by Roshini
Pather
As
the Portfolio Head for Library Information Services I often wondered what
support we provide for postgraduate students in the Libraries.
A
few days ago I was at the Information and Communication Services (ICS) helpdesk
having my computer upgraded, when a tearful student rushed in crying: “Can you please help me, my entire thesis has
been deleted from my flash drive. And all
I was trying to do was print the copies for submission and all my files
disappeared.” “A common and frequent complaint”, said the gentleman from the
helpdesk. A staff member also waiting
for assistance, shared her experience of her PhD study and recounted how she
lost a year of her study when her computer crashed just as she saved the last
bit of her raw data. It took a whole
year to re-do that and currently she uses DropBox for everything.
This
got me thinking, as a librarian and university employee whose responsibility is
it to assist this student? Many students
do not have the necessary research or technology-related skills when they begin
their degree and supervisors do not have the
time to teach them these basic skills. Students
doing postgraduate studies are generally mature students, with family/life
responsibilities, have been out of the academic setting for a while, have
full-time work and are not necessarily up-to-date with technology and are at differing levels of technological literacy.
Was
it the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that the student is adequately
computer literate before embarking on the degree or the students? But this is not just about the student’s
computer literacy, what about her language proficiency, knowledge of
bibliographic management tools like Endnote, Refworks, plagiarism software -
Turn-it-in, statistical packages and the list goes on.
Is
this the domain of the Library, the subject specialist, the IT department or
the academic staff? Whose task is it to
train her in all these elements so that she is able to submit a thesis worthy
of examination and publication? Is it the librarian’s task only to teach them how
to use the library resources or to prepare them for lifelong learning and getting
that degree at the same time?
The
library is the first point of contact (and continuous contact) outside of the
academic leader or supervisor. Aren’t we
ideally placed to offer this support to students. The library is the visible part of the
Research portfolio and has the advantage of
being geographically placed. It may not be our area of expertise, but we have
the necessary competencies, skills and expertise. By being the first point of
contact and working daily with postgraduates, we can see where the issues and
questions arise, and the pressures they experience. Our key responsibilities is to provide
support and assistance to researchers.
As
a PhD graduate, I think the library can contribute a great deal to this
process. I would have valued some advice
and support at the beginning of my studies, tips if you want to call them:
·
Format your document right at the
Research Proposal stage with the headings, tables, footnotes, line-spacing,
etc,
·
Save your references according to your
chapters because once you reach submission stage and you have 300 some odd
references and want to check you have correctly cited them, then it is a
struggle to find that reference.
·
Use EndNote right from the start.
·
Save, save and save again. Nowadays you have DropBox, Microsoft’s
OneDrive, Apple’s ICloud, Google Drive, your flash drive and hard-drive.
Academic
libraries have changed tremendously in the last few years from their physical
spaces to how the service is provided.
Information resources are available in many different formats and
librarians are able to train users on how best to use them and therefore
understand how software is connected, which vocabulary to use, programming and
script languages and web design. Users
are using a variety of technology in their research. So smart (post-PC) devices are being used
more and more – and the librarians provide assistance with these devices and
understand the capabilities and limitations
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Research
Commons: Edgewood Campus
|
As
the student is our client, we should be able to assist or direct them to the
necessary expertise. Librarians’ roles
are evolving beyond that of information gatekeepers and this is largely being
dictated to by technology. Our services
and collections are changing and therefore our skill set should also adapt as
we are required to perform more and more non-traditional library functions. More importantly, in order to remain
relevant, and of value to our users, we should adapt to the changing
environment but bear in mind that the
traditional library will still remain for many years to come. Librarians should be embedded in the entire
research cycle right from the research proposal stage to final submission.
As
no single university department is capable of providing all postgraduate
services, there is an opportunity for libraries to capitalise and build on
their strengths in delivering services to the postgraduate community and to
strategically partner with Student services, Information Communication Services,
Research Office, Teaching and Learning, Writing Centre and Postgraduate offices/departments
to offer a diverse range of events, workshops and courses, which provide
critical communication, writing, teaching and professionals skills to postgraduate
students and researchers. Intentionally
or not, many of these partnerships will address the segmentation and differing
lifecycle stages of postgraduate students. At the same time this should be
matched with staff development programmes and in-house training to ensure that
our librarians are trained to assist in the research process.
