Preparing library staff for research support services at QUT

1. Preparing library staff for research support services at QUT Martin Borchert* Associate Director, Library Services (Information Resources and Research Support) Paula Callan Library Resource Services Deputy Manager CRICOS No. 00213J

2. Special thanks go to: Stephanie Bradbury Research Support Librarian Richard Dearden Branch Library Manager (Kelvin Grove Library) Donald Gee Research Computing Specialist Craig Milne Acting eResearch Access Coordinator and Data Librarian

3. The changing nature of research Research performance is receiving renewed focus amongst universities Our government is more interested in research performance than ever before Multidisciplinary research IT enabled e-research using data capture, computation, visualisation, storage and dissemination What e-research skills do researchers have, and what practices are they engaging in? What do they not know, and not do? See: Bradbury & Borchert(2010) Survey of eResearch practices and skills at QUT http://eprints.qut.edu.au/33111/ What new research support services will be required? What will be the role of the library? What training will library staff require? ...

4. Reviews - Research into research: Swan and Brown (2008) – JISC found that four careers could be distinguished including data creator, data scientist, data manager and data librarian. Lyn (2009) - UKOLN/Bath report, looked at the issues surrounding data-intensive open science including: large scale, high complexity and predictive potential; openness with respect to participation and lack of openness; potential for participatory citizen science; lack of incentive for data sharing; implications for institutional policy and practice; and potential future roles for libraries in data management. Markauskaite et al (2009) – U. Sydney & Intersect report – researchers is often multidisciplinary; likely to use spreadsheets and databases for data; often collaborative; likely to use to use digital data in relatively small volumes; likely to share their data; facing data management, storage and preservation issues; likely to require IT support; unlikely to be familiar with research support agencies; and most likely thought eresearch and IT were important to the future of their research.

5. Reviews - research into research support: Martinez (2007) found training requested to support metadata creation, institutional repositories, data sharing and curation, and identifying opportunities for engagement in eresearch. Garritan and Carlson (2009) say pre-existing knowledge and skills of faculty subject librarians can be used in data management and curation roles of e-science partnerships. Pryor (2009) looked at new roles for data management. Cochrane (2009) flags an opportunity for libraries to partially fill the gap. Soehner et al (2010) and Salo (2010) found many libraries are already getting prepared.

6. QUT Library + HPC research support services • Advanced Information Retrieval Skills (AIRS) • Borrowing services • Data analysis and visualisation • Document delivery • High performance computing and eResearch support • Liaison Service • Print and Online Information Resources • QUT Digital Repository • QUT ePrints (including digital theses) • Videoconferencing • Bibliometric reporting service • Collaborative technologies • Scholarly communication (including paid gold road open access) • Data collection, modelling and analysis • Research data management and External research data service • Research skills workshops and resources

7. Research Support Service Model • When and how the Library will contact all new academic staff “the interview script” and information pack • When and how the Library will make regular contact with all academic staff “KPIs” • Delivery of services (eg. bibliometric reports, information searches, training requests) • Coordination of seminars and workshops • Adding research outputs to QUT ePrints “assisted self-deposit” • Record keeping, statistics

8. QUT research support staff survey • Sept – Oct 2009 • Complemented the researcher survey (Bradbury & Borchert) • Used KeySurvey tool • Coffee voucher sent to every respondant • Target group included Liaison Librarians, Reference Librarians, Research Support Specialists in HPC, Library eServices Officers, Information Technology (IT) Helpdesk staff and selected Senior Management staff engaged in research support portfolios.

9. QUT research support staff survey • The survey was broad in scope and asked respondents a wide range of questions relating to eResearch support practices and how they learn about new advances in the practices, including: • list their top three eResearch training requirements; • indicate how they like to learn new technologies. The categories of eResearch skills questions (74 in total) were: • Scholarly communication practices • Using collaborative technologies • Data management practices • Managing different types of data • Using different data collection and analysis techniques. • Using visualisation tools • Using computation tools or activities • Provision of research support

10. The scale used for the Divisional Research support staff, including Liaison Librarians was:

11. Results To present a clearer picture of skill levels, the rating results presented as percentages in Figures 1-4 were combined as follows; ratings of: “Awareness only” was combined with “Aware: Can refer for further help” “Competent” was combined with“Advanced Skills”. 73 participants took the survey and 73 (100%) completed it. 

29. Research support staff development program

34. Conclusions • Understandably researchers and support staff have different training needs • Library staff prefer to learn through seminars/workshops • The training program has been successful in developing librarians’ knowledge • Librarians want more hands-on training • The training does not automatically lead to the provision of new research support services • A Library research support strategy and service catalogue is required, as well as performance management (KPIs etc)

35. Discussion. Please read the full paper 