Research the researcherInforming the development of library research support
Today's presentation• Institutional context• What the literature says• One way to understand our
academics• Preliminary conclusions
Sheffield Hallam University• Largest modern university with
31,530 students• Academic staff
– 8% dedicated to research– 24% spends 1 day/week or more on
research• VC Prof Chris Husbands is Chair of
the TEF panel• Ambition to be "the leading applied
university" by 2030 – employability– practitioner-academics– key societal issues, international
impact and connected with the region
Research at HallamRCUK
7%
EU35%
Con-tract re-
search41%
Other17%
REF 201465% of outputs 3* and 4* quality
In top 5 of modern universities
Strengths in Arts and Design, Planning, Education, and Sport
AmbitionsImprove REF ranking but emphasising external income generation
Research support - Learning Centre
Learning &Teaching
team
Library Resources
team
OA repository
(2008)
RDM (2014)
HEFCE and OA (2015)
Some PGR and
staff teaching
Library restructure• A new Library Research Support
team– to contribute more effectively to the
University's aim to build on strengths in research, innovation and knowledge transfer
– to respond adequately to external requirements such as REF, RDM and OA
– to better understand and meet the information needs of SHU research students and research-active staff
• 4 FTE with both a functional and a faculty-based liaison role
Research data
management
Scholarly communications
Information skills
Communication and special
collection
Informing our service offerThe institutional and wider landscape
• the emerging literature on research support in LIS
• benchmarking with other institutions
• the external agendas of OA, RDM and REF
Understanding user needs
• continuous listening exercise • targeted conversations to
gauge self perceived support needs
• surveys to gauge awareness and understand research behaviours
• continuous feedback loop
Direction of travel• Advent of open
research practices (OA, RDM) is driving change
• New funder policies (EPSRC, HEFCE) versus good practice
• Changing behaviour
Outside-in Inside-out
Research as an output
Research as a
process
Literature review: areas of support
Needs led?
Scholarly comms
OA
RDM
Metrics
Info Lit
Publishing
Literature review: means of support
Experienced researchers
PGRs and ECRs
specific, quick, low intensity
structured sessions library?
faculty space?
Literature review: barriers to support
Librarians Researchers
perspective of academics
capacity to find info
without us
skill set number
visibility perspective of librarians
Literature review: bridges to support
Collaboration RepositoriesCompliance
Researcher- librarian
Our project• Purpose
– understand the self-perceived support needs of our academics
– inform our service development
– understand the research process
• Semi-structured interviews– research background– support experience– library support experience– support expectations
• Participants– from PhD to senior
researchers– Regulated funding, contract-
based, and self-funded
Barriers - awareness• There was very little about RIO very
little about Library support service [at staff induction]
• The library, yeah, ok, I suppose I have a little bit of ignorance when it comes to what the library actually offers...
Barriers - experience• I think I'm probably OK but as I say
I've got a lot of experience• So for me, it's been fine but I think
that's because I know what to do
Barriers - habits / 'competition'• I mean I'm a big fan of Google and
Google Scholar• But I think things like Google
Scholar the advent of things like that have meant you're less likely to come in here
Barriers - culture• I think it's more us working out the
interconnection between the library service and [research centre and departments]
• So there might be some resistance to getting people on board but again I think that has got to do perhaps with the culture of the research team you have
Barriers - time• Time is always against me • So my experience is the drop-
in sessions you end up never going to them because life happens
Bridges - compliance• Doing the data management
form because there were so many examples of what you could put in it was laborious and dull but not difficult.
