The aim of this presentation will be twofold. Firstly, it will seek to counteract the vast amount of guff currently being produced about leadership. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of discourse on techniques, styles, models and philosophies of leadership. Taken as a whole its sheer bulk is very intimidating and therefore risks having a chilling effect on those information professionals who are interested in the field.
Secondly, the presentation will seek to defend library leadership from leadership philosophies imported from other fields. Contrary to various opinion pieces in recent library literature, the presenter will claim that “library leadership” exists as quite distinct from other forms of leadership. He will argue that we should advance our thinking about it just as we would our thinking about library spaces or library services.
Since the whole idea of library leadership is relatively recent, this would of course involve continuing to value ideas that had matured in other domains, such as servant leadership, or introspective leadership. However, it would also acknowledge that leadership in libraries had a unique contribution to make to a field far too dominated by military, political, sporting and other domains.
The presenter will further suggest that in this “sea of change” the capacity to give leadership away may, somewhat paradoxically, be one aspect of this unique contribution. In other words, for the library to be an effective laboratory or incubator at a time of rapid change, directors and others in leadership positions will want to get their egos out of the way of the many good ideas brought to them by their more capable and specialized colleagues. This is not an abdication of duty: accountability is unchanged, leadership has to be given away wisely, and there will still be plenty of it left to do.Commencing in late 2013 and continuing through 2014, the University of Melbourne, a research-intensive and highly ranked Australian university, undertook an extensive review of all services and business processes. This review, known as the Business Improvement Program, ultimately led to a complete reconceptualization of the University’s operating model, the most significant in its 160 year history. The scale of the change was sweeping and the speed was audacious, resulting in the implementation of a new shared-services model across the University known as the Melbourne Operating Model. The entire University has been reorganized according to the principles of this operating model.
The model has three core elements – Chancellery (responsible for leadership of overarching University strategy, policy, brand and capital); Academic Divisions (or Faculties and Schools), and University Services where the operational activities of the University are grouped together as shared services to support Academic Divisions (Faculties) to deliver on their teaching, research and engagement agendas.
How did the Library fare? As a formal organizational unit, the University Library ceased to exist. The University Librarian took on the mantle of University Librarian & Executive Director, Collections and was placed in Chancellery to provide strategic direction and policy oversight to the Library as well as to the University’s other cultural collections located in Faculties. However Library services, delivered by the two directorates of Scholarly Information and Research and Collections, were positioned as operational units within the Academic Services division of University Services, so that both Directors (who formerly reported to the University Librarian), now report to the Executive Director for Academic Services.
In this presentation the authors outline the background and rationale of the Business Improvement Program at the University of Melbourne and describe the current organizational structure under the Melbourne Operating Model. They discuss how the Model has impacted the Library’s operational activities and priorities within the wider Academic Services context and how operational separation from the strategic leadership of the University Librarian position has been managed.Academic libraries increasingly align services alongside research and learning cycles of scholarship. At Queen’s University, the Library and University Research Services (URS) work together to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of this alignment. With a focus on scholarly publishing and research impact, this paper will situate our case study in the context of university and library governance models and current Canadian research policies.
We will focus on selected initiatives, how they pool resources, exploit expertise, and give researchers single and clear points of information and service. One current project aligns the library’s research repository, QSpace, with new research administration tools, Tools for Research at Queen’s (TRAQ). Amongst other modules, TRAQ includes a C.V. and annual reporting module, Faculty 180. There are several goals for this project including: notifying faculty at point of grant receipt of national funder open access mandates, populating curriculum vitae from library databases, and automating deposit of articles from Faculty180 into the repository, QSpace, minimizing effort on faculty. In addition to technical coordination, liaison librarians and URS trainers will deliver joint training to faculty on processes for seamless population of all aspects of their scholarly achievement into both the C.V. repository and QSpace. Through these initiatives both Queen’s researchers and administrators benefit from a comprehensive profile of institutional outputs with the potential for greater exposure of open access publications. A Scholarly Communications Working Group with membership from the Library and URS oversees events like Open Access Day and ongoing advocacy. More recently we are coordinating institutional research metrics generation and reporting, along with Institutional Research and Planning.
We will conclude by sharing plans for future projects to continue leading together at Queen’s University.
