The Librarian as a Professional
In the Modern Research Organization
現代研究機構的專業圖書館員
Keith Webster
The 11th Annual Library Leadership Institute
Repositioning Libraries and Librarians for the Next Generation
Taiwan, 10-14 May 2013
Key ideas
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The notion that libraries should be passive providers
of information is redundant
The information landscape is becoming complex
Librarians can be and should be active parts of their
clients’ research communities
We should not sit in libraries waiting for things to
happen
There is much in academic life to which we can
contribute
Shifts in
knowledge production
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Mode 1 and Mode 2
“Traditional science” and
reflexive research
Triple helix of overlapping
interests (university,
government and industry)
Funding structures and requirements 1
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External funding
Diverse source of funding
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Government
Not-for-profit
Industry
Economic outcomes
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increase wealth creation & prosperity
improve nation’s health, environment & quality of life
Innovation
Improved competitiveness
“Commercialisation” of research
Less “curiosity-driven” activity
Funding structures and requirements 2
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Evaluation, evaluation, evaluation…
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cost-effectiveness or “value for money”
economic and social relevance
Requirements of research assessment
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increased quantity of published outputs
increased “quality” of outputs
Compliance requirements
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published outputs in open access
storage and re-use of data sets
Macro-level view of changes
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Research in academic and public sectors almost
exclusively tied to external funding
External funding allocated on basis of excellence,
collaboration and multi-disciplinary approaches
Growing emphasis by funders on public
engagement and on ‘open’ everything
Likely consequences
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Concentration of research amongst top players
Research institutions need to
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demonstrate excellence
be efficient at other stuff (teaching)
Non-research institutions need to
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be better at teaching to survive
diversify (CPD, community engagement)
Research funders
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Fund the best research to meet the needs of the
country
Develop leaders and researchers who can meet
national and global priorities
Foster public engagement with research
Funding international collaboration
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eg EPRSC £48m to US/China/India
Proportion of global publication authorship by country
1993-2003
2004-2008
Linear extrapolation of future publication trends
Research funders
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Greater emphasis on multi-disciplinary, collaborative,
international, large-scale research
Primary funders of research able to enforce
compliance with their policies - eg OA/TDM
Opportunities for potential partnerships - eg around
repositories and data management, and promoting
OA journals
Changes in researcher
behaviour
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Expecting instant access to pre-screened and highly
relevant literature
Expect everything - content, services, tools - to be
free or paid for centrally
Increasingly unaware of journal brands (and
certainly very little/no awareness of publisher brand)
Newer researchers
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Tend to work at the article rather than journal level
They discover new content through alerts from
multipurpose databases
Exploring ways of using social networking to share
findings and news
Interest in digital science tools - but concerns about
influencing senior colleagues, and infrastructure
support
Implications for libraries
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Institutional focus on research may reduce
funding to support teaching
Pressure on researchers may require libraries to
become more student focussed
Emphasis on e-learning
Greater demand for research collections
Focus on collections for immediate use rather
than “just-in-case”
Institutional infrastructure - repositories, digital
science
In-house research evaluation support
Collaborative Finding
Structured Finding
Keeping
Current
Serendipitous Finding
Discover
Collecting
Publishing
Share
Teaching
Gather
Acquiring
Data Sharing
Organizing
Create
Rights
Writing
Annotating
Reviewing &
Rating
Analyzing
Describing
Learning about Grant Funding Opportunities
Managing Intellectual Property and Exploiting Commercial Value
Finding Potential Collaborators and Making Themselves Visible to Others
Management and Storage of Documents and Data Sets
Improving Information Retrieval and Management Skills
Managing Literature Citations
Choosing Where to Publish or Alternative Forms of Dissemination
Support for Promotion and Tenure
Professional Standing
Managing Pre-prints, Publications, and Post-prints
What is happening in the
world is bypassing university
libraries
Peter Murray-Rust
The scientist’s view
JISC Libraries of the future debate, April 2009
Major drivers of change
Cross-roads of the Global market
information
for higher
industry, with varied education,
new models
publishing and
emerging
information
services
Rapidly changing
needs of
researchers
Increasing
integration/ blurring
between higher
education and
‘business’
Net gen
/Generation Y
Advances in
technology
Our Professional Future
•Access to information, ideas and works of imagination
is an essential characteristic of thriving democracies,
cultures and economies. This is increasingly so in the
global information society. Information is a cultural,
social and economic resource and a commodity of
crucial importance in a huge range of diverse
enterprises. Librarians and information scientists can
be at the heart of this revolution, in demand for their
creative, technical and managerial expertise.
