The role of personal digital library in supporting research collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate postgraduate students' research behavior and requirements to come up with essential components to support research collaboration in a personal digital library (PDL). Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted using a questionnaire survey method along with a few follow up interviews. A structured questionnaire was circulated among postgraduate students of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) of the University of Malaya (UM). A total of 100 participants answered the questionnaire, and 15 students participated in the follow up interview. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Findings – This research presents the benefit of collaboration in research. In addition, by reviewing collaborative support tools, it was inferred that the ability to share data and resources is the most important step in developing tools to support collaboration. Moreover, the important role of a virtual research environment (VRE) and social network to support research collaboration was examined. Furthermore, a closed-ended questionnaire survey together with a follow up open-ended survey was deployed among postgraduate students of CSIT of UM, to elicit students' collaboration requirements in research. Originality/value – Few attempts have been made to study about collaboration services within PDL systems and their impact on students' research. This paper proposes a prototype model of a PDL and highlights the importance of sharing e-resources as the prominent research collaboration activity among postgraduate students.