New Chair for Research Libraries UK – from Wales

Congratulations to Janet Peters who has been elected as Chair of the RLUK Board as of 30 March 2012.

Janet is Director of University Libraries and University Librarian at Cardiff University. She currently chairs the WHELF Business Group.

She succeeds Phil Sykes, who held the Chair of RLUK for two years since 2010, and who now steps down after completing a double term on the RLUK Board.

“I am delighted to pick up the reins as Chair of RLUK following on from the excellent work which Phil has achieved in the last couple of years, particularly in establishing a new strategy,” said Janet Peters, Director of University Libraries and University Librarian at Cardiff University.  “This has generated many strands of activity highly relevant to research libraries and their institutions today, which the Board will continue to pursue enthusiastically. For my term of office, I would like us also to consider our constitution and membership, our connectedness with our potential successors, and our communications with our membership at large.”

The outgoing Chair of RLUK, Phil Sykes, University Librarian at Liverpool University said, “It has been an enormous privilege to chair the Board of RLUK during a period in which it has demonstrated its ability to help its members work together to achieve more than they could individually. Our work in helping to end the cycle of unjustified journal price rises has been particularly successful and has demonstrated the enormous potential RLUK has to help shape the future of information provision. I think there is yet more potential for RLUK to harness the collective power of our libraries at a time when they are busier and more crucial to the work of their universities than they have ever been before, and I wish Janet well in her work as Chair.”

http://www.rluk.ac.uk/

Re-­‐skilling for Research

Re-­‐skilling for Research:  An investigation into the role and skills of subject and liaison librarians required to effectively support the evolving information needs of researchers

RLUK has published a major report by Mary Auckland on the changing needs of researchers and the effect on the subject/liaison role within libraries.

As research activities evolve, research support must evolve with them. RLUK has been keen to determine what the new requirements of researchers are, and how best these needs can be met by the library.  We want to place the needs of researchers in the context of the libraries current offering, and look at how we must change to fulfil the new demands placed upon us.

This report, Re-skilling for Research, takes us a long way to mapping these requirements. It looks in detail at researchers’ information needs and begins to outline the skills and knowledge that are required to meet those needs. The Report offers a comparison of different models of library support for researchers, with valuable comparisons of current job descriptions. Finally, issues around the training opportunities for subject librarians to acquire the additional skills and knowledge they will need to fulfill their new roles are explored.

Download the report: http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/re-skilling-research

Free Research Data Management Workshops for HEIs in Wales

Cardiff, 14-16 December 2011

The UK Digital Curation Centre is running a series of inter-linked regional workshops to support institutional research data management as part of the DCC Roadshow. The seventh DCC Roadshow is being organised in conjunction with Information Services at Cardiff University and will take place 14-16 December in the Rowe-Beddoe Studio, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Each day is aimed at a different audience:
* Day 1 is a general introduction and is open to all. Best practice will be shared through case studies to help build a community of data management expertise in Wales.
* Day 2 is a strategic workshop to help senior support staff start to plan research data management services for their institution.
* Day 3 is the DCC’s practical training course for researchers and research support staff. This provides an introduction to curation and DCC tools through presentations, breakout discussions and exercises.

Each workshop can be booked individually. We encourage you to select those workshops which address your own particular data management requirements and to pass this invitation on to colleagues who might also be interested.

Find out more about the event at: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/data-management-roadshows/dcc-roadshow-cardiff

Research supervisors and information literacy

RIN has published the results of a study, undertaken between January and July 2011, investigating the place and role of PhD supervisors in the drive to ensure that research students possess the necessary level of information literacy to pursue their careers successfully in academia and beyond.

The work was undertaken on behalf of RIN and the Working Group on Information Handling by a partnership between Curtis+Cartwright Consulting and Cardiff University.

The ability of researchers to handle information is of vital importance. Many individuals have become adept at developing approaches and using innovative technologies to make most of the information environment, but others rather less so. Questions about how researchers develop appropriate skills, the support they receive, the training opportunities provided for them, and the take-up of such opportunities are thus highly pertinent.

Read more at: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/researcher-development-and-skills/information-handling-training-researchers/research-superv

Unique & Distinctive Collections: a career opportunity

RLUK seeks to commission for the period of 12 months a Unique and Distinctive Collections (UDC) Project Manager (part-time, £35,000 at 1/5) to coordinate the implementation of the Unique and Distinctive Collections strand of the RLUK Strategic Plan 2011-2014. The officer will ideally be seconded from a research library, will have experience of working with unique and distinctive collections, and be confident working in an academic environment.

This is an exciting, rare opportunity to conduct research, analysis and outreach in the context of some of the finest collections in the UK and Ireland, with impact both at home and internationally.

Job Description and Person Specification:

http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/rluk-seeks-fill-unique-and-distinctive-collections-project-manager-post

The deadline for applications is 1 September 2011.