As senior leaders retire from academic libraries across North America, the profession is experiencing significant change and new opportunities for growth. Preparing the next generation of library leaders is crucial to the success and sustainability of our organizations. This paper will consider the role of middle managers and project managers in the leadership development of their peers.
Leading from the side or from middle management, with varying levels of authority, presents a variety of unique challenges and opportunities. Middle managers have frequent, direct contact with librarians and, through performance management, have opportunities to facilitate the professional and leadership development of their colleagues. Project managers have opportunities to work with colleagues at varying stages in their careers and across departments, broadening their network of influence. These leaders can build and sustain a culture where team members and direct reports are empowered to experiment with new initiatives and are encouraged to learn from successes and failures.
This paper will discuss how leaders in the middle of the organizational structure can help develop the leadership skills of their peers and direct reports through mentorship, peer-training, delegation, formal development programs, informal cohorts, and other strategies, sharing lessons learned from managing project teams and librarians.
Visiting the Dalhousie University campus provides a unique opportunity to see not just one, but two freshly constructed Learning Commons. The first, the Wallace McCain Learning Commons (an extension to our Life Sciences Centre), was opened in October 2015 – a LEED Gold candidate with environmental design features and multifunctional, student-centric, collaborative and individual work spaces. The second, the Kellogg Library Learning Commons in the brand new Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB), was opened in January 2016 – a compact, high-density learning commons with various types of work spaces to support interdisciplinary work and social learning interactions among the various health disciplines.
Planning and design of new learning commons does not end with ribbon-cutting and the opening of doors. Opportunities for changes and improvements arise as students, staff and faculty fill these spaces and begin to use, interact with, and repurpose elements of the design, the furniture, the services and resources. To seize these opportunities in a timely manner, learning commons staff employed “guerrilla”-style assessment tactics (unconventional, simple and tailored specifically for the space and concerns at hand) in order to ascertain user satisfaction, user behaviour and what changes were necessary to create a better fit between user and design.
This paper proposes a practical assessment model that focuses on students’ performance-related variables, for which information literacy (IL) is designed and delivered. High satisfaction rates about library instruction do not always correlate with user’s performance level on evaluating information online and sourcing quality information; the findings from the case study at Cape Breton University (CBU), Nova Scotia, Canada, provides a potential solution to the current challenge in the assessment process.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The author launched a research project called Assessment as Learning Project: Online Surveys with Immediate Formative Feedback at CBU by designing and developing two online surveys for students who are taking courses in the School of Arts and Social Sciences. A 30-minute pre-survey (FluidSurveys & Moodle) includes seventeen exercise questions and consists of eighty-eight pieces of feedback in total. Fifteen questions are new, with the exception of two questions adapted from The Effectiveness of a University's Single-session Information Literacy Instruction (Hsieh & Holden, 2010). The pre-survey allows students to gauge their ability to assess credibility, accuracy, authority, and/or currency. Students can also learn how to develop their IL skills by reading the feedback that pops up immediately after students choose their answer. The pre-survey was delivered before a major assignment during the Winter semester. A 20-minute post-survey, including seven new exercise questions, was delivered at the end of the semester. The post-survey was designed to remind students of what they learned from the pre-survey.
Many exercise questions include a quotation from a source. The sources vary and include comments on a historical figure, biography that includes historical accounts on non-Western cultures, data that pertains to emotionally disturbing experiences, and news articles that can commonly be shared through social media (e.g., http://yumetsub.site11.com/quiz_sample.html). This paper includes an analysis on the data from the surveys, for example, students’ progress on their IL skills.
Findings
The results from the surveys indicate three potential benefits. First, given a reflective learning opportunity, students can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their information literacy skills and learn how to improve their skills. Second, students can learn what kind of questions they can ask librarians because feedback indicates what kind of questions librarians can answer. Third, instructors/faculty can save the time to repeatedly teach students not to use certain types of sources in their assignments since the surveys explain and bring awareness to this for the students.
Practical implications/Value
If students are overconfident in their abilities to search, find and evaluate information, they risk underestimating the challenge of finding and using quality information online; thus helping them foster critical self-reflection is one way to mitigate the problem. An example is demonstrated by the assessment surveys that include various types of sources and provide guidance of how to consult a person, tool, or platform as a source of information. The assessment was tested in various disciplines in the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The results indicate a number of potentials to use and develop the surveys: for example, they can be incorporated into a curriculum assignment.
