Annual IATUL Conference 2017

Abstract

The prototypical embedded librarian can be found at a small, often one-person library belonging to a university department or a research institution. But central libraries in large university systems stand to gain from the idea of embedded librarianship.

Three years ago, the library system of the University of Münster underwent considerable structural changes to move from a two-track system to a functional one-track one. The core element of this process was a changeover in the administrative responsibility for the faculty libraries' personnel: they are no longer employees of their respective faculties or institutes, but of the central library, which now is responsible for the management of all 97 faculty libraries. While this helped to improve the libraries' processes and services, it also provided all staff members with more far-ranging opportunities to work in different areas of the library system. Furthermore, it brought a big change for some of the former subject specialists: they became unit managers and are now responsible for the libraries in “their” faculties – they evolved from subject librarians to liaison librarians.

This kind of restructuring – demanding intensive discussions, preparations, effort, and some compromise – is still quite rare for German two-track university libraries. However, the experiences made during these first years of transformation are promising. Alongside several other large-scale and small-scale measures, e.g. for collection development, information literacy, or publications, the librarians were able to build closer ties to their students and scientists, but also to their fellow librarians.

The paper will give an outline of the organisational change process and the outcomes for the library’s subject services.

Abstract:

Developments in the economy lead to the fact that no institution will maintain a library just because it is «nice to have». We are expected to produce documented results which support the institution’s core activities. This means an increased focus on learning analytics in order to improve the services we offer and to prove our impact and significance to the institution.

In the presentation I will discuss what sort of statistics we have, what we need to produce, and how to use it. 

We have conducted a «traffic-counting» in one of our libraries which reveals important data on how the library is actually used.

We have installed «smiley» machines where users can register their degrees of satisfaction after using the localities. These show very high degrees of satisfaction. The ones registering discontent were the ones who were asked to leave at closing time!

Students all over Norway area able to take part in annual surveys to register their feedback on their studies. Our library registered just below the average here, which is explained by responses from students on a campus without library.

In the autumns of 2016, owing to the need for more documentation, we carried out a survey amongst the 24.460 students at the university.

669 replies to the survey, a response rate of 3,7 %. Regarding gender and faculty, we found a slight overrepresentation of women and library students.

The survey consisted of three parts, including the library as a physical entity, the internet library and a section about teaching and learning.

The survey gives us data on the use of the library premises, how many and how often, and how the users evaluate the premises. We also got data on how they are using the library, and their evaluation on material and staff. The surveys documents the use of the internet-library, their assessment of guidance, courses and teaching. The most important data comes from the users that do not use the library.

Abstract:

Modern Libraries significantly changed their shape during the last 20 years. It changed from a primarily book and journals oriented archive and service institution to an institution of distributing, broking and valuing information and knowledge both on a subject and meta matter level. In addition, it changed from a dominantly material fundus to a mixed fundus regarding quality, format, accessibility et cetera. Finally, it opened up to a broad public environment not only in a local or regional perspective, but also to the international, global and multilingual context.

These changes significantly affect the functions of public libraries, especially those designed for higher education, teacher training, further education and lifelong learning.

Abstract

This illustrative case study describes the evolution of a series of courses (2014-present) aimed at providing advanced students and early career researchers from a Czech STEM campus with the skills they need to adequately participate in global scientific endeavors. The involvement of library staff in the courses described here ranged far beyond embedding in the passive sense of the word, with all aspects of course design, implementation, and revision managed collaboratively and actively by an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional team championed by library personnel. Thus, this study raises the question of whether or not “embedding” is the appropriate term for describing active library leadership in such “catalytic” endeavors.

Structurally, the case study will linearly relate how course modules were developed and how the team approached various organizational and structural hurdles which emerged over time.

The study will also show how information literacy concepts were woven into the curriculum without being labeled as such—thus identifying a possible necessity for refining the discourse surrounding information literacy concepts so that students and researchers better understand why they are valuable.

