Projects

Lib4RI is constantly working on improving and extending the library's services for its users. To do so efficiently, a lot of our work is project based. Our project map gives an overview of the planned activities of the next few year while at the same time allowing for a certain flexibility depending on the day-to-day work.

ProjectMap 2024 to 2027

Highlighted projects

  • Research increasingly relies on large amounts of data. To be successful, it needs to be paired with smart and efficient data management. The Data Stewardship Network Proposal of the Lib4RI, Empa, EPFL Library and ETH Library meets this need by:

    1. Facilitating knowledge exchange and best-practice workshops among persons with data-related roles. List of active Data Stewards is to be shared with the ETH Domain ORD programme Measure 3 (dependent on their consent) as complementing activity, to encourage their involvement in the development of course material.
    2. Providing coordinated and pragmatic support for managing research data across the ETH Domain (i.e., developing a simplified data management plan template and interactive guides on archiving data)
    3. Suggesting improvements for data policies in the ETH Domain. This complements Measure 4 of the ETH Domain ORD program.
    4. Making the work and skill sets of Data Stewards and Research Software Engineers visible in the research community by choosing an existing communication platform and promoting its use by active Data Stewards and Research Software Engineers. This complements the service-related information which will be provided by the Central Info Point of Measure 2.
    5. Empowering the 4RI to catch up with ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne in terms of data management support for researchers.

     

  • With this first-of-its-kind interoperability project, Eawag/Lib4RI, WSL and PSI aim to jointly define and implement a basic blueprint for metadata format and exchange to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving interoperability between data catalogues and repositories in the ETH Domain. We aim to define a common understanding and an agreed compliance level with national and international metadata standards relevant to ETH Domain data catalogues and repositories, and subsequently take all required steps to implement and comply with them, in order to improve the visibility of datasets in the ETH domain and beyond. This will include, as major deliverables, improving the link between datasets and scientific publications, and connecting the involved repositories (EnviDat, SciCat, Materials Cloud Archive) with each other and with well-established central search portals (including DORA and the Lib4RI search tool). This project will also uncover hidden challenges and barriers to interoperability, paving the way for other repositories in the ETH domain to join our interoperability efforts.

  • The Lib4RI Open Access fund supports authors at Eawag, Empa, PSI and WSL who wish to publish in fully Open Access (OA) journals and who are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). In the framework of the National OA Fund project, the ETH board financially supports the Open Access fund for the years 2022 to 2024.

  • The institutional repository DORA is based on the open source software framework Islandora. Currently DORA runs on Islandora legacy, but a new version of Islandora – Islandora 2 – is already available with a new architecture, better Drupal integration and more. The goal of this project is to update the software of the repository, including but not only, new functionalities and better performance.

  • Measure 3 of the ETH Domain ORD Programme, aims at improving the availability and quality of training in the area of research data management for open research data. The measure will be implemented in the project “Open e-Learning Modules for ORD and RDM” by a consortium of the six ETH Domain institutions and under the leadership of Lib4RI (Library for the Research Institutes within the ETH Domain: Eawag, Empa, PSI & WSL), the EPFL Library and the ETH Zurich Scientific IT Services. The project started in January 2024.

  • Lib4RI has developed a search tool that brings together results from numerous sources in a clear and easily accessible way. It combines content discovery with publishing services by also providing information on Open Access and OA funding opportunities. This makes the tool the central starting point for information from Lib4RI and helps to further increase the OA share of publications.

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