Understanding user behaviour and its metrics

We are pleased to bring together such a great group of people to speak about various aspects of user behaviour and trends, an important topic for us all. We are sometimes guilty of assuming we know what users want. Those assumptions have been challenged in recent years by sophisticated evidence-based studies, the impact of which has been further heightened by digital systems that are responding to the new and changing needs of researchers operating on the front lines of science. To start the programme, two such scientists will provide accounts of how they respond to the information challenges they face in their respective fields. During the day we will learn about the background motivations for, and situations in which, researchers increasingly operate. The challenge is to interpret what this means in terms of our own organisations. This is a timely issue for the British Library as it revisits its science, technology and medical strategy to meet its own changing needs as well as the needs of new generations of researchers. This will require adaptations to our information and knowledge services and policies, something I suspect applies to all ICSTI members here engaged in service provision. A relevant example of this is the British Library’s recent launch of the UK PubMed Central, a US–UK collaboration with the support of research funding agencies and driven by the Wellcome Trust. We are pleased that representatives of those organisations are here today. Participants from 12 countries are among us, making this a truly international gathering. I am delighted to welcome you all here today.