Student retention becomes priority to university administrators in times of economic recession as the one we face today in many parts of the globe. Student retention is a hot topic across different segments of the university as higher education reports a decline in enrollment in many parts of the world. Thus, student retention becomes a priority as part of the strategy to off-set declining enrollment and revenues. Therefore, student retention and graduation rates are important to higher education. The raison d’etre of any business is the returning customer. In education, the customer is the student who returns year after year until he or she graduates. This study will focus on how academic libraries can be leaders in their Institutions by adopting a user centered philosophy and services that will promote life-long learning, enhance students’ academic experience, and promote engagement - which the literature and pertinent research identifies as key elements for student retention.
The paper presents reports of earlier researches which correlated educational initiatives considered as high-impact practices with higher education student persistence. Having this discussion as a background, the paper addresses findings of studies which, in a more specific way, correlated library initiatives and services with student retention and proposed practical actions that academic library administrators can take to enhance student persistence. The author contends that libraries can contribute to student retention in two different but rather broad ways. It can (1) identify the measures that the Institution is adopting and thenceforth elaborate strategies to develop and promote services, programs, and information products that will support those initiatives infusing them with increased meaning, and (2) develop unique services of its own that will enhance students’ engagement and augment their academic experience.
The paper proposes that the following areas have an impact in higher education quality and thus, student engagement and retention: library as a partner rather than a mere collaborator to the educational endeavor; Information literacy for undergraduate research; Enhancement of students’ first year experience; the role of strategic planning and assessment; libraries and institutional analytics; aligning the library with student’s learning styles; identifying and creating learning spaces.
These are areas where the library can excel and lead the way to academic quality and student’s retention expected rates.
“ No one can survive alone in this world”
Everyone wants to be in groups for personal social and cultural needs, from long time human beings are learning and developing themselves from each other activities and help, the same rule is applicable to Library and information centers as well as librarians.
With the same need of collaboration and cooperation is started in Libraries. If various Libraries, archives come together they can support and enhance lifelong learning opportunities, preserve community heritage, and protect and provide access to information. When we think about Collaborative Librarianship it includes various programs cooperative purchasing and sharing the library resources, collaborative librarianship also includes faculty and staff networking programs, information literacy programs and librarians network.
As per OCLC “Almost a decade into the 21st century, we can see that increasing technological and social changes impact how all individuals and groups cooperate. Coming from a long tradition of sharing, libraries may be better-suited than other industries to benefit from increased cooperative opportunities.”
In India various library collaboration projects like UGC (University Grants Commission)/INFLIBNET (Information & Library Network) Consortium , DELNET, info-librarians, INDEST- AICTE (Indian Digital Library in Engineering Science & Technology), Young Librarians associations, FORSA (Forum for Resource Sharing in Astronomy) are running successfully, various publishers are tying up cooperation policies with technical institute and government where the cost of E-resources has been reduced. Various association are working for professional development for librarians in India and Institutional membership schemes are getting popular day by day, but still there are some gaps in system as it is developing country and library budgets are shrinking so a strong collaboration policy required for Indian Libraries.
This paper will try to focus on the current status of Library collaboration in India.
This paper is about the organisational changes required to staffing capacity and staff capability to conduct Library business as services are re-oriented from physical to online. Rethinking organisational needs is part of our Library of the Future initiative in which we have rethought service design and delivery by adopting a co-design framework for planning.
Our organisational support of University needs in learning, teaching and research activities has been shaped by consideration of capacity & capability involving workforce planning and internal reviews. The Library has historically reviewed roles, particularly vacant ones, managing to absorb demands within existing resources by changing workflows and responsibilities. However, that's not sustainable and we'll require additional staff to meet new/revised business activities in the following areas:
Our focus is turning away from traditional library qualifications as the main source of expertise to recruitment from other professions. New staff bring new capabilities; development of existing staff pose challenges requiring different solutions. Our Staff Development & Training Plan is supported by ALERT (AUT Library Educate Refresh Train) programme and includes:
LoTF involves on-going planning of work and resource allocation over short, medium and longer term time frames where appropriate co-design methodologies are identified.
