Reskilling for Research

A practical workshop for information professionals

Section 1: Researchers information needs

Jenny Cameron September 2015

Workshop program

• Analysis of researchers’ information needs

• Supporting the publication process

• Social media for researchers

• Managing stuff: information and data

tips and tools for researchers & librarians

• Wrap-up

New opportunities

Training tips

Introduction

What is your background?

What are you hoping to get out of today?

Part 1:

Analysis of Researchers

Scholarly Information and Training Needs

Researchers needs

• Why?

• What?

• Different career stages

• Different disciplines

• What are you currently doing?

• What might you start doing?

Why do we need to understand needs?

• Librarians run the risk of being bypassed “Academic libraries are increasingly being

disintermediated from the discovery process”

• Researchers are not an homogenous group

• Success in research a key indicator of the success of a university

• Researchers are in need of professional development Librarians can seize opportunities to assist

We need to understand where they are coming from

RLUK report

RLUK = Research Libraries UK 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

Conducted for RLUK by Mary Auckland, January 2012

• With the rapid changes in the research landscape the role of the library in supporting research must change

• It maps the requirements of researchers with the skills of subject/liaison/support librarians

• It finds a skills gap in nine key areas where future involvement by librarians is considered to be important now and is also expected to grow sharply

RLUK report: skill gaps identified

Knowledge of or ability to advise on: (beginning with highest importance)

• Preserving research outputs • Data management and curation • Support researchers in complying with funding mandates, including

open access requirements • Data manipulation tools used in the discipline/ subject • Data mining • Advocate, and advise on, the use of metadata • Preservation of project records e.g. correspondence • Sources of research funding to assist researchers to identify

potential funders • Skills to develop metadata schema, and advise on discipline/subject

standards and practices, for individual research projects

Researcher Professional Development

What? • Knowledge and intellectual abilities (includes subject

knowledge, research methods, information seeking, information literacy and management)

• Personal effectiveness (includes personal qualities, self-management – includes learning tools and tricks to manage time and information better, professional and career development)

• Research governance and organization • Engagement, influence and impact (Includes collaboration,

communication and dissemination, engagement and impact) See Vitae Researcher Development Framework (2011)

Researcher Development Framework

Researcher training needs

University of Adelaide survey 2015:

• Demand for research support training on:

choosing journals to publish with

Bibliometrics; altmetrics

social media and research profiles

open research data

• Mix of training delivery methods preferred:

71.9% workshop

51.3% online tutorial

Researchers information seeking behaviours

From CIBER 2008 Information behaviour of the researcher of the future (Cited in Ch 2 RLUK report): • Researchers use Google as a starting point for information

discovery (not only GenY do this) • “Everyone exhibits a bouncing/flicking behaviour which

sees them searching horizontally rather than vertically. Power browsing is the norm for all”

• Users are “promiscuous, diverse and volatile” • Librarians have to work hard to demonstrate they can add

value to literature searching efforts • Researchers often see training as not specific enough for

their needs

Researchers information seeking behaviours

From Ithaka S+R|Jisc|RLUK UK Survey of Academics 2012:

• Discovery starting points differ by disciplinary grouping

• If resources not easily available: a greater number of respondents give up than utilise document supply services

• Most important role of library seen as purchaser of needed resources

• Pre-prints are important, but few report citing them

Interesting podcast by Carol Tenopir (2013) about scholarly reading habits: #papers read each year increased, time spent reading decreased 35% per paper

Different career stages

• Higher degree students

• Early career researchers

• Experienced researchers

Higher Degree Students

• Needs – different at beginning, middle and end: Information literacy skills

Induction to research culture

Technology tools (they are not necessarily early adopters)

• Challenges: Time management

NESB, cross-cultural issues

Are heavily influenced by supervisors

Embarrassment to show they don’t know

PhD students: Researchers of tomorrow

• PhD students don’t always let on to their supervisor when their IL skills are lacking, and the supervisor doesn’t think to refer them to their librarian. It is up to the librarian to “assertively establish contact with doctoral students” (p.214)

• PhD students are highly sceptical of services that they fear are irrelevant to them, and of librarians who don’t understand their specific needs. The authors found the majority of librarians are unfamiliar with the doctoral study process. We need to understand the appropriate “zones of intervention”

Fleming-May, R & Yuro, L 2009, 'From Student to Scholar: The Academic Library and Social Sciences Ph D

Students' Transformation', Portal-Libraries and the Academy, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 199-221.

• Google or Google Scholar was the main source of information for 30% of all students, and Gen Y is the same: 30%

• Gen Y students are less likely to regularly consult library staff and more likely than other age groups to rely on supervisors’ recommendations on research resources

Education for Change Ltd. 2009, Researchers of Tomorrow: A three year (BL/JISC) study tracking the research behaviour of 'Generation Y' doctoral students

Early Career Researchers • Needs:

Publishing strategies Navigating research funding To tap into networks Data portability – cloud based systems

• Challenges: Short term contracts, move between projects Learning new technologies: "Despite many ECRs being

interested in trying out new technologies, 72% of early career researchers reported that they did not even use Web 2.0 or social media to share their research"

More established researchers can discourage early career researchers from using, or promoting, these systems.

JISC 2009, Lives and technologies of early career researchers

Experienced researchers

• Needs: Updated information literacy skills Personal effectiveness Research impact data Data management Learn new technologies, social media

• Challenges: Time poor Reluctance to change, may be sceptical of new technologies Unwilling to admit lack of skills Possibly less collaborative (“norms of secrecy in research

practice”)

Disciplinary differences

• Scientists more likely to be using research technologies, self-archiving, disseminating

• Social scientists more reluctant to use new technologies, e.g. less likely to Tweet or use a laptop at a conference [this appears to be changing]

• “The culture of the discipline dictates how and what information is stored”

• Motivations to publish in different formats differ significantly across disciplines Connaway, LS and Dickey, TJ. (2009) Towards a profile of the researcher of today: what can we learn from JISC projects? http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/418/2/VirtualScholar_themesFromProjects_revised.pdf

What are you currently doing?

?

New areas?

• Efficiency/collaborative tools?

• Research grants? Funding sources, writing assistance, project team

• Ethics? Get closer to understanding the process

• What else can you think of? – Reach supervisors, influential people

– Data management

– Improve skills of library staff, e.g. 23 “things”