Slides for a talk on "Enhancing Access to Researchers' Papers: How Librarians and Use of Social Media Can Help" given by Brian Kelly, UKOLN at a meeting of subject librarians at the University of Bath on 27 March 2012. See http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/bath-library-2011-03/

1. Twitter: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/bath-library-2011-03/
#bathlib
Enhancing Access to Researchers'
Papers: How Librarians and Use of Social
Media Can Help
Brian Kelly Acceptable Use Policy
Recording this talk, taking photos,
UKOLN ISC having discussions using Twitter,
University of Bath etc. is encouraged - but try to keep
Bath, UK distractions to others minimised.
Blog:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @briankelly / @ukwebfocus
UKOLN is supported by:
This work is licensed under a
Attribution--ShareAlike 2.0 licence
(but note caveat)

2. Idea from Cameron Neylon
You are free to:
copy, share, adapt, or re-mix;
photograph, film, or broadcast;
blog, live-blog, or post video of
this presentation provided that:
You attribute the work to its author and respect the rights and
licences associated with its components.
Note Shutterstock images used under licence (see final slide).
Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.
Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:
2 http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites

3. Introduction About Me
Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus: national advisory post to UK HEIs
• Long-standing Web evangelist
• Based at UKOLN at the University of Bath
• Prolific blogger (1,000+ posts since Nov 2006)
• User of social media to support work activities
• Prolific speaker (~380 talks from 1996-2011)
• Part of UKOLN’s Innovation Support Centre (ISC)
UKOLN:
• Supporting innovation across higher & further
education
• Funded by JISC
3

4. I also write peer-
reviewed papers and
deposit them in Opus
63 items
60 full text
4

5. Are They Popular?
Most downloaded
items in Opus
since launch
5

6. Reasons For Paper’s Popularity
Possible reasons
• Quality of paper
• Quality of metadata
• Provision of full-text, rather than just
metadata
• Importance of co-authors
• Role of social media
• Formats used (HTML as well as PDFs)
• Location of authors (3 authors and 5 items
in top 20 from Wessex House level 5!)
• Other suggestions?
6

7. Evidence
How do we find out more?
• Peak statistics no longer
available on Opus 
But:
• Blog post about availability in Opus published on
11 August 2009
Conclusion: Blog post responsible for initial popularity
7

8. Evidence
How do we find out more?
• Peak statistics no longer
available on Opus 
But:
• Blog post about availability in Opus published on
11 August 2009
But: blog stats also show only
total of 36 clicks to Opus entry
Conclusion: Blog post (& tweet?) responsible for initial popularity
8

9. Beyond the Individual Paper
Most downloaded papers
from UKOLN staff
16 out of top 20 mine!
Evidence of value of
9 particular techniques?

10. SEO or SMO
SEO:
Helping Google find your papers through:
• Writing style, document structure, …
• In-bound links
SMO:
Helping other people find your papers through:
• Viral marketing
• Sharing on social media services
SMO: Good for new papers, but not relevant for popular
papers written from 2004-8
SEO: Document structure consistent. Difference
appears to be significant nos. of in-bound links
10

11. Third Party Services
Significant use of third party
services to link to Opus:
• LinkedIn
• Researchgate
• Academia.edu
• Mendeley
11

12. Popular Elsewhere?
Survey of Russell
Group university
use of services
published on UK
Web Focus blog
on 5 March 2012
Conclusions
• Popularity of Academia &
LinkedIn established
• Let’s encourage our
researchers to have links
to papers in IR
12

13. Further Work
Further work planned:
• SEO analysis of institutional
repositories using
Linkdiagnosis.com &
Majesticseo.com
13

14. Further Work
Further work planned:
• SEO analyses of institutional
repositories using
Linkdiagnosis & Majesticseo
Initial findings (from Linkdiagnosis.com)
suggest importance of:
• Wordpress.com (100)
• Wikipedia (100)
• Microsoft Academic Search (100)
14 • MSN.com (100)

15. Ethical Considerations
Is promotion of ‘marketing’ of
research outputs ethical?
Thoughts:
• Importance of ‘impact’
• Political relevance
• Researchers taking responsibility
for highlighting papers they feel
important
• A library of papers nobody reads
is, in some respects, a failure
15

16. Ethical Considerations
Is promotion of ‘marketing’ of
research outputs ethical?
Thoughts:
• Importance of ‘impact’
• Political relevance
• Researchers taking responsibility
for highlighting papers they feel
important
• A library of papers nobody reads
is, in some respects, a failure
The goal:
• Researchers and practitioners
finding papers easily
• Reading, discussing & citing
16 papers

17. The Social Librarian
Librarians can help support researchers in maximising
access to their research
Librarians can also:
• Build on established values of honesty and trust
• Present themselves & their values to popular
social media sharing services
• Provide indicators of value of resources on those
services
Or:
• Do on popular services what they did on little
used Library web sites in 1990s!
• Gain benefits from the ‘network effect’
17

18. My Trusted Social Librarian post:
See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/
my-trusted-social-librarian/
18

19. My Trusted Social Librarian
Ideas from Tony
Hirst’s OUseful blog:
• Could Librarians Be
Influential Friends?
27 Oct 2010
• Invisible Library Support
– Now You Can’t Afford
Not to be Social?
13 Jan 2012
I trust my peers to share valuable resources
• Are librarians missing?
• Is this a threat to their value in an electronic age?
19

20. Figshare blog post, 26 March 2012
• xx
20

21. Conclusions
• Library sector has tended to
focus on in-house services
(Library web site; IR; …) Open up the metadata!
• Missing opportunities to exploit potential of social
sharing services?
• Missing opportunities to exploit library values of trust,
honesty and transparency?
• Enhanced access can be based on:
 In-house technical developments
 Advocacy, open licences, …
 Exploiting popular services which link to content
• Opportunities await!
21

22. Questions
Any questions or comments?
22

23. Acknowledgements
Images copyright Shuttlestock and used under licence:
shutterstock_52733221.jpg
shutterstock_48537328.jpg
shutterstock_52232947.jpg
shutterstock_13720369.jpg
shutterstock_46679812.jpg
shutterstock_84417262.jpg
shutterstock_73799686.jpg
shutterstock_12741562.jpg shutterstock_52853291.jpg shutterstock_8441726.jpg
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