Our colleagues at the Research Information Network in the UK have produced yet another timely and valuable report, titled "Discovering Physical Objects: Meeting Researchers' Needs". This report includes several disciplinary case studies (spanning humanities, sciences, and social sciences) of how researchers find physical objects to support their scholarship, and among other issues considers the historical barriers between researchers and museums. It also offers a very valuable backdrop and baseline for understanding changing information discovery and use patterns as more and more physical objects now also have digital representations. Pointers to the report and to an executive summary as well as additional background can be found at:

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI