The session on "Research Repository Now: Easing access to research and expertise" during the 4th Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Week paved the way for researchers, librarians, along with the other participants, to discuss how HERDIN (Health Research and Development Information Network) could be of greater benefit to researchers as well as how HERDIN could be adopted by academe and health institutions in the regions.
In line with this discussion, the participants flagged a number of helpful strategies to make HERDIN more useful and user-friendly such as promoting HERDIN as a portal - that is, to encourage network institutions to contribute to the regional and national repositories (databases) of health research. Another suggestion raised is the creation of a Technical Working Group, led by the Department of Science and Technology and the Commission on Higher Education, which will harmonize initiatives and standardize data exchange formats for the research inputs of higher education institutes.
Initiated in 1987, HERDIN hosts electronic collection or database of bibliographic entries of published and unpublished health researches in the Philippines in cooperation with member-institutions. HERDIN is the first online health search service in the country. It is accessible, for free, at http://www.herdin.ph/.
"Research Repository Now: Easing access to research and expertise" is among the five parallel sessions held during the 4th PNHRS Week on 10-11 August 2010, with the theme "Convergence in Divergence: Resource Sharing for More Mileage in Health Research."