Making an Impact:

Enhancing Library

Support for

Researchers

Funded by the

Oxford Biomedical

Research Centre

Eli Harriss, Christine

Urquhart, Alison

Yeoman, Donald

Mackay, Owen Coxall

@eliharriss

EAHIL 2018

https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/about-us-intro/

Skills!

Skills!

Skills!

Skills!

Skills!

Skills!

Oxford BRC interview and focus group participants

Role Number of

participants

Senior Researchers (Theme leads or Co-leads)

7Researchers (DPhil Research Students, Postdoctoral

Researchers, Clinical Fellows, Senior Researchers,

Research Biochemists, Research Nurses, Research

Associates, Theme Liaisons, Principal Investigators)

20

Research Support staff (Statisticians, Laboratory

Managers, Research Assistants, Training Managers,

Information Governance Managers, Personal

Assistants, Bioinformaticians)

15

KEY FINDINGS:

1) What does ‘library’ mean? What’s a

library service?

2) Talk to your target users about what

your library service can do for them.

What

information

needs do

Oxford BRC-

funded staff

report?

#1 information need: Personal information management, reference management, use of Symplectic

Using Symplectic to deposit papers

Locating references to update CV

Using Endnote, Mendeley, etc.

How Oxford

BRC-funded staff

find support or

training to meet

their needs

Skills and training for researchers and research support staffSource of skill acquisition Type of skill(s) acquired Interviewee mentions

The Bodleian Libraries Literature searching

iSkills (including bibliometrics, ebooks, search tools)

Use of reference management software

BRC-R1, BRC-R3, BRC-R11, BRC-R14

BRC-RS1

BRC-SR4

Other libraries General library training/inductions BRC-R9

BRC-RS6, BRC-RS9

‘University’ (from unspecified Oxford University

sources)

Data management training

Good Clinical Practice guidelines

Information governance

Grant applications

Research ethics

BRC-R1, BRC-R3, BRC-R7, BRC-R13

BRC-RS4

IT Services Reference management software

SPSS/Excel/databases

Coding/computer systems/graphics

BRC-R3

BRC-RS1, BRC-RS5, BRC-RS6, BRC-RS8, BRC-RS11, BRC-

RS12

BRC-SR3

Medical Sciences Division Writing papers

Statistics

Specialist skills, e.g. microscopy

BRC-R11

BRC-RS5

NHS/Hospital Data protection

Information governance and confidentiality

BRC-R2, BRC-R11

Colleague/manager Literature searching (e.g. PubMed)

Reference management software

ORCID

BRC-R13, BRC-R15

BRC-RS7, BRC-RS11, BRC-RS12

Self-taught Reference management software

Literature searching

Data management

Using social media tools

Using Symplectic

BRC-R1, BRC-R2, BRC-R3, BRC-R8; BRC-R9; BRC-R11,

BRC-R12; BRC-R14

BRC-RS1

BRC-SR3, BRC-SR4, BRC-SR5

The barriers Oxford BRC-

funded staff confront when

trying to meet their

information needs

Examples of barriers to accessing information or supportBarriers Examples Interviewee mentions

Access to papers or

books

“there are times when that becomes a stumbling block”

“it always makes me slightly anxious if I can’t get a

reference”

“It is hugely unsatisfactory that NHS-employed BRC

investigators have poor to non-existent electronic access to

publications, especially in comparison to their university-

employed BRC colleagues. This mitigates their ability to

prosecute research successfully. This must be rectified.”

BRC-R2, BRC-R10,

BRC-R11, BRC-R14,

BRC-R15, BRC-R16,

BRC-R17

BRC-RS2, BRC-RS7

BRC-SR3, BRC-SR4,

BRC-SR6, BRC-SR7

Lack of awareness

about library

services,

resources, or skills

missing or lacking

“scientists…don’t know that they can” ask for help from the

library service”

“I didn’t know that sort of service existed actually”

“I wasn’t aware of the outreach”

“the librarians are not well advertised”

“it’s [not] widely understood that, you know, by working

with…one of the specialist subject librarians…that they could

actually save themselves a lot of time and effort”

BRC-R3, BRC-R4,

BRC-R9, BRC-R11,

BRC-R13

BRC-RS3, BRC-RS8,

BRC-RS10, BRC-

RS11, BRC-RS12,

BRC-SR3

Project Aim 3:

Would our

biomedical

researchers

welcome having

an embedded

librarian or

information

professional, or

an informationist,

in their teams?