The study includes original data from course evaluations as well as descriptions of final syllabi (topics covered, readings assigned, types of homework assigned) for two courses, Scientific Writing in English, and Gaining Confidence in Presenting. Because all instruction and materials were delivered in English, the content described will be relevant to anyone working with advanced STEM students and early career researchers who publish in English. 

Abstract

In the last few years academic libraries in the United States embraced the new Commons model, where each of these commons, such as learning commons, research commons, subject and format commons, etc., has its own specific characteristics and role within the library. However, this new trend mainly has been the result of increased reliance on electronic collections and increased need for collaborative work. Users want continuous access to all resources in a variety of locations, which is not always feasible due to resource and staffing limitations. To adapt to this new model, library spaces have been transformed to accommodate the needs for collaborative work. Additionally, staff skills and duties have also been transforming with librarians and support staff becoming partners in the research process as opposed to being transmitters of information. We will briefly discuss different commons models and give examples of challenges and successful space transformations. We will explore the skillsets of the new workforce needed for this new reality and the new positions in Libraries that are advertised. Like academic libraries, iSchools will have to adapt as well since this is where new members of the workforce are cultivated and educated. At the same time, professional development in the libraries is an important component of bringing current staff up to speed in the changing environment. We will also share our experience with implementing library commons and discuss the different commons that exist at the University of Maryland Libraries, such as the Terrapin Learning Commons, Research Commons and its subsidiaries Research Commons @ EPSL (Engineering and Physical Sciences Library) and Research Commons @ MSPAL (Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library), and Media Commons.

Abstract

When Professor Barbara J. Ford, the former American Library Association President visited Zimbabwe under the invitation of the Zimbabwe Library Association in 2013, she presented the topic of ‘Embedded Libraries’ which was a new topic to all who were present.

Following this lecture, it became clear that the traditional role of the Librarian and had evolved for the better. Digital information is ubiquitous and clients do not have to come to the Library to get information.  E-resources can be obtained from home, in offices, in the student’s halls of residence, restaurants etc.   Library users use desktops, laptops, smart phones and tablets to access all their information needs. The original role of the Librarian of ‘waiting to be asked’ and be responsive has completely made a turn-around as Embedded Librarians become ‘go getters’ of the needs of the academic communities that they serve; they anticipate and are pro-active.

At Lupane State University, our plan is to employ more Subject/Faculty Librarians who will build stronger relationships with both Faculty and students. Eventually, the Subject/Faculty Librarians will transform themselves to Embedded Librarians as they will offer focused, targeted, specialized research and information results which have an analytical approach and which enable the Librarians to be more integrated in the academic community. Our Embedded Librarians will have offices where the Faculty is and not in the Library. A few Subject Librarians would remain in the Library solely for the service if the students. Currently the Library has three (3) Faculty Librarians for the 3 Faculties; namely Agricultural Sciences, Commerce and Humanities and Social Sciences. All the Faculty Librarians have a background of Library qualifications for their undergraduate degrees but for future prospects, we will look for Embedded Librarians who have their first degrees in the subjects their Faculties will be offering; for example, the Embedded Librarian for the Faculty of Commerce must have their first degrees in Management, Marketing or Human Resources Management. This approach for the Embedded Librarian would allow easy creation of building strong relationships with the Faculty and understanding the Faculty’s work and information needs. The Embedded Librarian would share the Faculty’s goals and actively contribute to the achievement of those goals and furthermore become an integral and indispensable member of the Faculty (Shumaker, D. 2009).

The important aspects of the Embedded Librarians is to communicate the value of the Library service through increase research output at LSU, through communication, socializing and collaboration within the Faculty by integrating the LIS programme into the curriculum, through raising the standard of Primary and Secondary Education in the Matabeleland North region by introducing education with technology, use of virtual learning centres and through community engagement in various activities like farming, pottery, small business enterprises that need the University’s expertise.

Being an Embedded Librarian has never been so exciting, moving beyond service and becoming an active partner in the development of academic user needs, adding value to the academics, surrounding communities and enforcing the relevance of the Library, which further strengthens the Librarians’ positions as key players within the University. Great things can only be expected from this Library initiative, hurray!!

