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Enhancing Access to Researchers' Papers: How Librarians and Use of Social Media Can Help

Brian KellyUKOLN ISCUniversity of BathBath, UK

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/bath-library-2011-03/

This work is licensed under a Attribution--ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording this talk, taking photos, having discussions using Twitter, etc. is encouraged - but try to keep distractions to others minimised.

Blog:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @briankelly / @ukwebfocus

Twitter:#bathlib

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You are free to:copy, share, adapt, or re-mix;

photograph, film, or broadcast;

blog, live-blog, or post video of

this presentation provided that:You attribute the work to its author and respect the rights and licences associated with its components. Note Shutterstock images used under licence (see final slide).

Idea from Cameron Neylon

Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites

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About Me

Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus: national advisory post to UK HEIs• Long-standing Web evangelist • Based at UKOLN at the University of Bath• Prolific blogger (1,000+ posts since Nov 2006)• User of social media to support work activities• Prolific speaker (~380 talks from 1996-2011)• Part of UKOLN’s Innovation Support Centre (ISC)

UKOLN:• Supporting innovation across higher & further

education• Funded by JISC

Intr

oduc

tion

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I also write peer-reviewed papers and deposit them in Opus

63 items60 full text

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Most downloaded items in Opus since launch

Are They Popular?

Reasons For Paper’s PopularityPossible reasons

• Quality of paper• Quality of metadata• Provision of full-text, rather than just metadata• Importance of co-authors• Role of social media• Formats used (HTML as well as PDFs)• Location of authors (3 authors and 5 items in

top 20 from Wessex House level 5!)• Other suggestions?

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EvidenceHow do we find out more?

• Peak statistics no longer available on Opus

But:• Blog post about availability in Opus published on

11 August 2009

7Conclusion: Blog post responsible for initial popularity

EvidenceHow do we find out more?

• Peak statistics no longer available on Opus

But:• Blog post about availability in Opus published on

11 August 2009

8Conclusion: Blog post (& tweet?) responsible for initial popularity

But: blog stats also show only total of 36 clicks to Opus entry

Beyond the Individual Paper

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Most downloaded papers from UKOLN staff16 out of top 20 mine!Evidence of value of particular techniques?

SEO or SMOSEO:

Helping Google find your papers through:• Writing style, document structure, …• In-bound links

SMO:Helping other people find your papers through:

• Viral marketing• Sharing on social media services

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SMO: Good for new papers, but not relevant for popular papers written from 2004-8

SEO: Document structure consistent. Difference appears to be significant nos. of in-bound links

Third Party ServicesSignificant use of third party services to link to Opus:

• LinkedIn• Researchgate• Academia.edu• Mendeley

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Popular Elsewhere?Survey of Russell Group university use of services published on UK Web Focus blog on 5 March 2012

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Conclusions• Popularity of Academia &

LinkedIn established• Let’s encourage our

researchers to have links to papers in IR

Further WorkFurther work planned:

• SEO analysis of institutional repositories using Linkdiagnosis.com & Majesticseo.com

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Further WorkFurther work planned:• SEO analyses of institutional

repositories using Linkdiagnosis & Majesticseo

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Initial findings (from Linkdiagnosis.com) suggest importance of:

• Wordpress.com (100)• Wikipedia (100)• Microsoft Academic Search (100)• MSN.com (100)

Ethical ConsiderationsIs promotion of ‘marketing’ of research outputs ethical?

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Thoughts:• Importance of ‘impact’• Political relevance• Researchers taking responsibility

for highlighting papers they feel important

• A library of papers nobody reads is, in some respects, a failure

Ethical ConsiderationsIs promotion of ‘marketing’ of research outputs ethical?

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Thoughts:• Importance of ‘impact’• Political relevance• Researchers taking responsibility

for highlighting papers they feel important

• A library of papers nobody reads is, in some respects, a failure

The goal:• Researchers and practitioners

finding papers easily• Reading, discussing & citing

papers

The Social LibrarianLibrarians can help support researchers in maximising access to their researchLibrarians can also:

• Build on established values of honesty and trust• Present themselves & their values to popular

social media sharing services • Provide indicators of value of resources on those

servicesOr:

• Do on popular services what they did on little used Library web sites in 1990s!

• Gain benefits from the ‘network effect’

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My Trusted Social Librarian post:See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/my-trusted-social-librarian/

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My Trusted Social LibrarianIdeas from Tony Hirst’s OUseful blog:• Could Librarians Be

Influential Friends? 27 Oct 2010

• Invisible Library Support – Now You Can’t Afford Not to be Social? 

13 Jan 2012

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I trust my peers to share valuable resources• Are librarians missing?• Is this a threat to their value in an electronic age?

• xx

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Figshare blog post, 26 March 2012

Conclusions• Library sector has tended to

focus on in-house services (Library web site; IR; …)

• Missing opportunities to exploit potential of social sharing services?

• Missing opportunities to exploit library values of trust, honesty and transparency?

• Enhanced access can be based on: In-house technical developments Advocacy, open licences, …Exploiting popular services which link to content

• Opportunities await!

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Open up the metadata!

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QuestionsAny questions or comments?

AcknowledgementsImages copyright Shuttlestock and used under licence:

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