1. grant writing

2. literature searching (e.g. for systematic reviews)

3. reference management/personal information management support

4. research data management (data organisation/description/stewardship of data collections/shared data and open data requirements)

5. reviewing, editing and co-authoring articles for publication

6. copyright policies

7. open access publishing and deposit requirements

8. bibliometrics (e.g. for research evaluation, impact factor calculations)

9. bioinformatics resources (e.g. NCBI databases) and tools

10.collaborative network co-ordination (e-science, virtual research environments)

11.support of interdisciplinary research

#1 Area for Support: Literature searching (e.g. for systematic reviews)

“this is foundational training for scientists” BRC-RS1

“in depth literature searching, yes” BRC-R1

#2 Area for Support: Research Data Management

“the research data management is something we’re terrible on, I think. As in making research or data in a form that someone else can understand that’s not the primary researcher” BRC-R10

Project Aim 4:What are the core additional skills and knowledge required of library staff to provide more embedded support to the biomedical researchers?

Attributes required by informationists

Attribute Evidence

Team working /

knowledge broker

(Robison et al., 2009)

Job description analysis

LIS6, LIS7, NA-I, NA-I3

(most information specialists/informationists

interviewed worked in a team)

Initiative/developing

services in response to

need

Job description analysis

LIS7, LIS9, NA-I2, NA-I3

Scientific

curiosity/persistence

(Goode and Anton, 2013, Surkis et al., 2013)

LIS7, LIS10, NAI-1, NA-I4

Interpersonal skills (Freiburger and Kramer, 2009)

Job description analysis

LIS1, LIS2, LIS4, LIS5, NA-12

Suggested means of promotionPromotional method Interviewee examples (sample) Interviewee

mentions

Email Promote messages and communicate with researchers

“an email contact” for researchers in different departments

Receiving specific, targeted email

BRC-SR3, BRC-

R11, BRC-RS1,

BRC-RS6, BRC-

RS7, BRC-RS8,

BRC-R9, BRC-RS5

Newsletters Newsletters with an occasional piece about the library

Include library news in departmental bulletin

BRC-RS9

BRC-RS1

Inductions Library inductions for DPhils and postdoctoral researchers,

new starters

BRC-6, BRC-R3,

BRC-R10

New staff induction and

information packsEnsure library materials included in new starters’ information

packs for all departments

BRC-R14, BRC-R6,

BRC-R8

Welcome events for new

startersPromote library services at Researcher Welcome events or

open days

Open afternoon to talk to researchers

BRC-SR2, BRC-R10

BRC-RS3

Leaflets, posters and

noticeboardsLeaflet about library and other research support services

available to BRC-funded staff

Posters near cafes and kitchens, outside libraries

BRC-SR2

BRC-R8, BRC-RS3,

BRC-RS4, BRC-

RS2

Librarians talking to

researchers Articulate what’s available, interviewees unaware of services

until interviewed by a librarian

Librarian to talk to supervisors about library services.

1 to 1 training sessions with researchers to help them with

data management plans

BRC-RS3

BRC-R12, BRC-

RS11, BRC-RS12,

BRC-R16

BRC-R6, BRC-RS14

Presentations Librarians to hold/attend seminars or meetings with staff BRC-R5, BRC-R6,

BRC-R7, BRC-SR1

What conclusions

can we draw from

this data?

Headline Recommendations

1. A twelve-month pilot project to embed a member of staff with one or more of the Themes which were most receptive to the informationist idea.

2. The recruitment of an Outreach Librarian (possibly combined with the above post) in support of the BRC to provide bespoke services to BRC staff and researchers to help address some of the key barriers and information needs identified in this project.

3. The commissioning of a systematic review of the information needs of biomedical researchers.

4. The development of a programme of information skills training tailored specifically for BRC staff and funded researchers.

5. A review of access to online journals and databases

AcknowledgementsChristine Urquhart

Alison Yeoman

Donald Mackay

Owen Coxall

Judith Ames

Ramona Naicker

Katie Powers

Bridget Lucas

Carolyn Smith

Matthew Henry

And all study participants

eli.harriss@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

@eliharriss

https://tinyurl.com/bodleianbrcproject

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Bryman, A. 2008. Social research methods, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Whitmore, S. C., Grefsheim, S. F. & Rankin, J. A. 2008. Informationist programme in support of biomedical research: a programme description and preliminary findings of an evaluation. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 25, 135-41.

Haines, L. L., Light, J., O‘Malley, D. & Delwiche, F. A. 2010. Information-seeking behavior of basic science researchers: implications for library services. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 98, 73-81.

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Federer, L. 2013. The librarian as research informationist: a case study. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 101, 298-302.

Gore, S. A. 2013. A librarian by any other name: The role of the informationist on a clinical research team. Journal of eScience Librarianship, 2, 6.

Holmes, K. L., Lyon, J. A., Johnson, L. M., Sarli, C. C. & Tennant, M. R. 2013. Library-based clinical and translational research support. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 101, 326-335.

Vaughan, K. T., Hayes, B. E., Lerner, R. C., Mcelfresh, K. R., Pavlech, L., Romito, D., Reeves, L. H.

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