Abstract

A research study was done at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) during 2014/15 to measure the application of information literacy skills after completion of a Certificate in Information Literacy (CIL). The results of the study lead to some questions around student learning: retention of what was taught, extent of skills transfer, multiple assessment methods and the role of rubrics. These are some of the questions that arose. What is a reasonable time to expect for a student to become information literate, therefore, retain the knowledge and skills that they were taught and continue to transfer those skills to various information challenges? The importance for students to use these skills across subjects and levels will be highlighted. What should be included in academic programmes to ensure the continuous development of these skills and the regular usage of library resources? Do the teaching approaches lead to short-term or long-term transfer? 

Abstract

To remain a relevant part of the academic experience, a library must be adaptable and focus on offering the proper blend of services in a rapidly changing environment. The library organizational structure is key to this process: It ensures that services are provided efficiently while at the same time reflecting and highlighting the library’s strategic approach. When organizational structure is allowed to develop organically over time, it may at some point no longer meet current expectations and require deeper intervention.

This presentation focuses on the organizational transformation initiated by the new library director at the Vienna University of Technology Library. We aimed to increase the library’s level of institutional embeddedness and to expand its service portfolio in the areas of publication and research support. The process was launched during the transition to a new library software; there was very little time for employee involvement, so a concise workshop format was used to draw up measures that would allow us to achieve strategic change.

The process provided an opportunity to develop a best-practice model for the benefit of other departments, as it took place against the background of a university-wide reorganization, and it was supported and monitored by the university’s HR department. The preliminary outcomes and lessons learned will be presented at the conference.

Abstract

Lappeenranta Academic Library is a joint library of Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and Saimaa University of Applied Sciences. Researcher services form the present focus in library services development.

LUT Trailblazer strategy outlines its goals with four questions:

Are we going to burn up everything?

Is humanity condemned to suffer from water it has polluted?

Will waste be the grave of our future?

Will we let Europe degenerate to the world’s back yard?

The strategy is a challenge to the library but also a great possibility. The organizational structure of the university is based on three schools and six interdisciplinary research platforms. The organization of the library is similar with three administrative chiefs and 13 service teams in which the employees determine their tasks. In 2016 financial cuts forced the library to downsize. This challenge and simultaneous development of new services was successfully managed due to the flexibility of the staff and by continuous upgrading of competencies.

LUT has Open Access and Research Data Policies with corresponding action plans. The library has had a big role in compiling and implementing the policies. It develops and offers open science services in the university and teaches open science issues. Within LUT the main cooperative partners of the library are the IT and the Funding Services. On national level the library cooperates with the Open Science and Research Initiative. Publication repository platform services are bought from The National Library of Finland and data repository services from the Centre for Scientific Computing. In the university LUT Research Portal (the CRIS) is the node of publication and research data.

The presentation describes the open science process and services and future plans from the library’s viewpoint.

Abstract

Research papers have been widely used as an assignment in higher education. While they can be effective in reinforcing students’ learning and fostering higher level applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating skills to some degree, they are often overwhelming for lower lever undergraduate students. Meanwhile, librarians confront challenges of integrating recently-published ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into information literacy training.

McGill University in Montreal, Canada has been making efforts to embed librarian services in students’ learning experiences. In the past two years, the instructors of an undergraduate geography course adopted a new assignment, Précis Plus, to replace the research paper that were used for a decade. Similar to a typical Précis assignment, Précis Plus required students to write a concise, coherent, critical summary of a scientific paper. Beyond that, it also required students to assess the legacy of the scientific paper and select examples from the contemporary literature to demonstrate how that legacy has manifested itself still relevant to research questions today. These learning objectives are aligned with the concepts of Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation, and Searching as Strategic Exploration as established in the ACRL’s Framework. To well equip students for the assignment, the geography liaison librarians were invited to deliver a 90-minute library session to the class which consisted of (1) locating full text for a known reference, (2) tracing articles that cite a given paper, and (3) keeping references organized in the research process. Student assessment revealed that students were fairly receptive to the new assignment and library session, and the improved quality of assignments attested the effectiveness of using Précis Plus to achieve the course’s goals.

