Innovating and Evolving Roles: Research Support Services in Academic - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Innovating and Evolving Roles: Research Support Services in Academic Libraries. Australia, NZ, Ireland & the UK E Drs Mary Anne Kennan & Waseem Afzal – CSU Prof Sheila Corrall - University of Sheffield & University of Pittsburgh iSchool School of Information Studies

Background • changes in research support services (Drummond & Wartho, 2009; Key Perspectives Ltd 2009; MacColl 2010). • coinciding with technological developments, (e.g. E institutional repositories, rise of eResearch, such as data intensive research, increased technology-enhanced collaboration (Markauskaite et al. 2012) • create opportunities for academic librarians to find new roles within their institutions and the academic community (Corrall 2012; Research Information Network 2010; Swan and Brown 2008). School of Information Studies

Survey to investigate: 1. What research support services are academic libraries offering and planning to offer in the future in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (UK)? E 2. Are library staff constrained in providing specialist research support services, and if so, what are those constraints? 3. Do library staff require additional education, training and support in research support roles? 4. How might Library and Information Science (LIS) schools respond to the evolving role of research support services in academic and research libraries? School of Information Studies

Research design The research has taken a pragmatic approach, employing an online questionnaire survey analyzed with descriptive statistics. The instrument contained 35 questions in four E main sections: 1. About you and your organization 2. Research support services – Bibliometrics 3. Research support services – Research data management 4. Research support services – Future plans. School of Information Studies

Sample & Response rates Australia ¡ NZ ¡ UK ¡ Ireland ¡ No ¡of ¡ E ins4tu4ons ¡ 39 ¡ 8 ¡ 163 ¡ 9 ¡ No ¡of ¡ responses ¡ 36 ¡ 8 ¡ 88 ¡ 9 ¡ Response ¡ rate ¡% ¡ 92.3 ¡ 100.0 ¡ 54.0 ¡ 100.0 ¡ School of Information Studies

Bibliometrics services % Current 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% E 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% Australia N = 36 20.00% 10.00% Ireland N = 9 0.00% New Zealand N = 8 UK N = 90 School of Information Studies

Bibliometrics Services % Planned 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% E 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Australia N = 36 Ireland N = 9 New Zealand N = 8 UK N = 90 School of Information Studies

Research Data Management Services % Current 60.00% 50.00% E 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Assistance Data literacy Support for Support for Finding Technical Developing Developing Development with education and/ data deposit in data deposit in relevant aspects of data tools to assist of institutional technology, or training institutional external data external data digital curation management researchers policy to infrastructure repository archives sets plans manage data manage data and tools Australia N = 36 Ireland N = 9 New Zealand N = 8 UK N = 83 School of Information Studies

Research Data Management Services% Planned 120 100 80 Australia N = 36 E 60 Ireland N = 9 40 New Zealand N = 8 20 UK N = 83 0 School of Information Studies

Constraints on Bibliometrics Services % 120 100 E 80 Australia N=38 60 Ireland N=8 40 New Zealand N=8 United Kingdom N=88 20 0 Bibliometrics are Bibliometrics are Different levels of Different Staff equire Staff require not a priority not perceived as demand specialist needs additional additional library role knowledge or confidence skills School of Information Studies

Constraints on Research Data Management % 120 100 E 80 60 Australia N=36 Ireland N=8 40 New Zealand N=9 United Kingdom N=82 20 0 RDM not a Different levels Different RDM is not Staff require Staff require Other (mainly priority for our of demand specialist perceived by additional additional various library needs others as a knowledge or confidence to resourcing library role skills work in this issues) area School of Information Studies

How library staff who work in bibliometrics (bib) or RDM are educated or trained % Australia Ireland New Zealand UK Staff are educated or Bib RDM Bib RDM Bib RDM Bib RDM trained N=34 N=32 N=8 N=7 N=8 N=7 N=69 N=54 Prior to joining the staff as a 14.7 31.3 0 14.3 25 28.6 15.9 29.6 part of their LIS or other education E Within the library through in- 85.3 65.6 75 42.9 100 57.1 49.3 48.1 service training or seminars Are self-trained 67.6 71.9 100 71.4 50 57.1 81.2 61.1 Learn on-the-job 85.3 81.3 100 85.7 100 85.7 81.2 77.8 Library-funded external 47.1 59.4 37.5 57.1 50 42.9 36.2 57.4 professional development Other (please specify) 23.5 12.5 25 0 0 28.6 8.7 14.8 ¡ School of Information Studies

Areas identified in which staff need additional knowledge and skills - Bibliometrics Areas in which staff need additional Australia Ireland New UK knowledge and skills N=36 N=9 Zealand N=78 N=8 Knowledge of different purposes and 83.3 88.9 87.5 88.5 applications of bibliometrics (e.g., E research evaluation, collection development, benchmarking) Skills in quantitative methods and 83.3 77.8 62.5 83.3 statistics Knowledge of bibliometrics tools and 86.1 77.8 87.5 96.2 techniques (e.g., citation analyses, impact factors and associated indices) Required subject and disciplinary 58.3 44.4 50 26.9 knowledge School of Information Studies

Areas identified in which staff need additional knowledge and skills - RDM Areas in which staff need additional Australia Ireland N=9 New UK knowledge and skills N=36 Zealand N=72 N=8 Data curation skills 94.4 88.9 100 87.5 E Technical and ICT skills 77.8 88.9 87.5 76.4 Required subject and/or disciplinary 55.6 44.4 37.5 36.1 knowledge Knowledge of research methods 66.7 44.4 50 66.4 Knowledge of research processes 77.8 66.7 62.5 84.7 Other (please specify) 19.4 0 0 4.2 School of Information Studies

Priorities for LIS Education Research Perceived Australia Ireland New Zealand UK Service Educational Need Bibliometrics Part of Core 12 (34.3%) 5 (55.6%) 3 (37.5%) 27 (30.3%) Curriculum Bibliometrics Part of Elective 23 (65.7%) 4 (44.4%) 5 (62.5%) 55 (61.8%) Subjects E Bibliometrics No Need 0 0 0 7 (7.9%) Research Data Part of Core 17 (47.2%) 3 (33.3%) 3 (37.5%) 31 (36.9%) Management Curriculum Research Data Part of Elective 19 (52.8%) 6 (66.7%) 5 (62.5%) 50 (59.5%) Management Subjects Research Data No Need 0 0 0 3 (3.6%) Management School of Information Studies

Conclusions • Academic libraries see research support as a growth service area. E.g. • eresearch support, research info systems integration, literature searches & systematic reviews, grant info man, research data E curation, OA publishing, institutional benchmarking, assistance with grant applications, • Increasing use of Bibliometrics and associated tools for varied purposes, especially ERA/REF and grant support • Research Data Management—a demand originating from technical change, funder and institutional requirements and ethical considerations in the edata era • Emerging LIS education requirements School of Information Studies

Future research • A longitudinal study • Library/information professional collaborations with researchers • Review of the LIS School subject offerings around E Bibliometrics, Research Data Management, scholarly communications and research processes • Partnering LIS School researchers and academic libraries e.g. • Further learning from exemplar case libraries • Case studies of successful library/researcher collaborations School of Information Studies

Thank you and questions? Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge with thanks the financial E support provided by the Information Studies Research Priority Area, Information Infrastructure Program, Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University. They also gratefully acknowledge the time and effort contributed to the study by the participants and colleagues who advised on design of the survey instrument. School of Information Studies