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

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/

Launch of the Researcher Development Statement (RDS)

Launched this week, the Researcher Development Statement (RDS) is for policy makers and research organisations that provide personal, professional and career development for researchers in higher education. It sets out the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of effective and highly skilled researchers appropriate for a wide range of careers.

The Researcher Development Statement is derived from the Researcher Development Framework (RDF), a major new approach to researcher development, which aims to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build our research base. Researchers are critical to economic success, addressing major global challenges, and building a leading knowledge economy.

It recognises that information seeking and information literacy are key skills for researchers.

Download the Researcher Development Statement

More from:
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/275981/Launch-of-the-Researcher-Development-Statement-RDS.html

Emerging findings from Researchers of Tomorrow study

Emerging findings from the first annual report of a major three-year study into the information seeking behaviour of Generation Y doctoral students show that there are striking similarities between students born between 1982 and 1994 and older age groups.

Researchers of Tomorrow was commissioned by JISC and the British Library to establish a benchmark for research behaviour, against which future generations can be measured – and also to provide guidance for librarians, information specialists and policy makers on how best to meet the research needs of Generation Y scholars.

Generation Y students and older students concur on a number of areas:

-    Open access and open source – like students of other ages, Generation Y researchers express a desire for an all-embracing, seamless accessible research information network in which restrictions to access do not restrain them.  However, the annual report demonstrates that most Generation Y students do not have a clear understanding of what open access means and this negatively impacts their use of open access resources, so this is an area to be followed up in the next year.

-    Networked research environment – both Generation Y and older students express exasperation regarding restricted access to research resources due to the limitations of institutional licenses.  This is born from a sophisticated knowledge of the networked information environment and students regularly speak favourably about sector-wide shared services and resource sharing.

The research indicates, however, potentially interesting and important divergences between Generation Y and older doctoral students; for example, where students turn for help, advice and support and attitudes to their research environment.

-    Supervisor and librarian support – Generation Y scholars are more likely to turn to their supervisors for research resource recommendations than older doctoral students.  Also, 33% of Generation Y students say they have never used library staff for their support in finding difficult to source material.

-    Using library collections and services – Library collections are used heavily by students in their own institutions, but only 36% of Generation Y students have used inter-library loan services compared to 25% of older students, with 42% of arts and humanities students using these services regularly compared to 13% among science students.

Charles Hutchings, JISC’s market research manager, said, “What is striking about these interim results is the current overlap between the behaviours of these young researchers and their older counterparts. While JISC will use these studies to provide guidance for librarians, information specialists and policy makers across the UK on how best to meet researchers’ needs, we should also be aware that these behaviours are changing all the time with the advent of new digital tools for research.”

Find out more and read the report at http://www.researchersoftomorrow.net/

RLUK Announces Election of new Chair of the RLUK Board

RLUK is very pleased to announce that Phil Sykes has been elected Chair of the RLUK Board as of 1 July 2010.

Phil Sykes, University Librarian at Liverpool University since 2004, takes on the role of Chair at a time of great opportunities for research libraries, but also potential threats as public spending tightens. He said: “This is an enormously exciting time to be taking over as chair of RLUK. Our libraries are more central to the work of the universities they serve than they’ve ever been; they have more to offer than they’ve ever had; and the financial pressures we are under make it imperative that research libraries work creatively together to provide services that are both excellent and efficient.”

Phil Sykes was a speaker at the recent Welsh Libraries Conference in Llandrindod.

Research Excellence Framework – consultation outcomes

The four UK higher education (HE) funding bodies have announced the outcomes of the recent consultation on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – the new system for assessing research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs).

The consultation revealed overwhelming support for research to continue to be assessed though a process of expert review, and for the main factor in the assessment to continue to be the quality of research outputs produced by institutions.

There was widespread support in principle for an explicit assessment of the social and economic impact of research, subject to developing a robust methodology, and reservations about the weighting of this element within the overall assessment.

In the light of the consultation feedback the four funding bodies have made some refinements to the proposals and announced initial decisions about the general arrangements for the assessment.

A pilot exercise that will be vital in developing the method for assessing impact is currently in progress. It involves 29 UK HEIs and panels of experts made up of leading researchers and senior figures from a wide range of organisations that commission and use research including businesses, public sector bodies, charities and other third sector organisations. A full detailed announcement about the method for assessing impact and its weighting within the framework will be made after the pilot exercise has concluded in autumn 2010.

HEFCW Circular W10/12HE 

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/HEFCE/2010/ref.htm