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Creating world-class researchers

As befits one of the leading technical universities in the Netherlands, Technische Universteit Delft (TU Delft) operates a significant research program in which its library staff is deeply involved.

According to Library Director Wilma Van Wezenbeek, the approach the university takes is to provide integrated support services to its researchers from a variety of departments including the library. ››

How to write a world class paper

As part of its program to equip students and researchers with all the skills they need, TU Delft organized in November 2011 a seminar entitled

“How to write a world class paper”. Within a week of announcing the seminar, the attendance was fully subscribed.

Van Wezenbeek says that this shows the level of enthusiasm among students and researchers for having their work published and their knowledge shared with their peers. “If we had offered the same information but used a more mundane title like say, ‘Introduction to the Library’ we might only have received about 10 per cent of the attendees we attracted,” she says. “It shows that output is important. Reputation is important. People really would like to write a world class paper.”

PhD researchers attending the seminar echoed this sentiment. One said that she hoped to learn ‘how to structure the paper and how to make the wording more attractive to the audience.’ Another said she hoped to learn ‘how to write a paper that is fun to read but conveys what I want to say in a technical way.’ A third was keen to get the extra edge needed to ensure any papers she wrote “were better than just average.”

Also of concern to one researcher was a more

detailed knowledge of how the selection process worked in the target journals. “I want to get some insight into what happens after I submit a paper and before I get an acceptance or rejection letter,” he said.

“I’d like to learn more about that.”

The seminar took its audience through the whole cycle of producing a paper for publication, says Van Wezenbeek, beginning with how one would start their research to obtain the material for such a paper. Vitally important is selecting the target journal to which to submit a paper once it is written.

Choice of journal depends on many things including its relevance to the subject, its credibility and its likelihood of achieving citations. “Sometimes it depends on what sort of student you are, and whether you are a first-time author or an experienced one,” says Van Wezenbeek. “If you are just starting off you need to realize what sort of journal you might want to send your paper to and what sort of peers you need to gather around you before you can submit a paper.”

Covering the entire scope of the production process was important, according to Van Wezenbeek “It is important to hear that all in perspective from beginning to end,” she says. “Sometimes you know just one part but you need to look at the integrated overview of the whole process from beginning to end with everything in between.” ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Case in point 1: TU DelfT, THe neTHerlanDs INTEGRATED SUPPORT FOR RESEARCHERS

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

from editor to librarian

Wilma Van Wezenbeek has experienced the world of scientific publishing from several viewpoints, culminating in her current role as Library Director at the prestigious Delft University of Technology (Technische Universiteit Delft) in the Netherlands.

A graduate of the same university, where she studied material science, she began her career as a desk editor in the journals division of STM information solutions provider Elsevier. She returned to TU Delft to work as a scientific information officer, then went back to Elsevier to work as a publishing editor in the portfolio of computational intelligence.

She let to join the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) where she was

tasked with setting up a publications’ office. “I had different perspectives of the whole publication process,” she says, “but the library was a perspective I had not seen before.”

In 2006, she joined the library at TU Delft and in August 2011 she was promoted to the position of Director.

Her varied career has offered her a special insight into the business of scientific publishing. Formerly she was involved in selecting and publishing scientific papers for a major publisher in that field; now part of her library’s responsibility is assisting students and researchers at the university in the process of writing and submitting learned papers for publication in similar journals. ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

›› “We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University,” she says. “We call it the research support project.”

Van Wezenbeek considers the research cycle to comprise four stages: idea discovery; securing funding; experimentation and analysis; and dissemination. The library has a role to play in all four stages but most intimately in stages one and four. For the initial stage, the library works closely with another department which has responsibility for monitoring the availability of grants, helping researchers to find projects and meet the appropriate deadlines. In terms of publishing and disseminating research papers, the library works closely with the university’s marketing and communications services to help promote the work the university carries out.

Naturally, the main support the library provides to researchers is the range of books and periodicals it houses, but that is only the start. “Nowadays it’s about far more than having books on stacks,” she says. “It’s about multimedia, it’s about datasets, it’s about courseware. We give our students and researchers information skills courses to help them find their way through all these resources and also learn how to use that information in a validated manner.”

As part of the information skills program researchers learn how to use software tools such as Endnote for managing references and social

media tools for collaboration. Van Wezenbeek points out that a technical university such as Delft has many students and faculty members who are familiar with the latest software tools, a factor that reinforces the wisdom of integrating support services from across the university. “As librarians, we can learn a lot from our own peers,” she says.

“Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search.” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

Research starts to blossomTo support a research workflow methodology the library provides a modular system called Tulip which researchers can access online. It includes a search facility called Discovery and modules which guide students and researchers through various stages of a typical research project, such as how to draw up a search plan and how to make use of references.

“What we always start with is the search plan,” says Van Wezenbeek. “Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search. They need to realize what sort of information they are allowed to take up.”.

One project in which the library is closely involved is a data centre project which not only catalogues and stores formal papers and theses produced by students, researchers and faculty. It also acts as a repository for raw research material that may have

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

been collected in the process of producing a paper intended for an academic publication but was not used in the final analysis.

“We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

“We say as a library that this data may be valuable for other people to use,” says Van Wezenbeek. “so we make it available to and searchable by researchers.”

As well as research support, Van Wezenbeek says the library has two other vital support functions to provide to the university, namely learning support and its value as an attractive physical space

conducive to learning. The latter is becoming more apparent as the content of the library becomes increasingly available in digital rather than hard-copy form.

The move to more digital content brings challenges for a librarian. “A virtual library is much bigger than our traditional physical library,” says Van Wezenbeek. “So it takes a lot of our efforts to make sure that we have a useful digital library for our users. We do a lot more than we did 10 years ago. We do training workshops for students and researchers. We have exhibitions. There are a lot of interesting things going on for our target group.”

Nevertheless she insists that the traditional library is here to stay. “In my opinion you will always have a virtual, digital and a physical component everything we do,” she says. “You can’t do without a physical library.” ■

PHOTOGR

APHY bY M

ARCO KLEIN

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

from editor to librarian

Wilma Van Wezenbeek has experienced the world of scientific publishing from several viewpoints, culminating in her current role as Library Director at the prestigious Delft University of Technology (Technische Universiteit Delft) in the Netherlands.

A graduate of the same university, where she studied material science, she began her career as a desk editor in the journals division of STM information solutions provider Elsevier. She returned to TU Delft to work as a scientific information officer, then went back to Elsevier to work as a publishing editor in the portfolio of computational intelligence.

She let to join the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) where she was

tasked with setting up a publications’ office. “I had different perspectives of the whole publication process,” she says, “but the library was a perspective I had not seen before.”

In 2006, she joined the library at TU Delft and in August 2011 she was promoted to the position of Director.

Her varied career has offered her a special insight into the business of scientific publishing. Formerly she was involved in selecting and publishing scientific papers for a major publisher in that field; now part of her library’s responsibility is assisting students and researchers at the university in the process of writing and submitting learned papers for publication in similar journals. ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

›› “We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University,” she says. “We call it the research support project.”

Van Wezenbeek considers the research cycle to comprise four stages: idea discovery; securing funding; experimentation and analysis; and dissemination. The library has a role to play in all four stages but most intimately in stages one and four. For the initial stage, the library works closely with another department which has responsibility for monitoring the availability of grants, helping researchers to find projects and meet the appropriate deadlines. In terms of publishing and disseminating research papers, the library works closely with the university’s marketing and communications services to help promote the work the university carries out.

Naturally, the main support the library provides to researchers is the range of books and periodicals it houses, but that is only the start. “Nowadays it’s about far more than having books on stacks,” she says. “It’s about multimedia, it’s about datasets, it’s about courseware. We give our students and researchers information skills courses to help them find their way through all these resources and also learn how to use that information in a validated manner.”

As part of the information skills program researchers learn how to use software tools such as Endnote for managing references and social

media tools for collaboration. Van Wezenbeek points out that a technical university such as Delft has many students and faculty members who are familiar with the latest software tools, a factor that reinforces the wisdom of integrating support services from across the university. “As librarians, we can learn a lot from our own peers,” she says.

“Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search.” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

Research starts to blossomTo support a research workflow methodology the library provides a modular system called Tulip which researchers can access online. It includes a search facility called Discovery and modules which guide students and researchers through various stages of a typical research project, such as how to draw up a search plan and how to make use of references.

“What we always start with is the search plan,” says Van Wezenbeek. “Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search. They need to realize what sort of information they are allowed to take up.”.

One project in which the library is closely involved is a data centre project which not only catalogues and stores formal papers and theses produced by students, researchers and faculty. It also acts as a repository for raw research material that may have

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

been collected in the process of producing a paper intended for an academic publication but was not used in the final analysis.

“We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

“We say as a library that this data may be valuable for other people to use,” says Van Wezenbeek. “so we make it available to and searchable by researchers.”

As well as research support, Van Wezenbeek says the library has two other vital support functions to provide to the university, namely learning support and its value as an attractive physical space

conducive to learning. The latter is becoming more apparent as the content of the library becomes increasingly available in digital rather than hard-copy form.