•Library Association/Institute of Information Scientists, 1999
•“…contact with librarians
and information
professionals is rare”
“…researchers are generally
confident in their [self-taught]
abilities.., librarians see
them as..relatively
unsophisticated”
“…librarians see it as a
problem that they are not
reaching all researchers with
formal training, whereas
most researchers don’t think
they need it”
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The part that academic
librarians should play remains
unclear
Raise awareness of research,
its management and
evaluation amongst library
staff
Provide advice on data
management and research
evaluation to researchers
Data curation is vast, complex
and requires subject input
Library anxiety
•“The image of
librarians in popular
culture discourages a
user from approaching a
librarian”
•Nilsen and McKechnie, 2002
• “The bad news is that I’m not sure they
understand what goes on in the library other
than taking out books.”
• Benton Foundation, 1996
• “User perceptions negatively affect the ability of
librarians to meet information needs simply
because a profession cannot serve those who do
not understand its purpose and expertise.”
• Durrance, 1988
• “Study after study shows that people who need
information are not likely to think of asking a
librarian.”
• Durrance, 1990
• “The key issue facing the profession is invisibility.”
• IFLA, 1995
The worst thing about
the stereotype is that it
impacts on the psyche of
librarians who really begin
to believe that they don't
deserve the kingpin role
US Congress, 2001
Libraries or Librarians?
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We promote the Library
Visit the Library to X, Y or Z
Satisfy your information needs at the Library
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Rather than:
Consult the Librarian to A, B or C
Your Librarian is a highly-trained professional
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Our view of the profession itself, and of our skills,
should not be limited to a building with four walls
Come back to our
core knowledge
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Librarianship is a profession of searching, discovery
and analysis
Too often we are viewed as keepers and protectors,
as curators and gatekeepers
We are a profession educated to solve information
problems
CILIP BODY OF KNOWLEDGE CORE SCHEMA
Resources and tools
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Collection development: Specialist books
Know what is good scientific practice in each field
How to search, find and critique the literature old and new
Help with literature searches and bibliographies
Help with updating services eg RSS feeds etc
How to use search tools
Know about publication changes in online and print
Knowledgeable about technology
Provides online tutorials on every aspect of thesis production
User education and ‘how to manage consumption rather than
content’
Disciplines
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Know the disciplines
Know what is good scientific practice in each field
Know the research methodologies in competing paradigms of
a discipline
Be able to refer to the best theoretical underpinnings in
subjects
Know who’s who in the subject fields
Know the key journals in the disciplines
Knowledge of impact factors eg h index and JCR
Research
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Research ethics and plagiarism; copyright
Aware of social and cultural values the researcher
must respect
Research savvy
• Guidance
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Have model PhD theses for each subject
Know about thesis structure
Have models of literature reviews in every subject
Research
• Process
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Help students relate the theory to their study
How to write a good introduction and conclusion
Know about academic writing and needed writing skills
How to prepare a bibliography
Referencing techniques
Data management practices
• Publication
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Understand order of authorship for publication
Know where to publish and how to choose journals
Others
• Understands teaching and learning – theory, methods, paradigms, styles
• Knowledge of digital rights and intellectual property
• Effectively markets him/herself and the library and its services
• Supports open access
• Actively involved in institutional repositories; find ways of ‘harvesting eresources‘
• Forward thinking about acquisitions and collection development
• Support collaboration; sharing and promoting access to resources –
• promoting access and curation in the new information age – knowledge
management
• Explore new ways of servicing an increasingly remote user population
Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an
adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr.
O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick:
And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian.
It is 2015
• The library profession in your country is upbeat and vibrant
and entry to the field is highly sought after by graduates.
• The librarians who retired during the past five years have
been replaced by talented successors.
• What have you done to achieve this?
• What has your Library done to achieve this?