Abstract

Issues raised in a Senate Review of the Dalhousie Libraries prompted the Libraries to conduct an Operational Review in 2012. One of the results coming out of these reviews was the introduction of a new organizational structure in 2013, establishing five Associate University Librarian roles with system-wide responsibilities. Coupled with this was the University Librarian’s strategic initiative to encourage librarians to “follow their bliss” and select an area of expertise, moving away from a traditional liaison model. This program encouraged the development of specialization in an area that would meet a system-wide need.  Happening simultaneously with the review process was a merger with a significantly smaller university, bringing a fifth, and remote, library into the system. The merger heightened the need to find ways to strengthen the library system into one cohesive and cooperative system. This paper discusses how the establishment of the new AUL roles and encouragement of librarians to serve in system-wide areas of expertise was vital to transforming the library system and breaking down the silos of the individual libraries. This restructuring increased the Libraries’ ability to support the university’s new strategic plan and placed the Libraries in a position of strength within the university. The success of the new model is examined in the context of the subsequent Senate Review, which was recently completed.

Abstract

Libraries and Learning Services (LLS) at the University of Auckland (UoA), New Zealand, is recognised by the institution for expertise in scholarly information developments. Our ability to respond to rapid changes within the research ecosystem is evidenced by LLS business ownership of Symplectic (UoA’s research outputs system), support for the national performance-based research assessment (PBRF) and initiatives like ORCID, Bibliometrics, open access and research data management.

This paper will look at significant progress made since the IATUL 2015 conference paper on developing strategic research services. Our specialist technical and client services play a key role in achieving UoA’s strategic objectives for growing and disseminating research that has impact and value.

In 2017 our focus is on supporting PBRF, a six-yearly government assessment of tertiary institutions aimed at rewarding excellence. PBRF has a great effect on the UoA’s revenue and reputation. We are on the PBRF Steering Group, PBRF Advisory Group and faculty working groups. Our LLS PBRF Project Lead is responsible for our PBRF work streams and specialist librarians provide services customised to disciplinary requirements. Consultations and workshops assist researchers to position their publications for influence and to track their scholarly, governmental and societal impact.

Symplectic is used in the creation of Evidence Portfolios, containing information about the outputs and research-related activities for each researcher over a five-year period. Metadata librarians verify research outputs (publications and artefacts), using a stringent verification process to ensure outputs meet PBRF requirements.

This paper will explore how our Vision and Strategy programme of work is repositioning embryonic and stand-alone services to integrated services accessible to all researchers. Our focus is increasingly on making UoA research excellence more visible externally and helping researchers assess impact.

Presented will be the following posters:

• Nedelina Tchangalova: Rooting skills and expertise in liaison work: Strategies for embedded librarianship

• Hester Mountifield, Vanda Ivanovic, Olivia Rütti, Jenny Mendieta Aguilar, Liz Sowden, Jenny Jones, Penny Hacker, Li Wang: Write@uni: An online learning approach to facilitate first-year students’ transition to university writing

• Sharon Maria S. Esposo-Betan: Advocacy towards User Responsibility and Lifelong Learning

• Sharon Maria S. Esposo-Betan: Towards Technology-Based Social Learning Spaces, Designing A Third Place For Engineers: The Learning Commons

• Tanja Harrison, Jennifer Richard: Academic Library Consortia in Canada: Global Issues From a Regional Perspective

• Elizabeth Lee Soergel, Kelly Marie Banyas: Make and Remake: Adapting Library Makerspaces to Meet Institutional Needs

Research Data Management services are being implemented by academic and research libraries in support of university research activities globally. In South Africa, some libraries are beginning to provide frameworks for these services with some degree of successes and challenges as policies are being formulated, infrastructure being setup, library staff being trained and awareness and advocacy campaigns being held with academic staff and researchers. Challenges being faced include availability of resources and infrastructures and limited data management skills among library staff. This paper reports on how the library at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is developing and integrating research data management services into institutional research workflows. The paper includes issues that are driving eResearch at the institution and how requirements of researchers in the field of biomedical research have been used in a pilot eResearch project. The report also details how the university library is using these user requirements to develop tools such as data management plans, electronic laboratory journals and systems for integration with institutional research workflows. The paper further outlines how an international collaborative approach has assisted the library to participate in the development of an open source platform for the management of the full research cycle in support of research data management. It concludes with how further skills development within the library is being undertaken to support data services and some of the likely challenges for further development of the services.

