Re-Skilling for Research: Investigating the Needs of Researchers and How Library Staff Can Best Support Them

Abstract

In 2010, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) established a project to map the information needs of researchers onto tasks to be undertaken by subject librarians. This was to understand the skills sets required of staff now and in the future and to assess the training needs of existing and new professionals. The project is described in the context of the changing research environment in the UK Higher Education sector. Part of the background to this was an investigation into subject librarian job descriptions, which is explored in this article. The scope and methodology of the RLUK project is described along with key findings. A “researcher life cycle” approach was used to identify researcher information needs. The study showed areas of current activity by subject librarians to support researchers, areas of limited engagement, and areas of potential “next step” activity. It also investigated skills sets required for current and future services and highlighted gaps that will need to be addressed both locally and profession-wide. The project report, Re-skilling for Research, provides tools that can be used for training needs-analysis, building blocks to create job descriptions and person specifications for specialist researcher support roles, plus examples of current good practice in research service provision.