This presentation offers an overview of our LoTF initiative focusing upon Rethinking Organisation and the impact upon Services.
Research shows that academic leaders fail for two primary reasons. One, they see a limited or inaccurate picture and as a result set the wrong course, and, two, they fail to take people with them – implement change too fast, act too unilaterally and or without an appreciation of the culture of the organization. Reframing is an intentional process of changing conceptual viewpoints, or frames of reference, in relation to a situation that uncovers additional perspectives, realities, and meanings.
In their book Reframing Academic Leadership (2011) Bolman and Gallos, two well regarded researchers of organizational behaviour, have addressed the complexity of leadership in higher education and have identified four frames through which leaders can examine situations: a structural frame, a human resources frame, a political frame, and a symbolic frame. If leaders are mindful and explore situations through the lens of all four frames, then fewer barriers are encountered when leading change. In our paper we will apply the practice of reframing to current Western Libraries’ organizational change initiatives; the implementation of a new strategic plan and an organizational re-design resulting from a workforce analysis project. The frames will guide the development of strong change management process that will be the key to a successful implementation of our plans.
The Research Library at Los Alamos National Laboratory spearheads open access, data management and sharing, and researcher impact initiatives across the Lab. From dialog in response to the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) February 2013 Memo, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” to committee formation to implementation plans, the Research Library engages researchers and seeks solutions. Communicating science in terms of scholarship, data and impact involves the creation of Lab policy, author tools and new services. Clear workflow and broad education initiatives are critical to successful implementation, as well as strategic partnerships with authors, leadership and external collaborators.
National mandates and policies influence Laboratory practice. Los Alamos policies must reflect the funding requirements of the United States Department of Energy and a range of other funders. Research Library staff performed an external environmental scan of funder requirements and institutional open access policies, and then adapted text for Lab needs. Input from the Legal and Policy offices together with author input influenced final wording. The policy, which also addresses data management and sharing, is now part of a broader procedure document.
New tools and services were created to facilitate policy and workflow. A publicly available institutional repository was launched that both addressed federal mandates and highlighted Los Alamos’ institutional vitality. Impact tools and services such as ORCiD and Kudos have been adopted, and Research Library staff work with authors to understand impact and select the most relevant discipline-specific options. Data initiatives flow across the Lab, with the work of the Data Working Group and a visit from Purdue University librarians influencing current and future directions.
An overarching goal of Research Library staff is to make it easier for researchers to do the right thing. This goal is reflected in our approach to education, outreach and workflow. This paper discusses strategies, initiatives and the road ahead for communicating science at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Scholarly social networking sites have become a common part of today’s academic discourse. These include personal profile and sharing sites likeAcademia.edu, and Research gate, subject specific sites like Philpapers or Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and citation sharing sites like Mendeley as well as many general and specialized blogs.
As well as sharing information and ideas these sites index scholarly publication and citations and often collect full-text. Millions of journal article can be located from these sites.
This session/paper will explore the benefits and growing importance of scholarly social networking, and its major role in has promoting the visablity, open accessiblity and impact of academic research. It will also document the wide range of issues related to scholarly social networking websites which need to be addressed. Including concerns about commercialization, reliability, inconsistency, copyright control, and ease of manipulation.
The session will outline progress on standardization, quality control, transparency. it will look at the key role academic libraries can play in the steps needed to address these issues, while maintaining the benefits of scholarly social media.
With the advance of technology, academic libraries play a key role in supporting researchers throughout the knowledge creation cycle.
This paper focuses on the strategies undertaken by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Library to align its services and organization with these new priorities. It took place at a time when universities worldwide are placing increasing emphasis on research performance evaluation, institutional benchmarking and international rankings. New opportunities arose for the Library to contribute to the university’s research endeavors and demonstrate the value of its services to university administrators. These included, for example, supporting the university’s Research Assessment Exercise, providing copyright clearance services for research outputs, the development of the Institutional Research Archive to increase accessibility to the university’s research outputs, and facilitating faculty members to increase their research visibility.