The Strategic Science Investment Plan 2017 – 2024 from the New Zealand Government includes a strategic five-year plan for improving the quality of data on the country’s research system. A key action in the Research, Science and Innovation Domain Plan is to create a National Research Information System for New Zealand (NRIS). The NRIS will link data on researchers, their projects, outputs, funding sources and end-user collaborations. The implications for New Zealand higher education institutions is that, over time, research organisations will need to meet the minimum standards that define the Domain Plan. New Zealand university libraries have contributed significantly to achieving this. We outline the introduction and development of the framework for the national research information system in New Zealand and examine the approach taken and outcomes expected.

While the development of a national framework has enabled university libraries to contribute to institutional infrastructure, the main focus of this paper is the development of a programme of change carried out at the University of Otago Library to support Researchers and the University. Library support for the building blocks required for the national research domain plan are considered in this paper. We explore an example from the University of Otago and consider the Library’s contribution to framing the requirements of an institutional Research Information Management System that will inter-connect with the national reporting infrastructure.

The use of ORCID identifiers is central to realising the establishment of the NRIS and there is commitment from the Government to support the use of ORCID ID as a common researcher identifier across New Zealand’s research and science system. Within the New Zealand universities, support for the establishment and administration of an ORCID national consortium has been carried out by their libraries. Examples of support for the implementation of ORCID across New Zealand Universities are provided.

We consider the implications for the University of Otago Library and the organisational changes implemented in response to institutional and national initiatives. The University Library has developed a programme to extend the research support services it provides. A new unit has been created to deliver research data management services, advise on eResearch initiatives and provide assessment on the impact of research activities.

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of integrated information literacy teaching activities in project and theses courses from the 2nd cycle at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The impact is studied by analyzing a set of master theses in Ergonomics presented during the years 2009-2016. This time frame coincides with an increase in the integrated information literacy teaching provided by the KTH Library for the master program in Ergonomics.

Method: We use an interpretative content analysis and a dynamically developed coding scheme to extract data concerning how the master theses incorporate and use earlier research in the theses. We use data collected from interviews with the Ergonomics faculty at KTH and responses to a survey of other Swedish technical university libraries to further analyse strengths and weaknesses in the information literacy teaching provided.

Results: The analysis shows that the increased presence of integrated teaching activities, together with a curriculum development made by the Ergonomics faculty, has led to improved master theses. We therefore claim that there is an increase in information literacy skills over time in students who completed the master degree in Ergonomics. Our preliminary recommendation is that our teaching approach can be fruitfully implemented in other master programs at Swedish technical universities, but there is a need for further studies.

Limitations: This study does not investigate information literacy skills obtained during candidate or PhD-studies, and it does not discuss possible impacts of academic information literacy teaching on the life-long learning process in students.

The Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, has for the past six years offered a fully funded specialised two-year coursework degree at Masters level in Information Technology (M.IT degree) for academic librarians selected from the Carnegie-affiliated countries in Africa, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. This programme is unique in that it created a strategic partnership between the local sponsoring academic institution and the three international partner universities, namely Makerere University, Uganda, the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, USA and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as local industry partners.

This program made use of a blended learning approach by offering classes through face-to-face lectures and technology-mediated distance education. Face-to-face lectures took place in two to three week block periods over four semesters at partner universities. Technology-mediated distance education consisted of audio-conferencing using our Learning Management System Blackboard Collaborate. Lecturers also made use of various social media technologies such as Wikis to enhance their academic offering. The presentation will discuss the technological and teaching methodologies as well as the unique advantages and challenges of collaboration between four partner institutions on two continents as well as local industry partners in offering a blended learning program to students from six different countries.  Although the Carnegie funded-programme has come to an end, the Masters degree is continuing in 2017 as a self-funded programme without the face-to-face lectures, only utilising technology-mediated distance education. The presentation will also discuss how it is possible for the continuing programme to compensate for the lack of face-to-face lectures and site visits by means of technology.

