Elevating research librarianship to a new level, presented at LIASA Conference, Oct 2011

Elevating research librarianship to a new

level

Interest group open discussionSession 6 Parallel Session H: RETIG

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Agenda• Introduction and overview of the RLC and US

Internship programme - Naomi Visser• Research support – Lucia Schoombee• Research support: the Arizona perspective – Fiona

Still – Drewett• Embedded librarianship - Linda Cartwright• Information Literacy from a research perspective

– Sunette Steynberg• Collection building – Marguerite Nel

The 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011Session 6 Parallel Session H: RETIG

Introduction and overview of the RLC and US Internship

programme


Naomi Visser, Stellenbosch UniversityInternship at Case Western Reserve University

Overview of the RLC

• Research Libraries Consortium, funded by

• Carnegie Corporation of New York

• to improve dramatically the quality of library support

for research

• to enable the library sector to play its part in an

eventual upsurge in research productivity in SA

• Phase I (2006-2009): UCT, Wits, UKZN

• Phase II (2010-2012): SU, UP, Rhodes


Overview of the RLC

Three interrelated components:

• A Research Commons

• The development of a sophisticated web-based

research portal

• Skills enhancement of mid-career subject-specialist

librarians at a residential Library Academy

programme, to enable them to improve their domain

expertise, research knowledge, and support skills


The 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011 Session 6 Parallel Session H: RETIG

US Internship programme

• Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at the University of

Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Nine universities (to learn about the practices of research librarians in

these environments) o University of Washington, Seattle

o Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland

o University of California, Davis

o Duke University, North Carolina

o University of North Carolina

o Texas A & M

o University of Kansas

o Purdue University

o University of Arizona

• ACRL Conference, Philadelphia

• Mid-term meeting, New YorkThe 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011

Session 6 Parallel Session H: RETIG

The culture of research in the USA

• Sound foundation at undergraduate level• Librarians trained at graduate level• Role of the ACRL


Sound foundation at undergraduate level

• First-year seminars

• SAGES (Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) at Case Western Reserve Universityhttp://case.edu/sages/ProgramOverview.html

• Undergraduate Research Program and Seminar at University of Washington, Seattlehttp://www.washington.edu/research/urp/students/index.html

• The Common ReadThe 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011


Librarians trained at graduate level

• Professional librarians in the USA are required to have a master’s degree in Library and Information Science.

• Example: GSLIS in Urbana-Champaign• The university’s librarians are also GSLIS faculty• Graduate assistantships wherein students work

alongside librarians in an academic environment• The librarians make great mentors and often go

out of their way to help students grow as professionals


Role of the ACRL• Association of College and Research Libraries• Division of the American Library Association• Professional association of academic librarians• Dedicated to enhancing the ability of academic

library and information professionals to serve the information needs of the higher education community and to improve learning, teaching, and research.


Research support

Lucia SchoombeeStellenbosch University

Internship at University of Washington


Four institutions


University of Washington

University of

Illinois

Columbia University

Purdue University

Research support @ University of Washington


University of Washington Research

CommonsoCollaborative environment oSupport all steps of the research process

oWorkshopsoPresentation opportunities


Research support @ University of Illinois


University of IllinoisScholarly Commons

• Data Services• Savvy Researcher workshops• Usability studies• Scholarly publishing• Digitisation• Digital Humanities


Research support @ Purdue University


Distributed Data Curation Center

(D2C2)• Data management• Information literacy• E-science research


Research support @ Columbia University


Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS)

Journal hosting Digital Repository Video Production Conference support Wikischolars


Traditional library services

• Book deliveries• Loan privileges• Article requests• Interlibrary loans• Information literacy


Information literacy from

a research perspective


Sunette SteynbergUniversity of Pretoria

Internship at Purdue University

Overview

• Introduction• Definitions• Pedagogy of information literacy• Diverse learning styles• Collaborative activities• Suggestions for implementation


Computer literacy

Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving.


