Research universities exist in a dynamic space, buffeted by intensifying pressures exerted by globalization and competition as well as increasing demands to demonstrate compliance with external reporting and open access mandates. Advancing technologies, standards, and networked information offer new and improved ways to collect, manage, and openly share research information and outputs, and interoperability is becoming an imperative for libraries as well as other scholarly communications stakeholders.

Library-supported services like institutional repositories (IR), research data management (RDM), and research information management (RIM) are increasingly intersecting, driven by needs for improved workflows for researchers. These systems may also intersect with non-library services such as annual academic review workflows and institutional reporting.

In this regional meeting of OCLC Research Library Partnership, held immediately before the OCLC EMEA Regional Council meeting, OCLC Research program officers will share about recent research into this landscape, including The Realities of Research Data Management, Research Information Management: Defining RIM and the Library’s Role, and Convenience and Compliance: Case Studies on Persistent Identifiers in European Research Information Management.

Using these research reports to frame the conversation, we will spend most of our time engaging in conversation with and between partners, exploring topics such as:

• Do library problems and goals intersect with other institutional problems/goals? Are there other stakeholders to collaborate with?
• What RDM services is your institution providing and planning? And how do these intersect with other services and systems?
• How is the library engaged in research information management at your institution? What RIM uses is your institution applying?
• How are you working to support discoverability and preservation of diverse digital content?
• How are/aren’t RIM and RDM interacting with existing IR infrastructures, workflows, and goals?
• How can OCLC Research investigations help inform these questions?

We held a similar version of this conversation with North American partners in Baltimore, Maryland on November 1, 2017, and we look forward to learning more from our European partners in Edinburgh.