Research Support Community Day 11 February 2013 Griffith University

1. Emerging Trends in Library Support
for Research
Re-skilling for Research seminar –
Brisbane February 2013
Based on research conducted by:
Mary Anne Kennan (CSU),
Sheila Corrall, University of Pittsburgh, and
Waseem Afzal (CSU)
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

2. Background
Traditional Library support for research
• Information discovery
• Collection development
• Information management (Auckland 2012)
Shift to electronic made library services invisible
Responses (“environment reconfigures the library”
McColl 2010):
• Study of impact of services, ways of adding value
• Engagement with scholarly communication,
repositories, e-research, informetrics/research
evaluation support
• Dedicated research support librarians
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

3. Issues
Ambiguity about roles (researchers/librarians, IT ...)
(RIN 2007)
Shift towards new roles
• Bibliometrics/informetrics/altmetrics – moving from
informing collection development etc to supporting the
analysis of research output – strategic role
• Repositories/open access
• Data management and curation
• Skills gaps
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

4. Educational issues- Metrics
•Bibliometrics (where it is taught) - collection
development & journal evaluation
•Importance of advanced numeracy, quantitative data
management and analysis and statistics
•Growing importance of theories
•Many LIS research methods texts and courses omit
bibliometrics
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

5. Educational issues -
Research data
•Shorter history in LIS
•Education preparedness of RDM roles reported as an
issue in the literature
•Discussion of who does what roles – researchers,
librarians, other specialists?
•Only 16/52 LIS schools in US (Harris-Pierce & Liu (2012))
•In Australia, NZ & UK?
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

6. Educational issues - both
Educating and training new graduates
Up-skilling existing work force
Need for formal training to be associated with “real-
life situations and practice” (Pryor & Donnelly 2009,
p.166)
Experiential learning – e.g. Internships, field
experience etc.
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

7. Research design
The research took a pragmatic approach,
employing an online questionnaire survey analysed
with descriptive statistics. The instrument
contained 35 questions in four main sections:
•About you and your organization
•Research support services – Bibliometrics
•Research support services – Research data
management
•Research support services – Future plans.
•Focus here on background and education
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

8. Sample
Appropriate person from each institution:
•CAUL
•CONZUL
•SCONUL
•CONUL
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

9. Bibliometrics services %
Current 2012
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

10. Bibliometrics Services %
Planned
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

11. Research Data Management Services %
Current
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Assistance with technology, infrastructure and tools training deposit in external data archives Developing data management plansof institutional policy to man
Data literacy education and/or for data
Support for data deposit in institutional repository Technical aspects of digital curation Development
Support Finding relevant external data sets Developing tools to assist researchers manage data
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

12. Research Data Management Services%
Planned
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
stance with technology, literacy education and/or traininginstitutional repository dataexternal data setsof digital data management plans of institutional policy to ma
Data infrastructure for data depositfor data depositFinding relevant archives
Support and tools
Support in in external Technical aspectsDeveloping curationtoolsDevelopment
Developing to assist researchers manage data
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

13. Constraints on Bibliometrics Services %
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Bibliometrics are not a Bibliometrics are not Different levels of Different specialist Staff equire additional Staff require additional
priority perceived as library demand needs knowledge or skills confidence
role
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

14. Constraints on Research Data Management %
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
RDM not a priority Different levels of Different specialist RDM is not Staff require Staff require Other (mainly
for our library demand needs perceived by additional additional various resourcing
others as a library knowledge or skills confidence to work issues)
role in this area
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

15. Constraints – further discussion
In the comments field – the other major constraint
identified was resourcing
As a practitioners and educators we know that
confidence is highly correlated with knowledge and
skills
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

16. Education for new services
delivery
Most (~80%) reported staff learn bibliometrics and
RDM “on the job”
For bibliometrics – also training from vendors
In Australia – ANDS
Areas of skills needs reported different for
Bibliometrics and RDM tho some overlap
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

17. Australia Ireland New Zealand UK
Source of staff education or
Bib RDM Bib RDM Bib RDM Bib RDM
training
(n=34) (n=32) (n=8) (n=7) (n=8) (n=7) (n=69) (n=54)
Prior to joining, as part of
14.7 31.3 0 14.3 25.0 28.6 15.9 29.6
their LIS or other education
Within the library, through
in-service training or 85.3 65.6 75.0 42.9 100 57.1 49.3 48.1
seminars
Are self-trained 67.6 71.9 100 71.4 50.0 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 50.0 42.9 36.2 57.4
professional development
Other 23.5 12.5 25.0 0 0 28.6 8.7 14.8
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

18. Australia Ireland New UK
Areas where additional knowledge and skills (n=35) (n=9) Zealand (n=76)
needed - BIBLIOMETRICS (n=8)
Knowledge of different purposes and applications
of bibliometrics (e.g. research evaluation, 85.7 88.9 87.5 88.2
collection development, benchmarking)
Skills in quantitative methods and statistics
82.9 77.8 62.5 82.9
Knowledge of bibliometrics tools and techniques
(e.g. citation analyses, impact factors and 88.6 77.8 87.5 97.4
associated indices)
Required subject and/or disciplinary knowledge
60 44.4 50 26.3
Other
14.3 22.2 0 6.6
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

19. Australia Ireland New UK
Areas where additional knowledge and (n=35) (n=9) Zealand (n=71)
skills needed - RDM (n=8)
Data curation skills 94.3 88.9 100 87.3
Technical and ICT skills 80 88.9 87.5 76.1
Required subject and/or disciplinary 57.1 44.4 37.5 36.6
knowledge
Knowledge of research methods 68.6 44.4 50 71.8
Knowledge of research processes 77.1 66.7 62.5 84.5
Other 20 0 0 4.2
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

20. LIS Education and CPD?
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
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, Faculty of Education

21. Critical areas for education
Bibliometrics and impact measures (particularly
UK)
Understanding of the research environment at
macro (university and government agendas) and
micro (research processes, methodologies and
workflows)
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

22. Comments – RS growth areas
• E-research, data intensive science, digital humanities
support
• Scholarly communication and publishing
• Intellectual property and licencing
• Research assessment/evaluation
• Higher education policy and direction
• Development of, and assistance with, data
management policies, procedures and plans
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

23. Conclusions
• Bibliometrics regaining prominence with research
assessment exercises - INFORMETRICS
• Emergence of new measures and tools
• RDM driven also by policy AND emergence of new
tools and technologies in research
• Libraries have been able to connect RDM with
historical areas of professional practice, including
• materials selection and collection management,
• cataloguing/metadata,
• reference and information literacy services, and
• scholarly communication, open access and institutional
repositories
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

24. RDM subject @ CSU
• Overview of data, data librarianship, data curation
• Role of data in research
• Data-driven scholarship and statistics
• The data life cycle
• Data archives and repositories
• Intellectual property issues in data
• Public policy for research data
• Data curation
• Data management plans and planning
• The role of libraries and archives in data management
• (Developed by MAK, Bob Pymm and Sigrid
McCausland)
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

25. Other
•MOOCS etc as alternatives???
•JISC RDM Rose
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/di_research
management/managingresearchdata/research-data-
management-training/rdmrose.aspx
http://rdmrose.group.shef.ac.uk/
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

26. References
• Auckland, M. (2012). Re-skilling for research: An investigation into
the roles and skills of subject and liaison librarians required to
effectively support the evolving information needs of researchers.
London: RLUK Research Libraries UK. Retrieved October 22,
2012, from RLUK Web site: http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/re-
skilling-research
• Corrall, S. Kennan, M.A. & Afzal, W. (forthcoming May 2013)
Bibliometrics and Research Data Management Services:
Emerging Trends in Library Support for Research Library Trends
61:3,
• MacColl, J. (2010). Library roles in university research
assessment. Liber Quarterly, 20, 152-168. Retrieved October 22,
2012, from
http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/7984/8299
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

27. References
• MacColl, J. (2010). Library roles in university research
assessment. Liber Quarterly, 20, 152-168. Retrieved October 22,
2012, from
http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/7984/8299
• Pryor, G., & Donnelly, M. (2009). Skilling up to do data: Whose
role, whose responsibility, whose career? International Journal of
Digital Curation, 4(2), 158-170. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from
http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/126
School of Information Studies, Faculty of Education

28. Thank you 
Discussion & questions?
Acknowledgements:
The authors acknowledge with thanks the financial
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, Faculty of Education