Information literacy• Recognize when information is needed• Have the ability to locate information• The ability to evaluate the information• The ability to incorporate information

into a personal knowledge base• The ability to integrate and use

information effectively and ethically

Association of College and Research librarians (ACRL)


Pedagogy of Information literacy

• Type of instruction • Integrated IL within ongoing coursework • Information technology and media

resources• Diverse learning styles• Collaborative and experiential learning

activities• Critical thinking and reflection

The 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011


Collaborative activities

• Human boolean• Voting• Cephalonian• Cell phones• Assessment: the one minute paper


Suggestions for implementation

• Short ‘How do I’s’• Researcher savvy workshops• Use flat screens for training videos• Teach Information literacy in 1 hour


“This is what I want for my students – for them to become habitual askers of questions, seekers of new knowledge, critical thinkers, and informed decision makers.”

Hinchliffe, Lisa J 2001, ‘Information literacy as a way of life’, Research strategies, 18(2), pp. 95-96.


Collection buildingMarguerite Nel, University of Pretoria

Internship at the University of California, Davis


Introduction

“The planned purchase of materials in various formats to match the instructional and research needs of the campus

within the current fiscal environment and resource sharing opportunities

The heart of a library is its collections: The buildings house them;

the library personnel acquire and manage them and teach users how best to access and use them.”

University of Colorado at BoulderThe 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October

2011Session 6 Parallel Session H: RETIG

Collection development to support researchers

• Massive technological changes in the area of research, knowledge production, publishing and communication

• Researchers need to have access to all the information sources that support their information needs

• Collection development and management activities should recognise and accommodate diversity and change

• Need to consider the information universe from the perspective of our users (researchers)


Challenges• Users needs (physical space, immediate and

unlimited access)• Interdisciplinary research• Need to preserve non-print materials• Management and collection of grey literature• Special collections and archives• eScience• Data management and preservation


Solution?

The 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011


• Need to promote and exploit the resources which are available, making them accessible to users

• Potential offered by technology and collaboration

“A digital library, a collection of information that is both digitized andorganized, gives us powers we never had with traditional libraries.”

(Lesk, 1997)

Electronic Books

• Provide multimedia information, full-text searching, reference linking, flexibility in searching and browsing,

selection of different types of fonts, portability, and interoperability on a variety of devices

• Highlight, annotate, underline and bookmark• Access

• Cost effective


University of California Libraries Academic e-Book Usage Survey & Springer e-Book

Pilot Projecthttp://www.cdlib.org/services/uxdesign/docs/2011/academic_ebook_usage_survey.pdf


Postd

octo

ral r

esea

rche

rs

Gradu

ate stud

ents

Facul

ty &

Lec

ture

rs

Under

grad

uate

stud

ents

0%20%40%60%80% 68% 67%

57% 55%

Use of e-Books according to university status

0%

20%

40%

60%

80% 68%57% 57% 54%

47%

Use of e-Books according to discipline

Preferred e-book functionalities

• Ability to search within and across e-book content • Annotating and highlighting • Ability to download the entire e-book to a device for

later use • “The dedicated e-book reader, such as the Kindle,

and mobile devices, such as the iPhone, offer significant advantage over the personal computer as well as the print book for a noteworthy number of respondents...”


Institutional repositories

• Special collections• Archives• Research objects• Grey literature• Research output (peer-reviewed papers, e-prints, theses, reports, conference papers, working papers)• Open Access

“Librarians are way too focused on published material: they should leave that to the Amazons and

concentrate on the hard stuff.”(Online Computer Library Center, 2004)The 13th Annual LIASA Conference, East London International Convention Centre (ELICC) , 3 – 7 October 2011


eScience and Research data

“…envisioning how scientific research will be conducted in a (possibly very near) future…

It will evolve around several aspects among which are:An explosion of data, which will reside online.

It will need to be stored, preserved, managed and accessed as needed from any place,

at any time, by anyone… new communication possibilities through powerful grid networks

… interconnectedness and collaboration among researchers…” (ACRL, 2011)


Purdue’s 3 steps to data

management

Understand the stages

researchers are going through

with data

• Negotiation

(data curation)

• Institutional Repositories• Part of a research article• Data supplement

Ingest the data

Raw data Process Analyze Experimental data for

publication

Present at

conference

Send in for

publication

Publish

Abstract in

database

Lifecycle SharingDissemin

ation

IP/copyrigh

t

Repository require-

ments


Conclusion


They are the books, the arts, the academes, That show, contain and nourish all the world.- William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

Conclusion
