Linking a Community of Practice by an Evidence Shelf OPAC: collaboration across UK Government and beyond

This paper provides a case study of the collaboration between the Research Library of the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and a Community of Practice (CoP) aimed at Labour Market policy. The background and context – including the need for specific information grouping for this CoP - and the initial role of the DWP Research Library in adding value to its existing knowledge base, is briefly considered. A more active role for the Research Library in meeting the specific knowledge management requirements of the CoP is then described, enhancing the original aim of supporting evidence based policy making and operational best practice. In particular, the creation of an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) 'piggy backed' on the main DWP OPAC is detailed. The importance of strong collaboration between stakeholders is explained. DWP Research Librarians identified end-user information needs and interpreted the CoP requirements for the OPAC provider. Research Librarians also engaged with the OPAC provider to deliver organisation of knowledge and information retrieval that matches the information seeking behaviour of the CoP. This included customising MARC fields, converting spreadsheet data to MARC format fields for bulk upload and the creation of the new OPAC. The refinement and ongoing development of this OPAC is covered along with other developments in collaboration by the DWP Research Library, including the development of further new bespoke OPACs. Fundamental to the success are collaboration, end-user needs analysis and search capabilities.