Librarians and Research Support: what do we need to know? November 27th 2009, Edward Boyle Library - Programme
10.00 Welcome and Keynote (ppt)(Brian Clifford, University of Leeds)
Brian gave an overview of national research drivers, including the current emphasis on demonstrating research impact and the move to longer, larger grants. The presentation posed a number of questions that we as library and subject support staff need to think about within our roles. We already support research in many ways - but are there new areas of support we can offer within the research life-cycle? What skills will we need within a HE library service to develop this support?
10.30 Speed networking (ppt) (Karen Smith, University of York)
Karen gave us a quick overview of speed networking before we introduced ourselves to our colleagues - with sound effects! We also wrote down what we do to support researchers currently - and what we aspire to do. Here's a word cloud of your responses generated by Wordle (click to see larger image):
Here's a summary of your responses.
10.50 REF Overview (ppt) (Michelle Double, University of Leeds)
Michelle gave a clear overview of the Research Excellence Framework: its rationale, the timetable for implementation and the current consultation process. The handout accompanying Michelle's session is HEFCE's summary of the REF proposals. Measuring "research impact" - be it social, economic, policy, cultural, quality of life - is a tricky area and controversial with some academics. We discussed impact on researchers and institutions, concluding REF was unlikely to be less burdonsome than its predecessor, the RAE.
11.15 Getting started with bibliometrics (ppt) (Marion Tattersall, University of Sheffield and Jane Saunders, University of Leeds)
Marion and Jane provided definitions of bibliometric measures, including an exercise to match the correct measure with the correct definition (which we found quite a challenge!). The session introduced measures which tend to be applied to individuals and measures which tend to be applied to journals. A hands on exercise asked us to obtain a h-index score based on data from Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar (using Publish or Perish software). We thought about why different scores were obtained from the three sources and what the implications might be for REF and beyond. You can recreate these exercises in the comfort of your own office (apart from the Scopus ones if you're from Leeds or York) searching for any authors you have an interest in - here is the h-index worksheet.
We wrote comments and observations on genius notes: here's another Wordle and your responses.
1.10 WRRO: advocacy, academic reactions and links with Research Information Systems (ppt) (Rachel Proudfoot, White Rose)
After two short videos, Rachel briefly explained different open access mechanisms, with particular emphasis on self-archiving. Participants considered three common researcher reactions to the White Rose Research Online repository outlined on the scenarios handout. Rachel ran through some repository statistics and demonstrated the use of repository content in a Twitter feed and RSS feed. The interaction between WRRO and central research management systems (such as Symplectic) was discussed. Symplectic facilitates direct h-index comparison of colleagues; how will researchers react to this?
2.15 Future trends: research outputs beyond publication (ppt) (Julie Allinson, University of York and Bo Middleton, University of Leeds)
The research outputs relevant to REF stretch beyond published, text based outputs. How will we accommodate other outputs, like research data, which is currently housed on memory sticks, hard drives and a variety of local systems. Julie demonstrated York Digital Library as a potential solution, including the development of simplified repository deposit as part of the YODL-ING project. Bo discussed Leeds' LUDOS system, using the example of Timescapes as a project which is producing and housing and whole range of research outputs.
Evaluation sheets - if you didn't fill one out already, the form is available here. Please email to eprints@whiterose.ac.uk. Collated feedback is available.