The move to more digital content brings challenges for a librarian. “A virtual library is much bigger than our traditional physical library,” says Van Wezenbeek. “So it takes a lot of our efforts to make sure that we have a useful digital library for our users. We do a lot more than we did 10 years ago. We do training workshops for students and researchers. We have exhibitions. There are a lot of interesting things going on for our target group.”

Nevertheless she insists that the traditional library is here to stay. “In my opinion you will always have a virtual, digital and a physical component everything we do,” she says. “You can’t do without a physical library.” ■

PHOTOGR

APHY bY M

ARCO KLEIN

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

from editor to librarian

Wilma Van Wezenbeek has experienced the world of scientific publishing from several viewpoints, culminating in her current role as Library Director at the prestigious Delft University of Technology (Technische Universiteit Delft) in the Netherlands.

A graduate of the same university, where she studied material science, she began her career as a desk editor in the journals division of STM information solutions provider Elsevier. She returned to TU Delft to work as a scientific information officer, then went back to Elsevier to work as a publishing editor in the portfolio of computational intelligence.

She let to join the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) where she was

tasked with setting up a publications’ office. “I had different perspectives of the whole publication process,” she says, “but the library was a perspective I had not seen before.”

In 2006, she joined the library at TU Delft and in August 2011 she was promoted to the position of Director.

Her varied career has offered her a special insight into the business of scientific publishing. Formerly she was involved in selecting and publishing scientific papers for a major publisher in that field; now part of her library’s responsibility is assisting students and researchers at the university in the process of writing and submitting learned papers for publication in similar journals. ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

›› “We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University,” she says. “We call it the research support project.”

Van Wezenbeek considers the research cycle to comprise four stages: idea discovery; securing funding; experimentation and analysis; and dissemination. The library has a role to play in all four stages but most intimately in stages one and four. For the initial stage, the library works closely with another department which has responsibility for monitoring the availability of grants, helping researchers to find projects and meet the appropriate deadlines. In terms of publishing and disseminating research papers, the library works closely with the university’s marketing and communications services to help promote the work the university carries out.

Naturally, the main support the library provides to researchers is the range of books and periodicals it houses, but that is only the start. “Nowadays it’s about far more than having books on stacks,” she says. “It’s about multimedia, it’s about datasets, it’s about courseware. We give our students and researchers information skills courses to help them find their way through all these resources and also learn how to use that information in a validated manner.”

As part of the information skills program researchers learn how to use software tools such as Endnote for managing references and social

media tools for collaboration. Van Wezenbeek points out that a technical university such as Delft has many students and faculty members who are familiar with the latest software tools, a factor that reinforces the wisdom of integrating support services from across the university. “As librarians, we can learn a lot from our own peers,” she says.

“Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search.” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

Research starts to blossomTo support a research workflow methodology the library provides a modular system called Tulip which researchers can access online. It includes a search facility called Discovery and modules which guide students and researchers through various stages of a typical research project, such as how to draw up a search plan and how to make use of references.

“What we always start with is the search plan,” says Van Wezenbeek. “Students and researchers need to have an idea what they’re looking for before they start their search. They need to realize what sort of information they are allowed to take up.”.

One project in which the library is closely involved is a data centre project which not only catalogues and stores formal papers and theses produced by students, researchers and faculty. It also acts as a repository for raw research material that may have

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

been collected in the process of producing a paper intended for an academic publication but was not used in the final analysis.

“We try to see the support role for the researcher as an integrated one involving other departments in the University” wilma van wezenbeek, library director, university of delft

“We say as a library that this data may be valuable for other people to use,” says Van Wezenbeek. “so we make it available to and searchable by researchers.”

As well as research support, Van Wezenbeek says the library has two other vital support functions to provide to the university, namely learning support and its value as an attractive physical space

conducive to learning. The latter is becoming more apparent as the content of the library becomes increasingly available in digital rather than hard-copy form.

The move to more digital content brings challenges for a librarian. “A virtual library is much bigger than our traditional physical library,” says Van Wezenbeek. “So it takes a lot of our efforts to make sure that we have a useful digital library for our users. We do a lot more than we did 10 years ago. We do training workshops for students and researchers. We have exhibitions. There are a lot of interesting things going on for our target group.”

Nevertheless she insists that the traditional library is here to stay. “In my opinion you will always have a virtual, digital and a physical component everything we do,” she says. “You can’t do without a physical library.” ■

PHOTOGR

APHY bY M

ARCO KLEIN

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Creating world-class researchers

As befits one of the leading technical universities in the Netherlands, Technische Universteit Delft (TU Delft) operates a significant research program in which its library staff is deeply involved.