Other than providing one-on-one research consultation and subject-based research skills training for students and research staff, the Library was called upon by university administrators to provide professional advice on selecting assessment tools for research impact analysis. Awareness of the Library’s research services, and Library’s engagement with the research community was much enhanced by the university’s requirement for all academic staff to register for an ORCID ID with technical assistance and training provided by the Library.
Currently, the Library is collaborating with the University’s planning office to help researchers to clean up their Scopus Author IDs, to facilitate analysis of the university’s research strength. All these new initiatives necessitate the reallocation of manpower, the setting up of new functional units, redefining roles, and ultimately bring about a transformation of library services.
Spatial accessibility is the first basic accommodation that libraries can facilitate. Libraries can cater to patrons who have mobility and physical access needs by providing capabilities such as automatic door buttons and low-height study tables, chairs and drinking water fountains.
A second kind of accommodation need is found in access to e-collections. The dramatically increasing volume of e-resources in the Internet era creates an enormous barrier for users with impairments. Some e-books do not integrate well with the assistive technology and adaptive technology that users with impartments require. For example, the Kurzweil 3000 application allows its users to manage their personal digital content, highlight text, insert notes, listen to e-books via the text-to-speech, and magnify text. However, many publishers’ e-book planforms do not allow users with impairments to use all the accessibility functionalities of the Kurtzweil application. This creates a significant information access barrier for library patrons with impairments, often requiring them to spend more time to absorb information, compared to users with minor or no impairments.
The third kind of accommodation need relates to web content. To respect the Web Accessibility laws in Canada, at both federal and provincial levels, law libraries have to ensure that all web content complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, a well-established international guideline and standard.
This presentation will demonstrate how the University of Ottawa’s Brian Dickson Law Library has been addressing these accessibility challenges and providing accommodations for space, e-collections, and the Web for their users with impairments. We will also give a brief live technical demonstration of how to make law library websites compliant with WCAG 2.0 and how to use the assistive technologies to help users with impairments. This session does not require the audience to have high level of computer technical knowledge. The presentation will be given by the Library’s Director and a law librarian.
The integration of Student Achievement programs (ie: tutoring centers, writing centers and math centers) and Faculty Excellence-in-Teaching programs into a new or newly renovated library is becoming commonplace. With this integration come new opportunities for collaboration between and across academic disciplines and with library staff. This trend will be examined through the lens of an architect, focusing on the following:
Academic libraries, newly recreating themselves as centres for learning on campus, are providing new informal learning spaces for their students. We then judge the spaces to be successful because students use them. But, we do not know how students perceive these spaces as learning spaces. Students come to the library to conduct their intentional or self-regulated learning. How do the spaces they use for their learning activities support their learning? Or, do students just use the spaces because they have no choice and adapt their learning activity to their surroundings? These are some of the questions that a study of student learning behaviours in informal learning spaces in an academic library will address. The study will be conducted in early 2016. Students will be interviewed regarding their perception of the spaces that they use in relationship to the learning activities that they need to undertake. The goal of the study is to determine the features in open learning spaces that assist students in their learning. This paper will review the background and design of the particular academic library in the study, present an overview of the research study and discuss the preliminary results of the study. The focus of the paper will be a discussion of the students’ perceptions of the relationship between their learning behaviors and design of the spaces they use.
The results of this study will go towards assisting librarians and administrators in establishing useful learning spaces that support student self-regulated learning. By improving their spaces and thereby enhancing their role, academic libraries will further indemnify their value within the academy’s teaching and learning mission.
Research data management (RDM) services have become a high priority for government agencies and post-secondary institutions across Canada in recent years. There is a strong sense of urgency: Canada has lacked coherent national strategies such as those in Australia or the UK, and at the same time there are growing expectations for sound RDM practices. For example, Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government includes deliverables aimed at improving access to publications and data resulting from federally funded scientific activities, and the federal research granting councils will be adopting a Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management in 2016 that will be reviewed and revised through continual stakeholder engagement. Amongst those stakeholders are the research universities of the country, including their libraries.
Canadian university libraries have a long history of the kinds of collaborations required in the multi-stakeholder RDM environment, deep experience in developing programs to advance research, and critical expertise in preservation. In 2015, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries launched a national research data management network, named Portage, to assist researchers and other RDM stakeholders through a library-based network of expertise on RDM and through working with multiple stakeholders to develop national platforms for planning, preserving, and discovering research data. This work has proceeded in concert with the RDM priorities of university presidents and research administrators, as well as federal research granting councils and agencies responsible for advanced research computing and the national high-speed optical research network.