This paper aims at describing the feasibility study and verification of the minimum requirements which are needed to extend to the Library of Psychology the online reference support that the University of Turin Digital Library Department managed by Franco Bungaro offers its users. The methodology adopted for this task derives from that developed in a previous project which aimed at improving the communication with library users. This goal was accomplished by means of the automatic analysis of the exchanges between the Library Service users and the librarians who provided live chat support from 2014 to 2016. The approach that has been adopted to carry out our reference-related projects derives from a particular Academic research field called “digital humanities”, which represents the intersection between information technologies and humanity studies. Therefore, in order to produce feasible data which could be used to carry out quantitative and qualitative analysis, an automatic processing algorithm was developed. Both the methodology adopted and the results obtained substantiate the need to extend our online reference service to specific libraries to improve the quality of our work.

Despite the fact that nowadays most undergraduates in Hong Kong receive training as lifelong learners during their secondary school years, many of them are still challenged at adopting university-level information literacy (IL) into their learning practices. In particular, how to use new kinds of information in intellectual activities they have not carried out before.

In order to enhance IL among university students, libraries of the eight government-funded universities in Hong Kong collaborate in a three-years (2015-18) project to bring about a paradigm-shift at both teaching and learning levels.

At the centre of this project is the IL MOOC courseware, a self-paced asynchronous online resource designed to promote more proficient use of information to learn (Bruce, 2008) through general and discipline specific scenarios. The design of the five modules of IL MOOC addresses information practices and related dispositions (ACRL, 2015) in research tasks, including identify information needs of a topic, find suitable information efficiently, evaluate and select relevant information, create and communicate research outputs effectively, as well as contribute and benefit from participating professional communities. In order to illustrate discipline-related IL concepts and know-hows, subject librarians of each participating institution design scenarios, quizzes, and learning objects on arts & humanities, business, education, engineering, law, medicine, science, and social sciences. Students can choose to learn through different pathways to suit their learning goals. Findings from the quantitative and qualitative study conducted by this project provide insights and guidance on the content design of the IL MOOC.

This project also aims at strengthening faculty-librarian collaboration through setting up course enhancement funds for faculties to implement subject-related IL pedagogical innovations, as well as a capacity building program for librarians to enhance faculty-librarian collaborations.

Academic libraries have developed many strategical partnerships in the last ten years.

One very recent partnership is the collaboration with digital humanities research centres.

Librarians support digital humanists by training students and by using markup languages (for example TEI). Academic libraries also offer spaces and infrastructure to support the activities of the digital humanities centres.

A very special relationship is developing between digital humanities and digital libraries, as humanists massively use the digital library collections to study and to research.

Last but not least, the close collaborations between librarians and researchers is disclosing new opportunities for librarians to actively collaborate in research project.

The role of university libraries in research data stewardship has been in rapid growth and evolution. Key principles for good research data management standards are emerging and stabilizing internationally providing an opportunity for institutions to encourage and facilitate sound research data management practices among its students and researchers.

Libraries are leading the way. There is growing demand for data stewardship support on many of our campuses, but are university libraries ready to provide the help needed? Libraries must consider how we strengthen our collective ability to anticipate and respond to these needs.

This paper will look at initiatives to build capacity around research data management services at a local level (the University of Ottawa Library) and at a national level (by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ (CARL) Portage Network). 

In both cases, each organization is seeking to build additional capacity and engagement within their respective communities.  At the University of Ottawa, the library has taken steps to increase its capacity to support data stewardship and to engage with researchers on campus. At the national level, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has created the CARL Portage Network which supports university and research libraries collectively in Canada. Drawing expertise from Canadian university libraries, Portage has created community-based expert groups, each with a focus on areas which include research data infrastructure development, data management planning, and training for data management competencies.

