Needs assessment for improving library support for dentistry researchers.

Helen Yueping He,Sabrina Kirby,Madeline Gerbig

doi:10.5195/jmla.2019.556

Abstract

ObjectiveTo better support dentistry researchers in the ever-changing landscape of scholarly research, academic librarians need to redefine their roles and discover new ways to be involved at each stage of the research cycle. A needs assessment survey was conducted to evaluate faculty members’ research support needs and allow a more targeted approach to the development of research services in an academic health sciences library.MethodsThe anonymous, web-based survey was distributed via email to full-time researchers at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. The survey included twenty questions inquiring about researchers’ needs and behaviors across three stages of the research cycle: funding and grant applications, publication and dissemination, and research impact assessment. Data were also collected on researchers’ use of grey literature to identify whether current library efforts to support researchers should be improved in this area.ResultsAmong library services, researchers considered support for funding and grant applications most valuable and grey literature support least valuable. Researcher engagement with open access publishing models was low, and few participants had self-archived their publications in the university’s institutional repository. Participants reported low interest in altmetrics, and few used online tools to promote or share their research results.ConclusionsFindings indicate that increased efforts should be made to promote and develop services for funding and grant applications. New services are needed to assist researchers in maximizing their research impact and to increase researcher awareness of the benefits of open access publishing models, self-archiving, and altmetrics.

Highlights

The landscape of scholarly communications has changed rapidly in recent years
Using the research cycle proposed by Maxwell as a framework [3], we collected information about the needs of dentistry researchers at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, during three of the six research stages: funding and grant applications, publication and dissemination, and research impact assessment
We chose these three stages of the research cycle to examine in the survey due to the high volume of questions that were historically received from faculty in these areas and that we, identified as having the highest relevance to the activities of Dentistry Library users

Summary

Introduction

Academic libraries have had to adapt in an effort to expand their role in supporting and contributing to the research activities at their institutions [1−3]. Maxwell argues that the rise in importance of research activity on university campuses creates an opportune channel through which the library can engage with institutional objectives [3]. Many recent studies, such as those conducted by Harp Ziegenfuss and Furse [5] and Haddow and Mamtora [6], demonstrate that librarians are working diligently to explore and assess new ways of meeting researchers’ needs. Many researchers may lack awareness of Journal of the Medical Library Association

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion