Libraries supporting research communities – partners in scientific 

communication

Eystein Gullbekk, University og Oslo Library

Susanne Mikki,University of Bergen Library

LILAC 2012, GLASGOW

Outline: 

• The changing role of the library– Are we facing a dilemma?

• Challenges

• Strategic work

• Knowledge based  development– The needs of researchers

• Libraries’ competencies?

A dilemma?

• Can we identify current tasks and challenges faced by researchers and design tailored services that meet the new needs? 

Agents of change? 

Or supply on demand? 

We are challenged

• Accessability

• Durability

• Completeness

(Ball 2011)

We are challenged

• Accessability – Multiplicity of sources – Digital access

• Durability– Who is responsible? Increasingly complex question

• Completeness– Beyond a question of the local collections– Overlaps: global accessability and intensified communication

Challenging contextual factors of research and research support 

• International cooperation– Prestige, rankings, publications, funding, co‐authorship and shared credits

• International competition

• Funding regimes– Measurements, benchmarking, EU driven proposals 

• Multidiciplinarity– Areas rather than disciplines  

• From print to digital publications– Digitalisation, globalisation, critical evaluation

• Reduced gap between formal and informal scholarly communication – Blurred line between products and processes

• Competencies– social, personal , language, ICT, critical evaluation, administration 

Informal Scholarly Communication

Knowledge creation(Problem solving)

Experiment(Collecting statistics)

Verification/falsification

Hypothesis

Idea

Desire for knowledge(formulation of questions)

Formal Scholarly Communication

Publication

(Ball 2011)

Dissemination Media

• The Research Council of Norway: Open Access to results as condition for funding

• Blogs– http://www.hmml.org/news10/Blogs.htm– http://hmmlorientalia.wordpress.com/

• Social media (Facebook, academia.edu, mendeley, zotero)

• Preprint (Institutional repositories)• Primary data etc. (arXive, RePEc, GenBank, SSB…)

Competencies:  as addressed in the UiO project ”Quality in Ph.d.‐programmes”

Possible generic components?– Presenting your project

– Researchers and the information society  

– Adding knowledge in a globalised research community  

– The efficient researcher 

Hyllseth, 2012

Challenging contextual factors of research and research support 

• International cooperation– Prestige, rankings, publications, funding, co‐authorship and shared credits

• International competition

• Funding regimes– Measurements, benchmarking, EU driven proposals 

• Multidiciplinarity– Areas rather than disciplines  

• From print to digital publications– Digitalisation, globalisation, critical evaluation

• Reduced gap between formal and informal scholarly communication – Blurred line between products and processes

• Competencies– social, personal , language, ICT, critical evaluation, administration 

• The Universities of Oslo and Bergen Libraries: currently establishing dedicated units and functions in order to strengthen our research support

• Collaborative and knowledge based process

Policy (stakeholders)

“Cutting‐edge international research will be supported through strategic investments and cooperation related to research infrastructure.”(University of Oslo Strategy 2010) 

”UoO depends on researchers and research groups winning prestigious awards and quality based funding” (University of Oslo Annual Plan 2012 –2014, our translation)

”UoO will develop support functions and offer the professional development needed in order to support canididates suceed on these arenas”(University of Oslo Annual Plan 2012 – 2014, our translation)

Policy and stakeholders cont.

“The university's success in achieving international recognition must be demonstrated by achieving good results in recognised rankings, publishingextensively in respected fora, winning funding in international research programmes and ensuring that its researchers and students are attractiveparticipants in international research and educational partnerships.

The following priority areas will help achieve this main objective:• encouraging international publishing through good support and information 

services• continuing to develop the University Library as an infrastructure for 

research, and gaining• more funding for scientific equipment and other research infrastructure

(University of Bergen Strategy 2011 – 2015)

Information Management for Knowledge Creation (2010 – 2013)

• Literature review– 55 studies selected and 

reviewed

• Qualitative research– 3 focus group interviews 

(21 PhD‐students) 

– 2 focus group interviews (15 supervisors)

Selected findings• Need for efficiency

– Self‐sufficiency : a strong norm– Time management: signals self‐sufficiency – Use of information rescourses should help increase the 

efficiency

• PhD canditates use of information services– Habits established prior to PhD work – base for further 

learning 

• Perception of skills– High self confidence, but insecurity related  to gaining 

an overview– Libraries and librarians: operate according to a ”deficit 

model”

• Publishing

– Diciplin based variation: formal requirements vs informal pressures

– Random supervision 

Selected findings II

• Reported critria for successfull supervision (libraries)

– Integration of Information literacy with other research skills

– Make visible the complexities involved in information searches 

– Address multidiciplinarity

– Tailored services

– Market services better

– Strenghten knowledge about research processes

Selected findings III

Our libraries Annual Plans (2012‐2014)

Provide collections and services that enables us  to actively support UoO’s position as an international leading research institution– Internationalisation

– Competencies 

– Dissemination

– Impact

– Knowledge based development

Main challenge?

… could very well be our own competencies– the dilemma

– Identifying needs for the future / recruitment

– Changing organisation