By William
Dansoh with input from Rose Kuhn and Faith Magwaza
This
piece is an extract from the literature review of a study which focused on the
perspectives of key stakeholders (postgraduate students, librarians and
academics) on the provision of library research support (LRS) to postgraduate
students (PGS) in a tertiary institution (Dansoh, 2017).
It is a brief overview of some measures taken by some Australian
academic libraries to enhance the support they provide to researchers. Four
topics are briefly covered, namely, the five main research support services,
the creation of new positions responsible for research, the training of
research librarians and librarians writing and publishing academic papers.
The
Australian libraries were selected as an example of best practice. The educational contexts of the provision of
LRS in Australia and South Africa have similarities and differences yet South
African librarians are not far behind their counterparts in other countries
when it comes to research support. The intention of this piece is to identify
and adapt where possible some of the research support practices used in
Australian libraries. Reference is made
to what UKZN library is doing to support research.
Keller
(2015) focused on changes in Australian university libraries in relation to
supporting researchers. Specifically, the study examined how existing library
services, the job descriptions and key performance areas of subject or liaison
librarians had been modified to accommodate the emerging trend of the academic
library providing explicit support to researchers (Keller, 2015). Five main
academic library services which support research were identified as:
- Institutional
repositories,
- Open
access,
- Bibliometrics
and enhancement of research impact,
- Support
for research students (the focus of this study), and
- Research
data management (Keller, 2015, p.73).
Institutional
Repositories
A well-developed network of institutional
repositories exists in Australia. The
Institutional Repositories receive central support from the state and,
consequently, have common standards and policies. The publications in Institutional
Repositories comprise a mixture of full text journal articles and open access
journals.
The library collects and inputs the data. The centralised nature of the Institutional
Repositories enables the optimal capture of publications in an institution.
Institutional Repositories are an essential part of research assessment in
Australia. Research librarians are responsible for Institutional Repositories
in most universities (Richardson et al., 2012; Keller, 2015). At
UKZN the institutional repository (ResearchSpace) is managed by the library and
whilst containing mainly masters and PhD theses, shows a growing collection of
articles.
Open
Access
Open access is part of Institutional Repositories
in Australia. There is green and gold open access. Green open access is
supported by Australian research councils and involves “self-deposit” in a
repository while Gold open access involves publishing in an open access journal
which requires payment from the author to cover the cost of processing the
article (Keller, 2015). Some Australian universities and academic departments
provide funds for gold open access with the objective of making their research
output more visible and raising its impact factor (Keller, 2015). As part of
research support provision, Australian universities provide workshops to
researchers on publication strategies (Keller, 2015, Richardson et al., 2012). One of the
strategic objectives of the University of KwaZulu-Natal is ‘impactful research’.
The DVC Research in his opening statements at the International Open Access Week 2019: Designing Equitable Foundations
for Open Access at UKZN, highlighted
the importance of impactful research and its relevancy to industry, private
sector, government and society at large.
 |
| Prof D. Ramjugernath (left) delivering opening remark and Prof. J. Smit (presenter) at the International Open Access Week 2018. |
The support for Open Access at UKZN is growing
though in little pockets. So far UKZN library has held a number of OA advocacy campaigns.
 |
| UKZN Library Open Access Strategy Team |
There is a
growing trend in publishing in Gold Open Access by the Schools of Engineering,
Health Sciences and some Humanities authors. About 37 + UKZN authors publish on
Gold Open Access. ResearchSpace is a UKZN Institutional Repository (http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/) and publishes Masters and Doctoral theses and
articles. Open Access Journals (OJS) (https://journals.ukzn.ac.za/) is another joint initiative by the Library and
UKZN Journal Managers and editors/authors from Humanities, Health Sciences and
Social Sciences. UKZN OpenJournals indexes journals that subscribe to the Open
Access philosophy.
 |
| From left to right: Mr V Mbonye, Prof. B Mubangizi, Prof. J. Smit and Mrs Faith Magwaza. |
Bibliometrics
and enhancement of research impact
Researchers in Australia are encouraged to acquire
a good understanding of bibliometrics as it is an important component of
performance evaluation. Research-support
librarians consider themselves as ‘specialists and advisors’ in bibliometrics
which has been given the umbrella name of Research Impact (Keller,
2015). Librarians adopt a
comprehensive approach rather than simply explaining the h-index in isolation
by including all the stages in the research cycle and explaining the research
impact of each stage. Most Australian
libraries provide full support for each phase of the research cycle to
researchers. There has been an increase
in demand for research impact services in Australian libraries and this
constitutes a challenge to research support librarians because the required
skills are not taught in library schools. Librarians learn on the job with
occasional assistance from vendors who give presentations (Keller,
2015). UKZN library provides a number of tools that facilitate identification
of research impact such as the databases Scopus and ScienceDirect and related
tools such as SciVal but more needs to be done in terms of developing librarian
expertise in this area.
Support
for research students
Many Australian academic libraries have put in
place programmes and services specifically aimed at supporting higher degree
research (Masters and Doctoral) students since universities are rewarded
for successfully completed degrees, as is the case in other universities. Some
of these services are post-graduate orientation seminars or workshops in
research training. For example, individual consultations with students,
research seminar series, advanced
training in information literacy and tailor-made alert services for research
students (Keller, 2015, Richardson et al., 2012). Liaison librarians at the Australian Catholic
University personalize research support for research students by sending an e-mail to each higher degree research
student at the beginning of their studies and
offering to meet with them individually (Keller, 2015). UKZN library undertakes targeted outreach to
postgraduates in the form of one-on-one support; regular general and subject
specific training courses in information searching and retrieval and tools such
as Endnote, and offers support via Libguides and limited alert services. The
main libraries also provide very popular postgraduate research commons that are
open 24/7.
