PM7 South Africa 13-16th Aug 2007

The Librarian’s Guide to Researchers

Developing and managing effective LIS to support research and researchers

Pat Gannon-Leary, Moira Bent, Jo Webb.

PM7 2007

Background

Who we are The Book The British Academy

PM7 2007

Why this and why now

The Book RIN survey Timeliness Relevance

21st century research E / Web 2.0 justification

PM7 2007

Perceptions exercise

What do you think your researchers think?

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Outline for today

Where are we now – evaluating our services Perceptions of issues relating to libraries and

researchers Our survey and results Key issues Final thoughts

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Questions for you

How do you evaluate services to research in your library? What do you do? How often? How do you respond to results?

What do you think the issues are in terms of how libraries support research?

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Some of our perceptions were:

Libraries are decreasing in importance to researchers

Information is retrievable in other ways Print collections are less relevant Libraries are more about supporting T&L Libraries are developing into social learning

spaces

PM7 2007

The Survey

Purpose Approach

International dimension Methodology

Interviews – face to face/ email /phone Sample

The two ends of the spectrum 9 countries

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Sample spectrum

“I consider myself to be at the start of my research career, although I have been doing research for about 4 years” [Recent PhD graduate, South Africa]

“”I have 5 years to retirement but research is becoming more important in my career. I still have one, even though retirement is looming” [South African researcher]

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Results 1: Libraries are vital to researchers

Incredibly important Fundamental Vital Essential Indispensable ”on a scale of 1-10 the library is 20”

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Results 2 : Likes & dislikes

Open access Electronic resources Atmosphere – quiet Friendly professionals Speed of service

Closed stacks No full text access Noise, bustle Grumpy counter staff Organisational issues

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Key issues

Language Space Staff E

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Language

Scholarly communication in English Access issues Who is at an advantage? Might this change in future?

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Space

Less important but as holder of resources Sanctity of research library atmosphere Wow factor Escape from phone/ colleagues Browsing/ serendipity Library as university “icon” – to be proud of

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Staff

Patient Helpful Knowledgeable Skilled trainers Pedagogical expertise

94% mentioned librarian as first source of help

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E

Access Sharing Time saving Equity of access Alerting services Government info Data collation Quantity Organising what you find Limits research to what is easy“E has changed the way we do research”

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The end

Back to you – how did your original issues match with our findings?

So what should we do now? Rest on our laurels?