Assessment of health sciences and science and technology librarian e-science educational needs to develop an e-science web portal for librarians.

Dear Colleagues: The Lamar Soutter Library at the UMass Medical School has been funded to develop an escience web portal. This web portal will integrate e-science resources, instructional tools, and collaborative networking tools for librarians. As part of our development of this portal, we need your input and cooperation in filling out an online assessment tool that will help us align the portal with your needs as librarians. The Association of Research Libraries e-science task force report stated that e-science requires new librarian strategies for research support and significant development of library infrastructure [1]. E-science can be defined in many ways, but as Tony and Jessie Hey pointed out, “e-Science is not a new scientific discipline in its own right: e-Science is shorthand for the set of tools and technologies required to support collaborative, networked science” [2]. In Neil Rambo’s recent editorial, “E-science and the Biomedical Library,” he describes e-science as “a new research methodology, fueled by networked capabilities and the practical possibility of gathering and storing vast amounts of data” [3]. Thus, the e-science role for librarians is characterized by its promise of interdisciplinary research collaboration and the collection, organization, and management of data. The benefits of this portal for librarians include, but are not limited to, a centralized location for content education, e-science related tools, and the exchange of information and ideas. We encourage your participation in this assessment as your feedback is vital to the selection of comprehensive resources for the portal.