Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment: Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development

OCLC Research has released Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment: Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development

Here's an excerpt:

Research libraries exist to support scholarly work. In recent years, the literature on scholarly practices and information use has been growing, and research libraries should be prospering from this increased base of knowledge. Unfortunately, the profession has no effective means for systematically monitoring or synthesizing the published results. This review begins to address the problem by reporting on the state of knowledge on scholarly information behavior, focusing on the information activities involved in the research process and how they differ among disciplines. It provides an empirical basis for identifying promising directions and setting priorities for development of digital information services to support and advance scholarship.