The University of Ottawa Library is developing local research data management services while drawing support from national initiatives such as the Portage Network. An exploration of these complementary approaches will illustrate how Canadian universities can walk the fine line between “acting locally” while “thinking nationally”.

Academic dishonesty and plagiarism are serious issues in institutes of higher education especially in this Internet age with academic literature and information readily available on the web. Some research studies point to the students’ lack of understanding of the concept of plagiarism and how to cite sources as reasons why they plagiarize (Volkov, Volkov, & Tedford, 2011). Academic librarians have an important role to play in providing instruction in the ethical use of information and helping students develop abilities to attribute and cite sources in their academic writing (Mages & Garson, 2010; Maxymuk, 2006).

Recognizing this important role played by librarians, the University Library at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) started offering face-to-face workshops on the topic in the spring of 2015. While the workshops were positively received by the participants, informal feedback from students points to a need for an online course which would provide asynchronous just-in-time training for students. In this way, students who are not able to attend the face-to-face workshops would be able to access the tutorial in their own time and at their own pace.

This paper reports on the process the University Library took to create and embed an online plagiarism tutorial in Blackboard, the Learning Management System (LMS) used by the university. Drawing on and expanding on materials covered in the face-to-face workshop, the online tutorial included original multimedia material, and a summative evaluation quiz. Improvements were made based on feedback gathered from students, library staff, and other university departments, such as the Office of Writing Services, Graduate Affairs, and ESP Instructors from the Writing Center.

The online tutorial was initially planned as an optional course for students, but with the support of Academic Affairs and Graduate Affairs, it has been mandated as a compulsory course for all new in-coming students.

References

Mages, W. K., & Garson, D. S. (2010). Get the cite right: Design and evaluation of a high-quality online citation tutorial. Library & Information Science Research, 32(2), 138-146.

Maxymuk, J. (2006). The persistent plague of plagiarism. The Bottom Line, 19(1), 44-47.

Volkov, A., Volkov, M., & Tedford, P. (2011). Plagiarism: proactive prevention instead of reactive punishment. e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship Teaching, 5(2), 22.

In 2010, CARL issued a publication Core Competencies for 21st Century CARL Librarians with the aim of providing an overview of the skills and attributes being sought by to help support the goals and strategic initiatives of Canadian research libraries in the 21st Century. This competencies profile also provided a guide that could help librarians working in CARL libraries manage their careers, set meaningful professional development goals and align those goals with the missions of their respective organizations and can acts as a means to identify strengths and gaps in personal competencies.

The findings in this report spurred the development of various professional development opportunities CARL created to support its workforce.

This paper will provide an overview of the activities CARL has undertaken over the last 7 years to provide professional development opportunities such as the Librarians’ Research Institute, management and preservation of government documents, managing institutional repositories, the Canadian Library Assessment Workshop, and data management through the Portage initiative to name a few. 

In addition to the processes, it will explore what worked and what did not and provide a forum for participants to discuss how these initiatives could be applied within their own context, whether at a departmental level or as a national or regional initiative. It will also discuss some local and national projects that were launched from the experience gained through these various initiatives.

Library metadata was created to describe objects and enable a reader to understand when they had the same or a different object in hand. Now linked data concepts and techniques are allowing us to recreate, merge, and link our metadata assets in new ways that better support discovery - both in our local systems and on the wider web. Tennant will describe this migration and the potential it has for solving key discovery problems.

In 2016, the ground-floor of the Reid Library at The University of Western Australia (UWA) was transformed from a ‘cold, dusty and dated’ 50-year-old space to a ‘stylish, open and social’ 750 seat collaborative learning facility. This paper will focus on how libraries are re-designing library spaces to enrich and enhance the student experience. Utilising the Reid Library Project as a case study, the paper will outline how the University Library engaged broadly and deeply with stakeholders to determine requirements, develop an innovative design befitting the Library’s central place on campus, and to generate unprecedented support for the project with one student describing it as “student heaven”.

