Fostering Collaboration through Digital Libraries in Latin America

Research institutions in Latin America are geographically dispersed in about 20 countries with diverse levels of (under) development. Though collaborative projects have been undertaken both at national and international levels in diverse knowledge and activity domains, finding partners for joint multi-lateral initiatives is not always straightforward. Funding for joint projects that may be available from international agencies may remain unused sometimes because potential participants are not aware of the partnerships that may be established. In this talk I posit that digital libraries with open access repositories may become means for fostering collaboration within Latin American countries and also between Latin America and other regions of the world. I discuss specific projects aimed at inferring and visualizing implicit collaboration networks that may be the basis for promoting projects with participants from multiple institutions in diverse countries.