>Quoted from:          Mike McCallister
><C876GRG%xxxxxx@UACSC2.ALBANY.EDU>

[...]
>I've yet to meet a reseracher who has used one to find a
>collaborator when they can search through their journals    or through
>the grapevine.
[...]

RMIT produces hardcopy faculty profiles in at least three ways:

+       _Research News_ is distributed internally every two months.  It lists
recent achievements, such as papers published and conferences attended.
The main aim is, I think, to let academics know that research is being
done at RMIT.  It also allows interested parties to find out what other
academics are doing.  And lastly, it gives the people listed a warm glow.

+       _RMIT Research and Publications Report_ is produced annually.  It
lists research achievements for the previous year.  It is produced at
considerable cost and distributed to University and other research
libraries.

+       _Looking for an expert?_ has only been produced once so far.  I think
that the intention is to update it annually.  It is a tiny (pocket sized)
volume which lists academics by name and phone number, according to
research area.  It is distributed to news agencies.

Who uses what?
+       _Research News_ could help people to network within the Uni, but I
have yet to hear of such an occurance.

+       Potential postgrads use the _RMIT Research and Publications Report_
to spot potential supervisors.  This is an example of 'wannabes' outside
the invisible college trying to find a doorway in.

Also, staff within the Uni use it to 'check out' other staff who are
unfamiliar to them.

+       _Looking for an expert?_ has led to media contacts, which is good.  It
is an example of non-specialists trying to scale the ivory tower.

Many academics are not listed in it (more due to apathy than a distrust
of the media, I suspect).  Now that people are starting to see it work,
the submission rate should rise dramatically.

[...]
>  It's an idea that    administrators like
>because they can say "look what we've    done," but after doing several,
>I've never been able to say "look how it works."
[...]

That's funny; that's always been my secret fear about reviewing draft
applications.  :-)

Jonathan O'Donnell
Research Development Unit
RMIT Faculty of Business
Phone +61 3 660 3459
Fax +61_3_660_3789