Research
data management
Most Australian
libraries are involved in research data management. The standards and policies relating to
research are centralised due to centralised funding. Research-data management in Australia was
driven by the ‘Seeding the Commons’ project which was funded by the Australian
National Data Service. According to
Keller (2015) this project required librarians to conduct structured interviews
with researchers in the various academic departments. Benefits of the interactions with
researchers were, “building a central registry of research collections” and
developing “a better understanding of the research life cycle” (Keller,
2015, p.79).There is a great variation in the levels at which Australian
libraries are involved in data management (Richardson et al., 2012). Some libraries advise researchers on how
to map, manage and preserve research data.
Data-management advice is also given to Masters and Doctoral students (Richardson
et al., 2012). This is an area
where UKZN libraries have just started to venture. UKZN will be using Figshare as
a repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a
citable, shareable and discoverable manner.
Focus of liaison librarians on
research support and the creation of research teams
In order to be more effective, research
librarians in Australia moved away from working autonomously as individuals and,
instead, work in teams. This ensures consistent levels of services and optimal
use of “shared systems and tools” (Keller, 2015, p. 80). In addition to
addressing subject-related queries from researchers, research librarians in
Australia are expected to possess a thorough understanding of research impact,
establish and maintain contacts with researchers, be active participants in
university committees which are responsible for research and contribute towards
the building and maintenance of institutional repositories and data collections
(Keller, 2015). UKZN library is constantly
looking at ways of improving research support in terms of direct and indirect
communication with researchers using different media as well as inclusion in
various university fora.
Definition of new positions
responsible for research
An
examination of the organisational charts of Australian universities by Keller (2015)
revealed three positions which are linked to library-research support apart
from liaison or subject librarians: institutional repository manager, research
data management specialist and research support co-ordinators. The first two
positions are self-explanatory so only the third position is briefly
explained. Research-support
co-ordinators are responsible for communication between academic departments
and librarians who are responsible for research support, the professional
development of research librarians and the “strategic advancement of
research-supporting services” (Keller, 2015, p.80). The position of research-support co-ordinator
cannot be found in all Australian universities and it is also not certain
whether this position will be permanent or will no longer be required when
library research support becomes a well-established component of the academic
library (Keller, 2015).
Training
research librarians
The transition from liaison and subject
librarians into research support positions cannot happen on its own. It must be accompanied by appropriate
training and institutional support infrastructure and mechanisms which should
all emanate from a broad institutional “ research support framework” (Zhao, 2014). The
transition experiences and the challenges faced by a liaison librarian in
Australia who became a data librarian were documented together with the lessons for the development of new skills
for research librarians which were identified (Brown et al., 2015).
Some of the implications for best practice that were highlighted are the
following:
- The
need for formal training to be supplemented with “informal training, mentoring
and support networks”;
- The
need to scope library roles “which support research to determine the skills and
expertise required within a team, faculty and the institution”; and
- The
need to acknowledge that librarians may need to possess an “in-depth knowledge
of the research process in specific disciplines” in order to work as a full
partner in the research projects (Brown et al., 2015).
Even
though the recommendations made by Brown et al., (2015) were made within the
context of training as a data librarian, they are applicable to librarians who
require training in any of the five main library-research support services
mentioned earlier in this chapter.
Research librarians
conducting original research and publishing
An academic activity that would
enable research librarians to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the
research process is conducting original research and publishing. Research and
publishing by librarians in this context should be part of the professional
development process in the provision of library research support. However,
conducting original research and publishing is not usually taught in Library
schools and so librarians do need support to develop these skills. Here are some methods that are used to support
librarians to write and publish academic papers in Australia and North America
- Informal
& formal mentoring,
- External
training,
- Peer
mentoring,
- Group
training. (Berg
et al., 2013, Sassen and Wahl,
2014).
Conducting original research and publishing promotes a deeper
understanding of the research process and better equips the research librarian
to perform her or his functions. It also
promotes evidence based librarianship. Finally, one may
ask - why bother about Library Research Support? – One justification among many
others is that knowledge production through research is one of the core
functions of our parent institution.
This is therefore an opportunity to be an integral part of the research
cycle and knowledge production process and at the same time, develop
professionally.
There are many possible lessons that can be learnt
from the Australian model of providing library research support, two of which
are the formation of “research teams” by librarians rather than working as
individuals and secondly, the provision of a series of library-led postgraduate
research seminars but with seminar content informed by expressed postgraduate
students’ research information needs. Finally,
a parting reflection from a retired librarian who has walked the paths of both
librarian and a postgraduate research student.
Postgraduate students, especially doctoral students, work under a lot of
stress, writer’s block, that chapter which would not come together in a
coherent form, looming submission deadlines… to mention a few the
stressors. Librarians can go the extra
mile to provide research support to “stressed” postgraduate students. I recently
met a senior academic at UKZN who completed his doctoral studies some 10 years
ago and he said “William, I still remember how you helped me in the library
when I was a frustrated student”. Going
the extra mile to support the researcher is remembered long after the service
is rendered and that can be rewarding.
.
References
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BROWN, A., WOLSKI, M. & RICHARDSON, J.
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DANSOH, W. A. 2017. The provision of library research support tp postgraduate students:
perspectives of key stakeholders in a tertiary institution: a case study Doctor
of Philosophy, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South
Africa.
KELLER, A. 2015. Research support in
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RICHARDSON, J., NOLAN-BROWN, T. & LORIA,
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Libraries, 43, 258 -277.
SASSEN, C. & WAHL, D. 2014. Fostering
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