Introduction. This paper examines and synthesizes previous research in scientific collaboration, scholarly communication, scientific collaboratories, scientific disciplines, invisible colleges and virtual communities to identify factors that may impact the design, adoption and use of a collaboratory within librarianship and information science. Results. A taxonomy of factors that appear to impact the design, adoption and use of a collaboratory emerged from the synthesis. Six types of factors were identified: factors that impact a researcher's career advancements; factors concerning aspects of doing science which affect researchers on a personal level, other than their career; factors focusing on whether the benefits of submitting to and using a collaboratory is worth the cost for the individual; disciplinary and factors focusing on science and disciplines in general, such as the development of new methodology within a discipline; factors that affect the community of researchers; and factors that are the costs of developing and sustaining a collaboratory for a community or discipline. Conclusions. The taxonomy provides a concise overview of explanatory factors concerning the adoption and use of collaboratories. The taxonomy provides a theoretical framework to guide future research which explores the adoption and use of a collaboratory in disciplines not yet studied, e.g., library and information science.

New video technologies are emerging to facilitate collaboration in emergency healthcare. One such technology is 3D telepresence technology for medical consultation (3DMC) that may provide richer visual information to support collaboration between medical professionals to, ideally, enhance patient care in real time. Today only an early prototype of 3DMC exists. To better understand 3DMC's potential for adoption and use in emergency healthcare before large amounts of development resources are invested we conducted a visioning study. That is, we shared our vision of 3DMC with emergency room physicians, nurses, administrators, and information technology (IT) professionals working at large and small medical centers, and asked them to share their perspectives regarding 3DMC's potential benefits and disadvantages in emergency healthcare and its compatibility and/or lack thereof with their and their organization's current ways of working. We found that social and technical challenges can be identified regarding new innovations even before working prototypes are available. The compatibility of 3DMC with current ways of working was conceptualized by participants in terms of processes, relationships, and resources. Both common and unique perceptions regarding 3DMC emerged, illustrating the need for 3DMC, and other collaboration technologies, to support interwoven situational awareness across different technological frames.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present current and ongoing research investigating new ways of working across geographic distances and time within library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach – A total of four studies were conducted focusing on: the design of a virtual research environment (VRE) to facilitate the sharing of data collection instruments among students, researchers and professionals; new ways professionals and researchers can collaborate; collaborative decision making in the context of purchasing a library management system; and collaboration among LIS professionals. Findings – Early results show that VREs within LIS can build on previous VRE research which focused on other domains. However, there are several unique characteristics of LIS that place requirements on VREs and which are not yet implemented within VREs and that offer unique opportunities for VREs to enhance LIS research, education and practice. Originality/value – This paper reports on ongoing research and preliminary findings of unique studies investigating how VREs could enhance LIS research and professional practice, and how LIS research and practice can inspire the next generation of VREs.

We are investigating the potential of 3D telepresence, or televideo, technology to support collaboration among geographically separated medical personnel in trauma emergency care situations. 3D telepresence technology has the potential to provide richer visual information than current 2D videoconferencing techniques. This may be of benefit in diagnosing and treating patients in emergency situations where specialized medical expertise is not locally available. The 3D telepresence technology does not yet exist, and there is a need to understand its potential before resources are spent on its development and deployment. This poses a complex challenge. How can we evaluate the potential impact of a technology within complex, dynamic work contexts when the technology does not yet exist? To address this challenge, we conducted an experiment with a posttest, between-subjects design that takes the medical situation and context into account. In the experiment, we simulated an emergency medical situation involving practicing paramedics and physicians, collaborating remotely via two conditions: with today's 2D videoconferencing and a 3D telepresence proxy. In this article, we examine information sharing between the attending paramedic and collaborating physician. Postquestionnaire data illustrate that the information provided by the physician was perceived to be more useful by the paramedic in the 3D proxy condition than in the 2D condition; however, data pertaining to the quality of interaction and trust between the collaborating physician and paramedic show mixed results. Postinterview data help explain these results.

We conducted an experiment with a posttest, between-subjects design to evaluate the potential of emerging 3D telepresence technology to support collaboration in emergency health care. 3D telepresence technology has the potential to provide richer visual information than do current 2D video conferencing techniques. This may be of benefit in diagnosing and treating patients in emergency situations where specialized medical expertise is not locally available. The experimental design and results concerning information behavior are presented in the article “Exploring the Potential of Video Technologies for Collaboration in Emergency Medical Care: Part I. Information Sharing” (Sonnenwald et al., this issue). In this article, we explore paramedics' task performance during the experiment as they diagnosed and treated a trauma victim while working alone or in collaboration with a physician via 2D videoconferencing or via a 3D proxy. Analysis of paramedics' task performance shows that paramedics working with a physician via a 3D proxy performed the fewest harmful interventions and showed the least variation in task performance time. Paramedics in the 3D proxy condition also reported the highest levels of self-efficacy. Interview data confirm these statistical results. Overall, the results indicate that 3D telepresence technology has the potential to improve paramedics' performance of complex medical tasks and improve emergency trauma health care if designed and implemented appropriately.

We present preliminary findings from a case study of a social science collaborative project involving professionals, faculty members and graduate students. Employing actornetwork theory to inform the use of interviews and text analysis, we studied the interplay between socio-technical aspects of work organization and the activities of the actors. Although the study is at an initial stage, we report three main findings: the low level of institutional support was compensated by high autonomy of action and expertise of project members; an artifact had consequences for collocated and remote collaboration; the lack of institutional intellectual property ownership provided flexibility. We conclude that the case shows how e-research and virtual research environments can benefit graduate students, professionals and non-elite researchers, who may have fewer opportunities to travel and engage in research work together.