Abstract
Advances in technology and changes in higher education and research are forcing libraries to rethink the services they offer to researchers and how they are presented. Librarians are moving into “higher end support” and adopting new service models based on “deep collaboration” with academic partners. The internal arrangements that form the design of an organization can determine whether it achieves its mission under particular conditions. The present study explores how libraries in 24 leading UK research universities are organizing resources and services to support the research enterprise. Qualitative data were collected from institutional websites and other public domain sources and were analysed using matrix techniques. The results show a trend away from integrated library and computing service organizations; variety in institutional reporting lines, but predominantly in large professional service groups; consistency in internal library groupings, but variation in portfolio and job titles; expansion of specialist positions, with new functional roles complementing traditional subject liaisons; and dedicated spaces, working groups, and integrated websites promoting boundary-spanning activities. The findings confirm and extend prior work and are being used to design a large scale international survey.
Highlights
Developments in digital media, network technologies, research workflows, scholarly communication and funding policies are challenging academic libraries to respond with a wider array of services and facilities for researchers (Bourg, Coleman, & Erway, 2009; Housewright, Schonfeld, & Wulfson, 2013a; Vinopal & McCormick, 2013)
Subject/liaison librarians have traditionally provided research services as part of their academic support role, but libraries are increasingly identifying research support as a specific area requiring additional co-ordination and strategic development: “Open-access publishing, institutional repositories, the need to co-ordinate collection management and storage, the increasing availability of information technology (IT) tools to help researchers with their work and, not least, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) have all pointed to the need for a coherent library strategy and response” (Bradbury & Weightman, 2010, p. 65)
Commentators increasingly assert that libraries need to reposition from support service to professional/scholarly partner and to transform their liaison librarians into embedded experts recognized as academic associates (Carlson & Kneale, 2011; Duranceau, 2008; Fonseca & Viator, 2009; Gold, 2007; Vandegrift & Varner, 2013), so that they can add value through “higher end research support” (Corrall et al, 2013, p. 638)
Summary
Developments in digital media, network technologies, research workflows, scholarly communication and funding policies are challenging academic libraries to respond with a wider array of services and facilities for researchers (Bourg, Coleman, & Erway, 2009; Housewright, Schonfeld, & Wulfson, 2013a; Vinopal & McCormick, 2013). Subject/liaison librarians have traditionally provided research services as part of their academic support role, but libraries are increasingly identifying research support as a specific area requiring additional co-ordination and strategic development:. Commentators increasingly assert that libraries need to reposition from support service to professional/scholarly partner and to transform their liaison librarians into embedded experts recognized as academic associates (Carlson & Kneale, 2011; Duranceau, 2008; Fonseca & Viator, 2009; Gold, 2007; Vandegrift & Varner, 2013), so that they can add value through “higher end research support” The proposed shift from the “service-and-support” approach to a partnership model is significant. Posner (2013, p. 45) argues that contemporary digital humanities projects “do not need supporters – they need collaborators”, explaining that libraries need to provide both infrastructure (tools, servers, etc.) and “intellectual labor” (knowledgeable librarians). Vandegrift and Varner (2013, pp. 69, 76) explain how partnering scholars in digital humanities should go beyond collection building to content creation, by “making ‘stuff’” (e.g., web sites, digitized collections, new tools), describing the model as “deep collaboration”
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