The HKU Scholars Hub; New funding for a new kind of beast

Abstract

In 2009, The HKU Scholars Hub, the IR of the University of Hong Kong, found new purpose and funding from the University's newly established Office of Knowledge Exchange (KE). KE seeks to share the research and expertise of HKU with its community for mutual benefit. With this funding, the HKU Libraries began a program of Gold OA, bibliometric rectification in the major citation databases, and an enlargement of The Hub to be the chief vehicle for KE at HKU. The Hub now shows new individual web pages for researchers, and for grants, interlinking each of them with publication item records, and outside citation databases. The Hub is now the locus for HKU to do, show and measure KE. Because key indicators maintained and updated by The Hub are tied to recurrent KE funding for faculties and departments, and soon even for individual staff appraisal, The Hub also expects to receive recurrent KE funding. With these many changes, The Hub has become an expert finder for media comment, collaborative and contract research, and many other purposes. It has become a Current Research Information System, providing support for decision-making and fund allocation concerning the research process. The Libraries many efforts in creating this new platform of visible research have aligned it with the Universities mission and vision, and made the Libraries as well highly visible amongst HKU administrators and faculty.