This paper will describe approaches taken to aligning RDM services across multiple stakeholder groups in Canada and discuss various factors to be considered in such collaborations.
Even though libraries face such challenges as the changing tides of declining circulation statistics and increasingly electronic collections, there is no denying the long-lasting importance and value that patrons place on the physical spaces of libraries. In Fall 2015, the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto (Gerstein Library) was approached with the opportunity to refresh several public spaces - a daunting but nonetheless exciting task to undertake, since the largest academic science and health science library in Canada is housed in a beloved heritage building dating back to 1892.
Before leading any renovation project, libraries must carefully map out this process and put together an informed proposal - first and foremost by listening to the user community. While library staff can have well-founded assumptions about the users and spaces, it is equally important to see if these assumptions align with actual data. Gerstein librarians also seized this renovation as an opportunity to dig more deeply into the space needs and wants of its user community.
Attendees will learn about the case study findings and strategies on how to effectively lead, design, and implement collaborative space planning exercises that engage more deeply with students with tight timelines, limited staff, and a modest budget. The study design also compared staff assumptions to users’ articulated wants. Based on an integrated framework drawn from other studies, the methodology behind the exercises (print and online survey, comment boards, design drawing activities, and an idea photo board) will be shared as well.
By asking our users what they actually require from our physical spaces, and offering them the opportunity to have a leading role as main stakeholders, the Gerstein Library is now well-prepared to undertake the next leg of the renovation planning journey.
University is nowadays in a new context mostly characterized by the implementation of competitiveness and cost-effectiveness criteria. There are two main characteristics of the new management model: a new relevancy to the university funding and the predominance of the research criteria as excellence indicator. Evidence of the growing role of research in universities, are the parameters to rank the excellence of the higher education institutions, such as ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities) of the University of Shangai, SIR (SCImago Institutions Rankings) or the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The research orientation also imposes itself at the academic library. Today we can see a paradigm shift at the academic library with the growing implementation of services to support research. Evidences are at the last reports about the trends in academic libraries by ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries), especially at the latest edition: The 2015 Environmental Scan of Academics Libraries. The contribution of the academic library to research assumes greater impact and relevance. The library is perceived as an essential element in the research process, as is recognized at the international survey Bridging the Librarian-Faculty Gap in the Academic Library (2015).
This paper tries to establish a connection between excellent universities and the services research oriented by their libraries. Our research hypothesis is: the universities at the top of the rankings have libraries that provide excellent services to support research processes. Ten of the top universities at the ARWU and Times rankings are used as sample and its libraries services are analyzed. As research method we use the observation of the selected libraries web pages, using a checklist where the most relevant services to support research processes are identified. The results are analyzed and conclusions presented.
To demonstrate the value of academic library, it is imperative to align library’s role and outcomes with the parent institution’s vision and mission (Cottrell, 2011). This paper discusses Singapore Management University Libraries’ initiatives, to tie up library’s instructional services with the university’s vision, especially through collaboration with schools and other departments within the university.
Singapore Management University has a ten-year vision to be an iconic university that provides transformative education for a new generation of graduates. The transformative education translates into an active learning which consists of 3 components: mindset for collaboration, curriculum based on experiential learning, and spaces for groupwork.
One of library’s first attempts in experiential learning was through collaboration with Business School. The Business School offers a course in Managing Process Improvement (MGMT317) which assigns real process issues for students to analyze, using six-sigma project-based approach. Library joined as one of the clients that presented real operational issues. Library put forward a seat-hogging issue that was causing problem to library’s seating capacity, and diverting library manpower from its main operation. A group of six students were assigned to analyze and propose improvement. Two Business Faculty guided the group in project management framework and thought them in using process improvement tools. One Librarian and one Library Team Lead were representing Library as the business client.
The 16-week process was remarkable, as librarians were shifting their teaching role into a client/advisor role with lots of face to face time with students, and plenty of teachable moments. It also pushed all parties involved to look beyond internal boundaries for best practices, and possible collaboration to resolve certain issues.