According to Library Director Wilma Van Wezenbeek, the approach the university takes is to provide integrated support services to its researchers from a variety of departments including the library. ››

How to write a world class paper

As part of its program to equip students and researchers with all the skills they need, TU Delft organized in November 2011 a seminar entitled

“How to write a world class paper”. Within a week of announcing the seminar, the attendance was fully subscribed.

Van Wezenbeek says that this shows the level of enthusiasm among students and researchers for having their work published and their knowledge shared with their peers. “If we had offered the same information but used a more mundane title like say, ‘Introduction to the Library’ we might only have received about 10 per cent of the attendees we attracted,” she says. “It shows that output is important. Reputation is important. People really would like to write a world class paper.”

PhD researchers attending the seminar echoed this sentiment. One said that she hoped to learn ‘how to structure the paper and how to make the wording more attractive to the audience.’ Another said she hoped to learn ‘how to write a paper that is fun to read but conveys what I want to say in a technical way.’ A third was keen to get the extra edge needed to ensure any papers she wrote “were better than just average.”

Also of concern to one researcher was a more

detailed knowledge of how the selection process worked in the target journals. “I want to get some insight into what happens after I submit a paper and before I get an acceptance or rejection letter,” he said.

“I’d like to learn more about that.”

The seminar took its audience through the whole cycle of producing a paper for publication, says Van Wezenbeek, beginning with how one would start their research to obtain the material for such a paper. Vitally important is selecting the target journal to which to submit a paper once it is written.

Choice of journal depends on many things including its relevance to the subject, its credibility and its likelihood of achieving citations. “Sometimes it depends on what sort of student you are, and whether you are a first-time author or an experienced one,” says Van Wezenbeek. “If you are just starting off you need to realize what sort of journal you might want to send your paper to and what sort of peers you need to gather around you before you can submit a paper.”

Covering the entire scope of the production process was important, according to Van Wezenbeek “It is important to hear that all in perspective from beginning to end,” she says. “Sometimes you know just one part but you need to look at the integrated overview of the whole process from beginning to end with everything in between.” ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Case in point 1: TU DelfT, THe neTHerlanDs INTEGRATED SUPPORT FOR RESEARCHERS

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Creating world-class researchers

As befits one of the leading technical universities in the Netherlands, Technische Universteit Delft (TU Delft) operates a significant research program in which its library staff is deeply involved.

According to Library Director Wilma Van Wezenbeek, the approach the university takes is to provide integrated support services to its researchers from a variety of departments including the library. ››

How to write a world class paper

As part of its program to equip students and researchers with all the skills they need, TU Delft organized in November 2011 a seminar entitled

“How to write a world class paper”. Within a week of announcing the seminar, the attendance was fully subscribed.

Van Wezenbeek says that this shows the level of enthusiasm among students and researchers for having their work published and their knowledge shared with their peers. “If we had offered the same information but used a more mundane title like say, ‘Introduction to the Library’ we might only have received about 10 per cent of the attendees we attracted,” she says. “It shows that output is important. Reputation is important. People really would like to write a world class paper.”

PhD researchers attending the seminar echoed this sentiment. One said that she hoped to learn ‘how to structure the paper and how to make the wording more attractive to the audience.’ Another said she hoped to learn ‘how to write a paper that is fun to read but conveys what I want to say in a technical way.’ A third was keen to get the extra edge needed to ensure any papers she wrote “were better than just average.”

Also of concern to one researcher was a more

detailed knowledge of how the selection process worked in the target journals. “I want to get some insight into what happens after I submit a paper and before I get an acceptance or rejection letter,” he said.

“I’d like to learn more about that.”

The seminar took its audience through the whole cycle of producing a paper for publication, says Van Wezenbeek, beginning with how one would start their research to obtain the material for such a paper. Vitally important is selecting the target journal to which to submit a paper once it is written.

Choice of journal depends on many things including its relevance to the subject, its credibility and its likelihood of achieving citations. “Sometimes it depends on what sort of student you are, and whether you are a first-time author or an experienced one,” says Van Wezenbeek. “If you are just starting off you need to realize what sort of journal you might want to send your paper to and what sort of peers you need to gather around you before you can submit a paper.”

Covering the entire scope of the production process was important, according to Van Wezenbeek “It is important to hear that all in perspective from beginning to end,” she says. “Sometimes you know just one part but you need to look at the integrated overview of the whole process from beginning to end with everything in between.” ■

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more

Case in point 1: TU DelfT, THe neTHerlanDs INTEGRATED SUPPORT FOR RESEARCHERS

Visit www.powertothelibrarian.com to learn more