Research the researcher: informing the development of effective library research support in a modern...

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: library-research-support@shu.ac.uk

Head of Library Research Support: Dr Eddy Verbaan

Research Support Librarians:Paul Ashwell, Dan Grace, Pete Smith, Bea Turpin

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