The key takeaway was that experiential learning takes far more effort and commitment from librarians as compare to regular instructional classes. The results, however, were very promising as a) the learning outcomes were achieved, b) the business solution was usable and c) deeper engagement with students and Business School Faculty was established.
Since then, library has rolled out several more initiatives. All has the marking of collaborative mindset and willingness to delve into experiential learning.
The IATUL Special Interest Group for Information Literacy (SIG IL) promotes collaboration and sharing of best practices among IATUL members in the area of information literacy. SIG IL was founded in 2012 and provides a platform to share IL-related experiences, documents and news for its members and others interested in the subject. Another main goal is to contribute to IATUL’s service portfolio to support other member libraries.
The report will provide information about two projects which have been completed in 2015, and introduce the group’s current agenda and next steps.
Project 1: Policies and Frameworks at IATUL member libraries
The aim of this project was to collect existing information literacy guidelines, frameworks and policies of all IATUL member libraries, as well as to examine national standards and frameworks. The project was completed in December 2015. The project report provides a summary of the survey and includes the results based on the replies of 100 IATUL member libraries. The report and results are available online at https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/node?id=1286822.
Project 2: Workshop on e-Research Support Services
On November 22 – November 25, 2015, the Central Library of the Technical University of Prague hosted the IATUL autumn seminar on “Information Literacy and Beyond for E-Research Support”. SIG IL and local committee members planned, organized and delivered the workshop for approximately 50 delegates from several countries. The workshop consisted of a two-day programme with presentations and group discussions concerning e-research activities and information literacy.
In 2015, the group conducted a self-evaluation and discussed possible future projects. Topics of interest comprise curriculum mapping, item analysis, sharing of e-learning objects, IL policies and policy making, and IL assessment.Eight federal science libraries have created an innovative and collaborative approach to deliver sustainable, modern digital library services for Government of Canada (GC) science departments: the Federal Science Library (FSL).
The ultimate aim of the FSL is to ensure that the 35,000+ GC knowledge workers in the eight partner departments - science, technology, and health researchers, program planners, and policy makers - have virtual access to both high-quality library and information resources and the services of skilled library professionals and subject experts provided by departments.
This paper explores a significant service transformation in which departments share enterprise class systems, including a best-in-industry search and discovery tool, and a new common library portal and platform of library applications that is sustainable and scalable. The initiative has resulted in the reduction of legacy systems and software vendors across all FSL member departments/agencies from 17 to 5.
The shared approach creates new opportunities for enabling access to a variety of information resources and services for departments well beyond the current scope of their individual service offerings and collections.
As an Open Government Action Plan commitment to “develop and pilot a single online discovery and access platform for federal science library services and collections” the partnership has the potential to expand its reach to other science departments, creating wider dissemination of federal scientific information resources and research. In its next phase of work, to be delivered by December 2016, the partnership will open the portal to the public allowing Canadians a window into these research collections and resources.
In 2010 Chalmers Library started using scrum in software development projects. The cross-functional teams consisting of primarily developers and librarians where successful in delivering rapid results of high value to end-users. As a result of working close together, the methodology started to spread in the library organization. Following a re-organization that came into effect at the beginning of 2014 staff and management agreed to pursue agile principles throughout the entire library organization. By utilizing agile principles and different methodologies a framework for responding to change and allowing all members of staff to take part in developing the library emerged.
Granting self-organizing teams the power to focus on developing library operations left middle management in a tough position. The role of management became defined to solving problems and removing obstacles for teams. Management early realized that they themselves where one of the biggest threats to continues development by library staff.
During 2015 Chalmers Library started to develop a framework for defining the role of management in an agile library organization where the mandate to choose tools and commitment to change are in the hands of staff. Transparent processes for including staff in strategic planning for the Library encourages collaboration and engagement at all levels.
During the process the library has come to define its own principles rooted in the practice and understanding of the agile principles and several methodologies.
Introducing agile principles released a force of creativity and engagement amongst many of the staff that felt they could pursue areas of development over looked for a long time. Management found that helping staff to not commit to too many things at the same and facilitating a stern product ownership was challenging. Allocating resources for development at all levels and at the same time keeping day-to-day operations running fast became cumbersome.
