Moving Out From the Desk and Into The Flow:
Scholarly Support Services
JoAnn Jacoby
Coordinator, New Service Model Programs
University of Illinois Libraries
Condensed from a presentation given at
QQML Chania, Greece, May 2010
Special Session - “Assessing and Evaluating Reference: Views from the Academic Library Reference Desk”
University of Illinois Library
Outline of Presentation
1. Call to Action: From the Reference Desk to
(embedded) Research Support
2. Scholarly Support Services at Illinois
a. Why? Old metrics and needs assessment
b. Examples of Scholarly Support Services
c. What will success look like?
University of Illinois Library
Support for the Research Process: An
Academic Library Manifesto
Chris Bourg et al. for OCLC Research, November 2009
Call to Action
In order to continue to play a central role in support of scholarly research
and publishing, academic libraries must:
• Embed library content, services, and staff within
researchers’ regular workflows; integrating with
services others provide…on campus, at other
universities, or by commercial entities.
• Embrace the role of expert information navigators and
redefine reference as research consultation.
University of Illinois Library
Why New Service Modes at Illinois?
University of Illinois Library
Content is Common
University of Illinois Library
Biology Library reshelving stats, yearly total.
University of Illinois Library
University of Illinois Library
Why New Service Modes at Illinois?
University of Illinois Library
New models for Research Support Services
at Illinois
Embedded (physically and/or virtually) in specific departments:
• Biotechnology (and soon Biology & Life Sciences)
• Labor and Employee Relations
• Library and Information Science
• Librarians Live at FLB (Foreign Language Building)
• Multicultural/LGBT
Broadly-focused service programs:
• Scholarly Commons (data services, digitization, and scholarly
communications, e-scholarship)
• Savvy Researcher
University of Illinois Library
Labor and Employee Relations (LER):
From Departmental Library
to Embedded Librarian
ILIR
Library
Closure
(2007)
Librarian
located fulltime at BEL
University of Illinois Library
ILIR
changed to
LER
Librarian
located halftime at LER
(2009)
LER Service Profile
Reference
Collection management
Library instruction
Collaborative projects:
• Research Publicity Committee
• LER Leadership
• P&T
• Student forum
• Website
University of Illinois Library
LER Reference Transactions
University of Illinois Library
Success Measures
Projects
Client
organization
Reference
Library
How do we measure success? Are the Library’s measures wellaligned with those of the client organization? Are we collocated or
embedded?
LIS New Service Model: Being Embedded
• Designated office space
and office hours GSLIS.
• Attend faculty meetings.
• On faculty listserv
• Member of Curriculum
Committee.
• Attend lectures,
roundtables, etc.
• Guest lecture in classes
(and occasionally teach
credit courses.)
• Socially embedded 
LIS Virtual Library:
15+
minutes
1-5
minutes
LIS Embedded
Interactions
11-15
minutes
6-10
minutes
Faculty
MS/CAS
PhD
Staff
Other
University of Illinois Library
Biology and Life Sciences:
Planning the Transition to a New Model
Moving from a departmental library with
180,000 volumes and 4 full-time staff…
to an embedded librarian collocated with
computing and student support services
University of Illinois Library
Teaching/Instruction
Sequence Submissions
Plant Nomenclature
Bibliographic searching
Microarray analysis
Database/Information
Management
GIS
Imaging
Bib Management Tools
(Endnote/Refworks
Bioinformatics Tools
Genomic/Molecular
database instruction
Statistical Analysis
NEW POSITION:
Life Science Data Services Librarian
•Some of the functions identified in the
needs assessment (others through
partnerships)
•Digital repository services
•Data curation
University of Illinois Library
Scholarly Commons
Fall 2010 launch
Why?
The way research is happening is changing
Interdisciplinary
Enabled by technology
Data intensive
Collaborative
Not only print based
And we are getting involved earlier in the process
Collaboration
Content and service
specialists
Researchers (faculty
and grad students)
(Information)
technology specialists
and tools
University Library Data Grant
• Targeted acquisitions supporting research projects
requiring numeric or spatial datasets
• Competitive grants to faculty & grad students
Usage/Downloads are not the most useful measure:
• Only for deciding whether to continue licensing (did we
find a larger audience?)
Better measures of success:
• Marketing (word of mouth, grants announcement)
• Citations in thesis/publications (with credit!)
• Relationships…Does this help position librarian as active
partners in the research process?
• Outcomes: facilitate research, forge relationships
E-Science
Group Information Profiles for faculty & research groups:
http://hades.grainger.uiuc.edu/guy/pip.asp?icmt
http://hades.grainger.uiuc.edu/guy/pip.asp?AMO
• Google News results generated at page load
• custom publication lists with links to full-text and citing articles
• pre-stored search strategies
• custom ES interface allowing on-the-fly searches scoped to a
particular research domain
Further reading: Ed Tallent. 2010.“Where are we going? Are we
there yet?” Internet Reference Services Quarterly
What will success look like for these new
service models?
• Use value
-Customer-focused value proposition
-Not just symbolic value/ego/nostalgia
• Impact (not size!)
-What difference do we make?
• Relationships/partnerships (not tickmarks)
-Library seen as essential partner in the
research process
University of Illinois Library
New measures success
From volume count Use value/usability
• Supply content when, where and how
the student/researcher needs it)
• Digital repositories/data
curation/scholarly communication
From just in case  Just in time (data grant)
• May only get used by one person or
research group, but used intensively
University of Illinois Library
New measures of success
From gate countubiquitous library
•IM/Text reference, librarians as active
partners, mobile site, new book app,
Libguides, course-integrated instruction
From inputs & outputs outcomes &
stories that demonstrate value
• Harder to quantify, but quite tangible
University of Illinois Library
Thank you for your attention…
With thanks to Sarah Shreeves, Sue Searing,
Yoo-Seong Song and Scott Walter who
contributed ideas or content included in this
presentation
University of Illinois Library