Adventures in Streamlining Research Data Services: Through the Looking Glass of an Academic Library’s Data Services Team (Brianne Dosch) ---
With more and more scholarship occurring in digital spaces, librarians see the need to manage, archive, and access digital objects, a.k.a. providing research data services. However, in the past, libraries have been more reactive in providing these services and have relied on librarians gaining data skills to use on an “as needed” basis12. Now however, many academic libraries have dedicated data services faculty and staff that serve as functional specialists providing their expertise throughout the library and campus. This functional specialist model works well enough, but has its challenges in providing streamlined and cohesive data services across disciplines. The University of Tennessee -Knoxville sought to change this model by forming a dedicated data services team consisting of a Data Curation Librarian, a STEM Librarian, and a Social Sciences Data Librarian. This presentation will detail the journey of this Data Services Team in establishing their roles and services at their university through a study of literature, campus assessments and environmental scans, and good ol’ trial and error. Some takeaways include: the foundations and historic meaning of data services, the campus-wide assessment methods employed to understand the university’s data needs, and the challenges involved in establishing a mission and vision to provide comprehensive, cohesive, and dynamic data services across disciplines. Discussion of other librarians’ experiences and opinions of data services will be welcome and facilitated by the presenter. The presentation leader will be the current Social Sciences Data Librarian who is a member of this newly formed Data Services team and who is in the first year of her academic library career.
Reshaping and Rethinking Library Services through Structured Campus Conversation (Eric Resnis, Melvin Davis) ---
Libraries are constantly evolving, but with that appreciation for change, comes pressures such as mission creep, maintaining scale, and a constant need for innovation. Changes in higher-education and a move towards user at the center bring new ways to think about these challenges. As costs increase without a corresponding budget, it is important for libraries to understand how their partners perceive the library and where the library should prioritize future efforts.
How can a library effectively determine the perceptions of their partners, while figuring out new and innovative ways to expand services? Listening tours, surveys, and focus groups are all possibilities, yet each could not meet our comprehensive need. Listening tours tend to deprioritize action, while surveys and focus groups may require us to create assumptions about partner needs that may or may not be correct. Combining the best elements of these approaches helped to meet our need by allowing for synergy between the different needs analysis methods. Framing the exercise as a listening tour helped our partners feel that their voices were heard, and that they had input into the future direction of library services. Using structured questions for the tour allowed us to more easily see commonalities between feedback from varied campus units and programs. Furthermore, it allowed us to maintain a consistent scope for our conversations, and provided for efficient and effective discourse.
This presentation describes the rationale, process, and results of a comprehensive listening tour and needs assessment at a mid-sized university. While the results of the assessment and our action plan will be shared, our focus will be on the process and rationale. Our aim is that attendees, no matter what type of institution, will come away from this session with the tools they need to conduct a similar listening tour at their own campus.
Managing Faculty Expectations: Time to Take Information about Library Services and Collections to the Faculty (Debbi Dinkins, Jennifer Corbin) ---
Faculty in their first professional teaching position typically transition from a large, R1 comprehensive university. When such faculty start work at a small university (under 5,000 students), their expectations of the library are, in many cases, unrealistic. Librarians at Stetson University, a small university in central Florida, developed a faculty collaboration program, an alternative to a liaison program, in which information about library services and collections is shared with faculty deliberately and in a just-in-time framework.
After a full year of collaboration, librarians have worked with two academic departments, our School of Music, and faculty teaching on-line courses during the summer session. We will report on our findings, both formal and anecdotal, and our plans for the future. During the presentation, the audience will be engaged with interactive polling at the beginning and Q & A discussion at the end.
Collections and Research Services for the Independent Scholar: Surveying the Landscape and Filling the Gaps (Melissa Gasparotto)---
The national network of academic research libraries serves a relatively defined demographic of college and university affiliates. Sitting alongside this network, large public research institutions such as the New York Public Library play an important role complementing these services and filling the gaps in coverage for a large and diverse constituency with and without a current academic affiliation. The general public audience includes current students, faculty and alumni, independent researchers, journalists, artists and more. How can collections and services partnerships between academic and independent research libraries serve to strengthen research for all through diversity in collecting, consortial digitization and access partnerships, and responsive programming? Hear about The New York Public Library’s efforts to target and support the broadest range of researchers at all points of the research lifecycle, and discuss ways to scale this work in the context of national civic engagement through library partnerships.
