Mapping and Showcasing Francophone Research in Information Science

Background

Information science is a constantly evolving field that generates a growing number of scientific publications across universities, laboratories and open archive platforms. In this context, Francophone information and library sciences research institutions are currently organizing themselves into a network of schools and universities.

Against this backdrop, the project aims to create a collaborative platform that will collect, organize, and promote scientific publications in information science from different institutional members of the network (Enssib for France, EBSI at the Université de Montréal and ÉSIS at the University of Ottawa for Canada, ESI for Morocco, EBAD for Senegal and HEG for Switzerland).

Main objectives

1. Centralize publications: Create an online space that dynamically collects articles, theses, reports and preprints on information and library sciences, in partnership with the network’s institutions and their open archives.
2. Facilitate access and discovery: Provide an advanced search engine, thematic filters and visualization tools (mapping of collaborations, research trends, etc.).
3. Promoting Francophone scientific output in this discipline: Make the content searchable and propose an alert system so that these publications can be incorporated in other websites (those of the libraries of the network’s institutions).
4. Promoting research: Recommend ways to view these works (by country, subject, author, etc.)

Target audiences

• Researchers and faculty members in information, documentation and archival sciences, digital humanities, etc.
• Master’s and PhD students.
• Information professionals (librarians, archivists, data managers).
• Institutions (universities, laboratories, research centres).
• General public interested in information and digital technology issues. 

1. Data collection:
   • Identification of methods to automate publication retrieval in various institutional archives (Metadata Format and automated search methods).
2. Processing and enrichment:
   • Metadata standardization (titles, authors, keywords, summaries).
   • Semantic indexing and automated subject classification.
3. Platform development:
   • Responsive and accessible Web interface.
   • Advanced search tools (filters by author, institution, year, and subject).
   • Dashboards for visualizing trends and collaborations.