Research support & digital literacy at LSEDr Jane Secker, London School of Economics and Political Science

Personalised Library Services in HE 22nd March 2011, Homerton College, Cambridge

Research support and the boutique model

Research support and digital literacy

What skills do you think researchers need? Search skills Analytical skills Evaluation skills Information management skills Communication skills Networking skills Writing and presenting skills Marketing skills Project management skills

Understanding researchers’ needs

Which tools do researchers at your institution need / have? A virtual research environment? File sharing space Resource sharing tools – social bookmarking /

social citation Collaborative writing tools – wikis Communication tools beyond email Professional networking tools Web presence tools – blogs, personal websites

Research support at your institution

Do you offer training? Do you run courses? Do you work with other departments? Do you assess their needs? Do you respond to requests for training and

development? What works, what doesn’t?

Discuss in pairs

Recent RIN report found…

Researchers need access to tools to support document and data sharing across institutions

Institutions should review their training provision and the configuration of support services to develop shared services but also look to provided customised support

Libraries and research offices need to work together Researchers need training and guidance on copyright,

IPR and licensing issues Research information systems need to reduce admin

burdens and not interfere with creativity

RIN (2010) Research Support in UK Universities

Broadening our support

Building on information literacy training offered in libraries

Exploiting new tools and technologies to support researchers

Taught in collaboration with learning technology / IT staff

Some might call this digital literacy Is there an agreed model?

What does digital literacy mean?

How would you define the term?

Do you consider yourself to be digitally literate?

Do you / can you offer this type of support?

What does it look like? Discuss in pairs

Definition of digital literacy

“…the skills, knowledge and understanding that enables critical, creative, discerning and safe practices when engaging with digital technologies in all areas of life”

FutureLab, (2010)

FutureLab (2010) model

Digital & information literacy at LSE

The boutique model

Is it meant to be scalable? How does it relate to other services? How do we showcase what we can offer? Is it a ‘premium’ service that can be

charged for? Need library staff costs to be included in

project proposals

Thanks for listening

j.secker@lse.ac.uk

Twitter: jsecker

Blog: elearning.lse.ac.uk/blogs/socialsoftware