Bernie Folan presented the outcomes of a round table discussion with social science librarians and academics: what are the key communications issues they face? How can they support each other?

1. Supporting effective communication and
workflows in social science research:
summary of a group discussion
UKSG Feedback session, March 2012
Bernie Folan
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Singapore | Washington DC

2. What’s happened
 Conversations with librarians ... “greater need for librarians
and researchers to talk, with publishers listening”
 Discussion chaired by SAGE, facilitated by the RIN, librarians
and social science early career researchers (6-8 of each)
 Article published in Serials July 2011 summarising key
findings
 Survey to test strength of response to challenges uncovered
 Charleston Feedback Session November 11
 UKSG Feedback Session March 2012
 Next...
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Singapore | Washington DC

3. Problems in the discovery, use and creation of
research material
 Combat reliance on narrow discovery methods
and misunderstanding of search tools by some
experienced researchers who are supervising
doctoral students.
 Browsing outside discipline is essential, but it is
now a predominantly search culture.
 Library branding needs greater prominence on
publisher platforms to highlight library value
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Singapore | Washington DC

4. Problems in the discovery, use and creation
of research material (continued)
 Improve adoption of search and browse skills training
amongst all researchers and appoint institutional advocates.
 Greater transparency needed on service inclusion and
overlap between widely-used services and gateways (for
both researchers and librarians).
 Institutions with devolved budgeting need improved systems
to purchase cross-disciplinary material as well as fund OA
submissions.
Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

5. What librarians and researchers need from each
other to improve research workflows
• Greater attendance of librarians at departmental
subject meetings and other fora to better
understand researcher needs and concerns.
• A need to explain the mechanics of content
purchasing and its challenges to researchers.
• Explanation to senior financial managers on
agreed common themes (eg. finer detail of usage
analysis) is required to avoid misunderstandings.
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Singapore | Washington DC

6. How can librarians and publishers work together
to demonstrate value and impact of research
material on their institutional strategic goals
 Institutions require local data reporting, beyond usage stats,
(e.g. author numbers, usage and citation of local research)
 Institutions can be poor at knowing and valuing what they
have, for example PhD numbers.
 It is essential, though challenging, for authors to demonstrate
the impact of their research beyond academia.
 Need for a single robust academic ID and profile site.
Initiatives in existence, but a need for one solution that can be
tied into academic appraisal and help showcase institutional
output. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

7. Resources beyond scholarly articles and
chapters for research and output
 Researchers are using a wide variety of alternative
research resources, from blogs and Twitter to Listserves.
 Libraries could optimize use and generate more revenue
from their special collections and archives and market
them better beyond niche research circles.
 To differing degrees, and dependent on discipline,
researchers are contributing beyond journal articles and
book chapters. Mostly they are observing a careful
balance between openness and traditional publishing.
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Singapore | Washington DC

8. Institutional mechanisms for funding open
access in the humanities and social science
 Increased lobbying of Research Councils and other bodies
required to make funding available and access to it
transparent in Social Sciences
 Improved education about OA funding is needed at senior
levels to ensure facilities are in place.
 Greater education around what OA means and how it works
is needed by researchers at all levels – many are unsure and
are confusing „open‟ with „free‟.
 Greater efforts to persuade „big names‟ to publish in newer
OA outlets essential to move things along in favour of OA in
the humanities and social sciences.
Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

9. The library’s evolving role in providing
teaching material alongside research content
 Teaching materials should be available within the institutional
network not at an outside link.
 E-textbooks and e-books are still too expensive and DRM
issues stand in the way of success.
 A wide variance in the sophistication of reading list support
tools and practices is in use. Reading list compilation provides
many challenges. Good practice needs to be more widespread
with systems put in place to combat bad practice.
 Higher education IT departments are often in institutional silos.
They could work together to find solutions to challenges with
more creation and sharing of open source programming
solutions. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

10. “The 3 big issues for us are probably
common ones: constraints on content we
can purchase (budget cuts and more cuts)
promoting awareness of what we have (we
still have a lot of great content despite
budget issues) and how to access it:
providing training (too few librarians for the
magnitude of the task)”
Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

11. ● Research project, commissioned by SAGE, to investigate the
value of academic libraries for academic departments.
● SAGE appointed LISU to undertake the research Dec 2011.
● Building on existing research: How libraries can
- Better market their services
- Improve perceptions with key decision makers.
● Preliminary results now online
● Get involved – surveys coming soon!
http://libraryvalue.wordpress.com/
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Singapore | Washington DC

12. Working together: evolving value for
academic libraries – 4 Phases
● Phase 1: desk research aiming to identify recent significant
publications on the issue of value of academic libraries
(January 2012)
● Phase 2: series of 8 case studies of HE libraries in the UK,
US and Scandinavia (January – March 2012)
● Phase 3: triangulation of case study results with a series of
informal surveys, distributed to librarians to ascertain extent
to which issues and findings from the case study resonate
with own experience (April-May 2012)
● Phase 4: evidence gathered synthesised into final report
(June 2012)
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13. Exploring future business models
• OA round table
• Jointly hosted by
SAGE and BL
• Chair: Simon
Inger
• International
participation
• Report: end 2012
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14. Championing discoverability
● White paper, released
January 2012
● The development of
more sophisticated
discovery and visibility
strategies very much
depends on heightened
cross-sector
collaborations
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Singapore | Washington DC

15. Article:
http://goo.gl/eusOQ or
http://dx.doi.org/10.1629/24183
Comment on blog:
http://libraryvalue.wordpress.com/
Bernie Folan
SAGE, London
Email: bernie.folan@sagepub.co.uk
Twitter: @berniefolan
Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC