On the 4th of June the Research Notebook Community held our first drop-in session for the wider community, where people could grab a coffee and come and chat about all things reseach notebooks for an hour. We want these sessions to be an informal meeting where those in the research notebooks community could drop in for as long or as little as they wanted to have a chat about the good, the bad and the confusing particularly when it comes to using an electronic research notebooks in a research institution.
This time around we had a broad range of people join us, from seasoned hands in the research notebooks community to those who are taking the first steps on their electronic research notebooks journeys. There was no set agenda, with those that came bringing topics to discuss or questions to ask the group.
Although the session was an informal drop in, we still want to provide an overview of the conversations, both to provide a record and give those that couldn’t make it (or who are working out if they want to come to the next one) a flavour of what was discussed. So, in no particular order:
- There is a wide variety of electronic research notebook solutions that are being used across institutions, both in terms of the platforms being used, and in their implementation. Even those using the same platforms utilise them in different ways depending on their needs.
- People need low-cost solutions due to institution restraints, yet low-cost options (such as OneNote, a popular low-cost option) have drawbacks, such as lacking specialist functionality, the ability to provide true provenance tracking, or any long-term robustness.
- How the most successful implementations have come from institutions where they have overcome cultural and behavioural barriers, such as:
o Lack of staff time to set up or support an electronic research notebook installation
o Resistance from new users that didn’t want to change current practices
o Lack of understanding from users to the benefits of electronic research notebooks. - The importance of engaging with leadership teams to gain support and backing
- Understanding who your user base is, and providing a tailored electronic research notebook experience for them
If that all sounds interesting or you’re sitting there thinking “well I can add to those conversations” we will be having our second session on the 20th of August at 10:00 BST, so get ready to grab a coffee and a thought you want to discuss or chat about and come along and join us for an hour (or however long you can) to have a chat about electronic research notebooks. You can find joining details for this meeting here: https://researchnotebooks.org/event/electronic-research-notebook-drop-in-session-2/