Any queries should initially be addressed to:

Mike Mertens
Deputy Director
RLUK
Email: mike.mertens@rluk.ac.uk

The value of libraries for research and researchers

This jointly commissioned RIN and RLUK report presents the findings of a systematic study of the value of the services that libraries in the UK provide to researchers, and of the contributions that libraries from a wide range of institutions make to institutional research performance. The aim was to identify the key characteristics of library provision to support research in successful UK universities and departments.

Libraries are changing and the value they provide will change too. This project has provided a snapshot of libraries based on current evidence, as the sector begins a period of turbulent change. The need to demonstrate value will endure should not be underestimated. Arguing the case for libraries may get harder as the traditional role of libraries in providing access to content – the role most frequently mentioned and valued by researchers and senior managers – continues to become less visible.

The findings are summarised in the form of map which sets out the key characteristics and behaviours of libraries, and the links between them and the performance of individual researchers and institutions. Libraries have changed and are changing, developing new roles and services. The detailed findings are presented in the form of ten stories, about the different kinds of value that libraries provide in supporting both individual researchers and the research performance of their host institutions. 

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/value-libraries-research-and-researchers

Tara Brabazon: The invisible support network

Librarians remain an often unseen and unappreciated element of good teaching and research. Tara Brabazon interviews an extraordinary one about the challenges the profession faces at the front line of scholarship in the 21st century:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=414491&c=2

Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship

JISC has recently released a new report, Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship, looking at the value and impact of digitised resources.

Written by Simon Tanner of King’s College London, it considers four broad areas in which the creation of digitised resources have has a significant impact.

http://bit.ly/9NjGw6 (pdf file)

The four themes are

*Inspiring Research* Digitised resources not only improves access but enable new types of research to be asked, such as the Data Mining with Criminal Intent project that is based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 – http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

*Bestowing Economic Benefits* The digitisation of journals, such as the Wellcome Trust Medical Journal Backfiles project, provides free and immediate access for scientists. One digitised journal, the Biochemical Journal, receives over 300,000 uses a month – http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/medicaljournals.aspx

*Connecting People and Communities* Resources such as Great War Archive, gathering digitised memorabilia from World War One, not only provide new material for scholars, but enable new communities and expertise to be developed outside the campus walls – http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/

*Digital Britain* Digitising some of Britain’s special collections not only provides new data for educators and learners around the world, but also for a greater appreciation of the nation’s ‘prize jewels’; examples include the Freeze Frame collection of polar photographs, or the Old Weather resource for measuring and transcribing weather reports in Naval logbooks – http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk, http://www.oldweather.org/

Chair in Digital Collections

Lorna Hughes, currently Deputy Director of the Centre for e-Research at King’s College London, has been appointed to a pioneering new post at the National Library of Wales. She will become the world’s first ever Chair in Digital Collections. The post, funded for five years by the University of Wales, is the first academic Chair to be established in any national library in the world.

Lorna has twenty years experience in researching and organising digital information and has worked in universities in Glasgow, Oxford, Arizona, New York and London.

Lorna will undertake and lead academic research on the latest developments in digital resources, while applying their findings to the large digital collections housed at the National Library of Wales. This work spans the creation, provision, investigation, interpretation and conservation of digital collections, including legal issues, the management of data, innovative research methods, and technological developments in access, search and exploitation.

Lorna says, ‘I am delighted to be joining the National Library of Wales, which has a world-class reputation and some very important collections. The NLW has incredible digital collections, and has taken a very strategic approach to digitisation in recent years. I hope to develop a number of new research projects related to the creation, management and use of digital collections. I am also very committed to developing collaborations and partnerships, both nationally and internationally.’

In many respects Lorna will be going back to her roots as she takes up the job of Chair in Digital Collections.

‘I had a Welsh grandfather, who practiced as a dentist in Glasgow in the 1930s! Sadly, he died many years before I was born, but I am now inspired to track down some of my Welsh connections. I am also really looking forward to re-locate in West Wales,’ she added.

Andrew Green, Librarian of The National Library of Wales, is looking forward to Lorna beginning in her new post in Aberystwyth.

‘The National Library of Wales is very glad to appoint a person of Lorna’s calibre and expertise. We hope she will be inspired by the collections within the National Library and beyond. We’re sure she will be able to bring her enthusiasm and experience together for the benefit of extending our understanding and appreciation of digitised and as yet undigitised collections to the world’s attention and benefit,’ said Andrew Green.

Professor Marc Clement, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales, also expressed his pleasure at the appointment:

‘The University of Wales is delighted to be instrumental in establishing this unique professorial post.  I feel certain that Professor Hughes brings exactly the right mix of experience and enthusiasm required to lead the innovative work of pioneering the Library’s new technological developments.’

Value of academic libraries

The American Library Association (ALA) has just published a useful report: ‘Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report’.

You can download the report from http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/