Role of librarian, supervisor and student in the supervisory process

1. ©
Fiona Still-Drewett, Rhodes University Library
2015

2.  Delamont et al Delamont, S., Atkinson, P., & Parry, O., (eds)
2004, Supervising the doctorate : a guide to success, 2nd ed.,
Society for Research into Higher Education : Open University
Press, London.
 “Whatever the discipline, the doctoral student
has to get to grips with the literature, and
learn how to find it, read it, assimilate it and
write about it”
 “It is easy to overestimate the level of library
skills that students have”

3.  Macauley & McKnight in Bartlett, A., & Mercer, G.
(eds) 2001, Postgraduate research supervision :
transforming (r)elations, P. Lang, New York.
 “Libraries play a key role in ensuring the
success of students and, therefore, the
success of universities”.
 They propose a much closer collaboration
among librarians, postgraduate research
students, and their supervisors, and talk of
three way partnership.

4. In our experience at RUL:
PG Students often lack knowledge of the basics of research
information and management, such as: managing their library
record and off campus access; knowledge of the research
databases; advanced keyword searches; ILL services; thesis
submission guidelines; and location of the subject specialist
librarians.

5.  The Research appointment – one on one, librarian
keeps record of visits – date and content, librarian
alerts student to new or additional research
material
 Impart Information fluency skills
 Literature survey: aid in finding relevant materials
both print and e, and all prior research in the
subject area
 Referencing & citing e.g. bibliographic
management tools such as Refworks or Zotero to
aid in managing and organising information

6.  Thesis submission guidelines on RUL website
 Assist the academic supervisor in keeping up to
date with evolving information technologies and
services. Supervisors can lack necessary
information skills to keep up to date in their fields
 Letters of introduction to other university libraries
so as to enable the post graduate students access
to research collections

7.  Introducing the student to the relevant library
staff & arranging of a tour of the library
 Setting up training sessions with the subject
specialist library staff
 Aid in collection development via ordering of
resources from departmental library budgets
and/or motivating for new resources

8.  Stay up to date with latest research
 Have knowledge of: new information
technologies, research analysis tools,
publishing dos and don’ts, issues around open
access publishing, and the setting up of
researcher profiles.
 Encourage collegial networking & collaboration
 Familiarity with social scholarship to enhance
research impact & reach

9.  Author ID: select name format & stick to it! (prevents
author ambiguity)
 Create a Google Scholar citation profile, a Researcher
ID profile, and an ORCID id
 Participate in the research landscape: blogs, twitter..
 Deposit all research output on your institution’s
repository (Rhodes Digital Commons)
Above enhances research impact
(application of research, citation count, global reach, collegial collaboration)
 Helps to develop one’s academic career, Contributes
to institutional research output, & Grows funds for
research & higher education