to discover in one place, and they can make connections with the minds responsible for research. Research libraries also make things easier for organizations: they create new opportunities to engage their communities and open new revenue streams for diversification. Research libraries also make things better for authors or researchers: they build professional profiles and gain recognition for their contribution to science.

From my perspective a curated collection of content, or specialized digital library, has the potential to solve so many problems. It takes the valuable discourse that happens at academic conferences and extends it far beyond the three days of an annual meeting. When I think about Research Libraries, I see the perfect combination of trusted content and community. Here are five ideas for the Research Library:

One: Change over time

Science is an iterative process. Each new discovery builds on the body of knowledge that already exists, to support, expand, or refute it. Imagine the impact of a transparent record of early-stage research in your discipline over time. Researchers and other learners could easily explore, watch the evolution of thinking on critical topics, and access a knowledge database of information that will allow them to accelerate their current and future research. 

Two: The power of video

Imagine research libraries that support a variety of media and content formats? Science is best communicated in a variety of formats. Your community can create a repository of videos that capture the discussion and engagement around early-stage research, sparking new ideas and lines of inquiry. The power of collaboration in that discussion can’t be overstated, and having a video record allows your community to learn from questions already asked.

Three: Come together

My vision for research libraries is a vast, interconnected web of research that can be focused on solving large-scale societal problems through interdisciplinary collaboration. That means seeing current and emerging research in multiple fields on topics like climate change or clinical practice. Morressier can connect those dots and build bridges between multiple societies and publishers to create research repositories focused on those interdisciplinary exchanges as early in the lifecycle as possible.

Four: Change faster

Research Libraries need to be flexible: they serve multiple formats and can be used to gather early-stage research during and after conferences. Now, let’s imagine these libraries with the purpose of putting research findings into action. Imagine libraries that are still quality-controlled with peer review or integrity checks. Nevertheless, they could be used to capture all of the best practice guidelines in a discipline, or all the latest methods, or clinical guides. A library built on a trusted brand, designed to make change easier.

Five: Community builders

The thing that excites me the most about the potential of the research library is that it's a community. Each document is connected to its authors, and chat features let learners ask questions or connect with other researchers. The opportunity to build relationships between researchers, and also between researchers and learners in the lay community or even the media, could lead to a better understanding of research overall and improved science communication. 

Science is so important, and it needs to be easy to find, easy to share, and easy to use. Research repositories, knowledge databases, and digital libraries are the solution. We have built one of our own, and our vision is to keep Research Libraries flexible enough to support multiple formats. We also aim to make it easy to brand and affiliate with the societies and associations that the world trusts, signaling to everyone that this research is trusted and accurate.

Check out our Research Libraries page to learn more and schedule a demo.