By far the majority of IAL's work is research-based. The following indicative list of work will give some idea of the areas in which we are willing to work, and of our experience of the various kinds of projects. As a research organisation working largely in the academic discipline, much of our work has been undertaken jointly with members of staff of the Department of Information Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Chris Armstrong worked in the Department as a Research Officer for ten years and the cooperative ventures work to mutual advantage. IAL has brought several major projects to the Department. Greater details for some of these project can be found from the menu (left).

1997 - JISC/eLib MODELS Survey of the Content and Characteristics of Electronic Abstracts
Project undertaken jointly by the Department and the Centre for Information Quality Management.

1997 - 1998 - JISC/eLib MODELS Publishing of Electronic Scholarly Monographs
Project undertaken jointly by the Department and the Centre for Information Quality Management.

1997 - 1998 Place for Children Project
Information Automation Limited worked on the surveys associated with this project sponsored by BLRIC and managed jointly by the Department, and Birmingham and Loughborough Universities.

1998 - Collection Management in the United Kingdom: a Study of Current Trends in Education, Training and Research
IAL worked with R E Lonsdale on this research project funded by the UWA Research Fund and supplemented by equal Department funds.

1998 - Response to joint JISC/NSF call for proposals
Chris Armstrong attended an initial meeting with JISC in Manchester and worked towards developing a proposal for this call for research. Proposal was subsequently dropped due to the lack of an appropriate US partner.

1999 - Response to JISC call for proposals (1/99) - JUSTEIS
Chris Armstrong initiated and wrote a proposal combining two of the four streams of work for funding over a two-year period: Monitoring and Evaluating User Behaviour in Information Seeking and Use of Information Technology and Information Services in UK HE - work tasks "A": a general survey of end users of all electronic information services and "C": a general survey of electronic information services (EIS) provision.
Granted August 1999, ends March 2001 with an extension grant in 2000. Continued into third cycle (2001-2002) when it was extended into FE with inclusion of action research strand. Fourth cycle ends Summer 2003; Fifth cycle ended September 2004.

2000 - Response to JISC call for proposals (4/99) - HEINUS
The Predictors of Network Usage Study - work strand 2 of the call under JISC Circular 4/99. Granted May 2000; ends October 2,000.
Subsequent proposal requested by JISC expanding original brief from Web use to network use. Proposal prepared and submitted including a completion of the Web version plus the network version. Granted September 2000.

2000 - The role of netLibrary in the publishing of British electronic scholarly monographs.
IAL worked for R E Lonsdale on this research project funded by the UWA Research Fund and supplemented by equal Department funds.

2002 - Subject mapping of e-book requirements
Research project (with R E Lonsdale) undertaken for the JISC/DNER E-book Working Group.

2002 - Transferability of electronic information systems knowledge and use between secondary and further and higher education in the UK: Scoping Study - CrossEd
Research funded by JISC following a discussion document by R E Lonsdale and C J Armstrong dated 26 October 2001.

2002 - A preliminary investigation into the provision of electronic books in public libraries in the UK
Research project (with R E Lonsdale) funded by UWA Research Fund (£6,050).

2002 - Market validation of e-commerce platform
Under the auspices of UKOLUG, Special Interest Group of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (with Karen Blakeman and Martin White) awarded role in EU TEN-Telecom “e-DIAMOND” project to develop and test an e-commerce platform. The UKOLUG role was in the area of market validation.

2002 – JISC National Serials Survey
Tendered for and won the task of analysing questionnaire data prior to the production of a short report.

2001 - The provision and use of electronic resources within legal education and the legal profession
Proposal submitted to AHRB (with Ray Lonsdale, Allison Coleman (Law) and Lillian Stevenson (Hugh Owen Library)). Not awarded (graded as A-)