Questionnaire
Introduction
The National technical Library in Prague (NTK), an institution receiving contributions from the State Budget, directly managed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic in accordance with its statutes has been resolving the problem of creating the National Repository of Grey Literature (see the definition of grey literature). At present this project is supported by the Ministry of Culture within a research project, identification code DC08P02OUK007, “Digital Library for Grey Literature – a functional model and pilot implementation“.
When processing the project proposal, it was necessary to acquire information and data needed for the implementation of the project. The creators of this information can be producers of grey literature in the Czech Republic from the field of research and development, including universities, state administration and company sphere. To acquire the information, a questionnaire survey was selected, in order to ascertain the current state of processing and storage of documents of grey literature as well as legislative (normative) framework to secure the production of grey literature. The questionnaire survey focused only on producers of grey literature from research institutes of the Academy of Sciences and state universities. The results of the questionnaire survey will be used to specify the needs of the producers of grey literature and users of grey literature documents in the project “Digital Libraries for Grey Literature – National Repository of Grey Literature“ (hereinafter NRGL).
Form
For the purpose of this questionnaire a non-specified group of grey literature documents was limited to documents created as a result of the documentation of research, as a prerequisite to graduate from a particular study programme of a given degree or as a component part of the publishing process. The on-line questionnaire was to be filled in on the web page http://nusl.techlib.cz/archiv. By the end of 2007 the first stage of questioning was finished and after its evaluation in March 2008 other respondents that did not participate in the first stage were addressed. The respondents were contacted only by e-mail. In the first stage vice-chancellors for science and research of universities and directors of research institutes of the Academy of the Czech Republic were addressed. In the second stage directors and heads of libraries of individual institutions were addressed. The questionnaire itself was conducted in the system Easyresearch.biz. Web documentation was processed on the web page http://nusl.techlib.cz/archiv so that it had provided complex information about the questionnaire before the responders filled it in. On 15 May 2008 the questionnaire survey was finished and the above-mentioned web page will be further used to promote the results of the questionnaire survey as well as continuously inform about the progress of the NRGL project. The content and range of the questionnaire items were tested in cooperation with our partners at the universities and in research institutes in order to maximise the information usefulness for the ordering party and to minimise the ambiguity and unnecessary questions for the respondents. Identification data (names, addresses, names of persons and contacts) were and will be solely targeted between the National Technical Library and the respondents. Results of the Questionnaire Survey
Conclusion
The main objective of the questionnaire, to find out the demand for the system monitoring grey literature and following services, was fulfilled. Another objective of the questionnaire, to find out contacts to persons responsible in the respective institutions who have the given area in their agenda, was fulfilled only partially because only sixty-two percent (62%) out of the addressed institutions completed the questionnaire. Within the survey there were answered some basic questions dealing with production of grey literature in the addressed institutions, modes of its registration, collection and making it accessible. Some institutions (27%) have a regulation that defines access to the results of their research activities. Further the questionnaire should have ascertained the modes of financing of the research and development, which have grey literature as their final product. The questionnaire results show that they use mainly finances from the state budget. The questionnaire results show that the institutions that have participated in the survey are almost ready to cooperate with the NTK in respect to providing the records on documents of grey literature, or directly their full texts. The Cooperative System of Grey Literature run by the National Technical Library and the SIGLE database were used by seventeen (17) out of the addressed institutions in the past. We can assume that they could become users of the NRGL. A potential number of the NRGL users cannot be estimated accurately, but we can expect that it will have an important number of users from the university and academic sphere. The thematic focus of the grey literature will cover all twenty-four (24) subject categories of the Conspectus Project of the National Library. Thirty-seven (37) institutions out of forty-eight (48) addressed assume that it would be convenient for their users to have a possibility to search information from the field of grey literature in one place. Thirty-nine (39) institutions out of the total of 48 (forty-eight) addressed are willing to cooperate, but it will depend mainly on the licence terms and conditions negotiated. National Technical Library appears to be a suitable entity to collect the documents from the field of the GL, because it meets the technical as well as personnel requirements. Its successful information products (e.g. VPK, Portal STM), are trusted and frequently used by the addressed institutions. Organisations that have communicated their opinion in the affirmative to the NRGL project, will be addressed by the National Technical Library in accordance with the project schedule and it will focus on acquisition of information regarding the difference in licence agreements, technical conditions of information transfer (metadata, format and protocols) and problems of software support of individual institutions. In order to find out the information defined hereinbefore, we will not use the form of a questionnaire survey but interviews and negotiations with individual cooperating institutions. In the future we aim to conduct other surveys in this field in which we will address individual faculties of universities and other institutions from the field of research and development, such as research institutes that are not part of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic and other institutions receiving contributions from the State Budget, structural units of government bodies, local government bodies and the company sphere.
You are invited to add your comments on the results of the questionnaire survey in the discussion.