Today we are closer to understanding how to manage a library with agile principles at the core of all activities. It is a learning experience and we are still learning. Adopting a culture of agile and completely transforming the library will still take some years.
This paper outlines the work done so far at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden focusing on the management aspects of the process:
There is a keen interest in agile and its methodologies at many libraries around the world. It is my ambition that this paper will help answer some of the most common questions/concerns on how to implement them and the lessons learned so far.
Liaison Librarians and liaison services are critical to the success of libraries and library services. Gone are the days when Liaison Librarians can spend the majority of their time selecting resources and teaching information literacy into undergraduate classes. In these critical times they need to be broad in knowledge, well connected, agile in nature and possess all-encompassing skills.
QUT Library has a liaison team model established in 2012 where Faculty Teams are assigned to the QUT International College and each of the 6 faculties within QUT. Within each team there are three lead roles - Learning and Teaching Lead, Research Lead, and Information Resources Lead.
Although this model was a success library staff highlighted that often plans and strategies were developed in isolation, skills gaps were an issue and too much time was spent on reporting.
In 2015 a further review of the Library Liaison Faculty Teams was undertaken to ensure Teams were still relevant and essential in an academic environment and addressing the needs of all stakeholders – students, academics and researchers. Achieving further success was paramount to ensuring a robust partnership with faculties and being able to achieve the University’s strategic ambition.
A comprehensive literature review identified the challenges and successes of national and international liaison roles and models. Broad consultation with key QUT stakeholders was undertaken where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the Teams and their services were identified and discussed.
Thirty-four recommendations for change were identified, including:
This paper will focus on the collaboration efforts of three different university departments to create, teach and evaluate the benefits of a joint patent training series, as well as the future directions this collaboration will take.
KAUST has as one of its goals the diversification of the Saudi economy. There is a strong focus at the university on developing entrepreneurial ideas and commercializing research done. The University Library supports this goal through the provision of electronic resources and introductory patent search training skills. However, the patent training class offered by the University Library is only one step in a process that faculty and students need when starting or taking their research to the next level.
In the Fall of 2015, I met with representatives of the two major stakeholders in the patent arena, the office of Sponsored Research (OSR) and the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), to develop a patent training program to meet the needs of researchers. The OSR provides funding to researchers who have demonstrated that their ideas have merit with potential applications, the TTO works with researchers who are at the point of needing IP protection. The resulting discussion led us to collaborate on creating a workshop series that benefit the researcher’s information needs and each of our departments as well.
In the first of the series of three 2 hour workshops, the Manager of TTO and the Lead Integrative Specialist from the OSR presented a workshop on an overview of Intellectual Property and the patenting process. These presentations focused on when and how to determine whether research is potentially patentable, why a researcher needs to protect his/her research and how to go about protecting it.
The second workshop focused on introductory patent search skills and tools, how to expand a literature search to include the information found in patents, and how this kind of research will improve not only the literature search but the research itself. This workshop was presented by me, representing the library, and an Integrative Specialist from the OSR.
The third session builds on the first two by focusing in on how to evaluate a patent’s quality, how to read the patent to find the critical point(s) of the claim(s) being made, and free tools that will assist in evaluating the “intellectual space” around the claim(s) that will help focus and direct current and future research. This session is presented by another member of the TTO.
University libraries must adapt to an academic landscape that is increasingly competitive and focused on assessment. As researchers and universities seek new ways to demonstrate their value and differentiate themselves, librarians are carving out new roles in research support and university evaluation.
Helping researchers and university leadership to better understand and apply bibliometric data plays an important role in deepening the data information and scholarly publishing literacies at the entire institution, as well as in ensuring that bibliometric data are appropriately used in evaluative processes.
The University Library at the Technical University of Munich has developed a portfolio of bibliometric services designed to help researchers, university administration and university leadership understand the meaning, limitations, and applications of bibliometric data, as they seek to improve the visibility and impact of their own work and that of the university as a whole. The Library’s current service profile includes a comprehensive course, a consultation service for bibliometrics and research impact, and close collaboration with university departments such as the Offices of Evaluation or Faculty Recruiting to integrate bibliometric analysis into personnel and strategic decisions.
This paper presents the conception and implementation of the University Library’s bibliometric services and serves as an important resource for any library wishing to develop bibliometric or research support services at their institution.