Open Notebook Science: Implications for the Future of Libraries

Open Notebook Science involves a variety of internet-based techniques for sharing of scientific information, from the use of wikis for experiments, to the Chemspider database, where chemists share molecules in a fashion that is socially (but not technically) similar to Wikipedia. Aspects of Open Notebook Science that are of relevance to librarians are discussed, such as automating of metadata for describing the steps of experiments, and the importance of using a 3rd-party wiki to record Open Notebook Science, so that contributions can be tracked and time-stamped. Bradley predicts movement towards more machine-to-machine communication, which will considerably speed up the research process.