Bridges / areas of support - RDM
• The resources that we get in terms of the DMP Online the help with that...the contact with you guys and just asking questions, unreal fantastic
Bridges / areas of support- RDM
• So in that I've used Eddy quite a lot to comment on data management plans and he's really thorough and really helpful
Bridges / areas of support - tools
• I did a brilliant course in here on Refworks with somebody called Bea
Bridges - doctoral support• I find the library really really
useful with my doctoral students
Means of support• One-to-one discussion is much more
valuable so you can say introduce all the factors that impact on that decision
• When you are dealing with a specific particular task or a particular project then one to one support would be really helpful
Preliminary conclusions
One size doesn't fit all
discipline
academic perspective
subject
academic culture
experience
role / career stage
knowledge
contractual obligations
Preliminary conclusionsSupporting the right areas
Indications are that our functional focus areas meet our researchers' self-perceived needs
Research data
management
Scholarly
communications
Information skills
Communication and special
collection
Preliminary conclusions: Offering appropriate means of support• Research support
web pages• Variety of sessions• One-to-one support• Named person • Communication through a variety of means • Target supervisors
Preliminary conclusions:Overcoming barriers to support
Promote the team and what we can offer
Try to get the timing right
Preliminary conclusions:Bridges to support
Central research support -Research Information Office (RIO)
Funder and HEFCE requirements
SHU Library research support
We pages: http://research.shu.ac.uk/library/
Email: [email protected]
Head of Library Research Support: Dr Eddy Verbaan
Research Support Librarians:Paul Ashwell, Dan Grace, Pete Smith, Bea Turpin
Bibliography• Atkinson, J. (2016). Academic libraries and research support: An overview. In J. Atkinson (Ed.), Quality and the academic library: Reviewing, assessing and enhancing service
provision (pp. 135-141). Cambridge, MA: Chandos Publishing. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-802105-7.00013-0 • Brewerton, A. (2012). Re-skilling for research: Investigating the needs of researchers and how library staff can best support them. New Review of Academic Librarianship,
18(1), 96-110. doi:10.1080/13614533.2012.665718 • Brown, J. M., & Tucker, C. (2013). Expanding library support of faculty research: Exploring readiness. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 13(3), 257-271. • Cheek, F. M., & Bradigan, P. S. (2010). Academic health sciences library research support. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 98(2), 167-171.
doi:10.3163/1536-5050.98.2.011 [doi] • Corrall, S., Kennan, M. A., & Afzal, W. (2013). Bibliometrics and research data management services: Emerging trends in library support for research. Library Trends, 61(3),
636-674. • Cox, A. M., & Pinfield, S. (2014). Research data management and libraries: Current activities and future priorities. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 46(4),
299-316. doi:10.1177/0961000613492542 • de Jager, K., Nassimbeni, M., & Crowster, N. (2016). Developing a new librarian library research support in south africa. Information Development, 32(3), 285-292.
doi:10.1177/0266666914542032 • Hoodless, C., & Pinfield, S. (2016). Subject v. functional: Should subject librarians be replaced by functional specialists in academic libraries? Journal of Librarianship and
Information Science, doi:10.1177/0961000616653647 • Jubb, M. (2016). Libraries and the support of university research. In J. Atkinson (Ed.), Quality and the academic library: Reviewing, assessing and enhancing service
provision (pp. 143-156). Cambridge, MA: Chandos Publishing. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-802105-7.00014-2 • Keller, A. (2015). Research support in australian university libraries: An outsider view. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 46(2), 73-85.
doi:10.1080/00048623.2015.1009528 • Mamtora, J. (2013). Transforming library research services: Towards a collaborative partnership. Library Management, 34(4/5), 352-371. doi:10.1108/01435121311328690 • Richardson, J., Nolan-Brown, T., Loria, P., & Bradbury, S. (2012). Library research support in queensland: A survey. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 43(4), 258-
277. doi:10.1080/00048623.2012.10722287 • Speight, S. (2016). The durham difference: Supporting research at durham university. In J. Atkinson (Ed.), Quality and the academic library: Reviewing, assessing and
enhancing service provision (pp. 157-166). Cambridge, MA: Chandos Publishing. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-802105-7.00015-4 • Wolstenholme, J. (2015). Evidence based practice using formative assessment in library research support. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 10(3), 4-29.
Retrieved from https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/24066/18797 • Zhao, L. (2014). Riding the wave of open access: Providing library research support for scholarly publishing literacy. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 45(1), 3-18.
doi:10.1080/00048623.2014.882873