Student engagement was central to the Project with extensive consultation undertaken to determine requirements in the form of surveys, regular meetings with student leaders, focus groups and social media engagement. Students provided constructive feedback on everything, from proposed layouts to furniture preferences, which was utilised in the planning and implementation project phases. Visitors to the Library were also engaged and able to contribute to project decision making, through such initiatives as a people’s choice vote to select the artwork for the Library entrance.

The reaction from the UWA community has been extremely positive since the space reopened with a 60% increase in library entrances. Utilisation of reference and information support has increased 40% in the new location and the space has enabled the UWA community to engage with the Library in new ways – from election polling booths, to career workshops, chess games and industry events. The teaching spaces have brought academic staff back to the Library. Most importantly, the project strengthened the Library’s relationship with students and firmly embedded the Library’s role as a leader in student experience on campus.

Like many countries, in New Zealand the ability to demonstrate your university’s research performance and the quality and impact of its research outputs has become increasingly important as this influences government funding, as well as national and international rankings. In this highly competitive environment Victoria University of Wellington has responded with an ambitious 20 year strategic plan which explicitly aims to enhance its research quality, quantity and impact. So, how does Victoria University of Wellington Library contribute to the University’s research priorities and goals?

While it may be obvious to many that the University Library has an important role to play in supporting research and arguably contributing to the overall success of the University’s research outputs, this view has not always been shared by all academics or researchers, nor for that matter, all Library staff. This paper will look at how the Library has responded and shown it clearly has a role to play in supporting the University’s research goals.

Recognising the need to be more closely aligned to the University’s priorities and direction the Library underwent a structural change and refocus in 2011. This resulted in the Library becoming more explicit about how it supports research, and to enable it to deliver on this it has incrementally built up its services and capability. This paper will cover how the Library has identified and developed its research support services and capability over the past five years, and demonstrated through initiatives and collaborations why it has a crucial role to play in helping the University achieve its research goals. 

The paper will also discuss how the Library plans to further develop and embed research support services to ensure it remains relevant and is strategically aligned to the University’s research endeavours.

Research results presented at scientific conferences are valuable information resources for scientific communities. Traditionally, the results are published in conference proceedings, documenting the current state of research. Additionally, an increasing number of conferences are recorded and the videos are subsequently published. While libraries have well-established procedures for collecting textual conference reports as part of the difficult-to-obtain grey literature, comparable procedures for audio-visual conference recordings have not yet been established.

In most cases these videos are published by the organisers on commercial platforms or directly on the conference website. A systematic search for conference recordings is difficult e.g. because the URL changes or external links lead to nowhere. Usually, conference websites are not maintained on a long-term basis and commercial platforms may remove videos or change the conditions for access for a variety of reasons.

In order to prevent the loss of conference recordings the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) has developed the AV-Portal. The AV-Portal provides the ideal infrastructure to host, find and reuse scientific videos. It’s a single access point for videos from different conferences and years. All videos are assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). These persistent identifiers allow for reliable referencing both as stable online links and as correct citations in scholarly work.

This paper describes how sharing scientific results via audio-visual media has become an important part of scientific communication. Further the paper introduces the TIB AV-Portal as a trusted home for conference recordings. It describes the workflow for linking the recordings to the corresponding proceedings in TIB’s extensive collection of conference reports and vice versa via DOIs, thereby fulfilling a key demand of the Pisa Declaration on Policy Development for Grey Literature Resources.

Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences is Norway’s largest university college, situated in the city center of Oslo. The University covers a wide range of professional education from teacher training, nursing and other health educations, arts and engineering. The 4 libraries supports research and education at their local campuses. The main library, P48, moved into existing premises in 2007. This was previous an office space and not ideal for library use. The university is growing and the need for working space for the students are increasing.

In this paper we will describe the process of rethinking and redesigning existing library space. As a tool for analyzing the use of the premises we used Tracking the Traffic (TTT), and we will present work with this method as a tool for redesign. The redesign of the library included implementing RFID-technology. With this technology we are able to offer extensive self-service to our users, and extend the opening hours without library staff. Our opening hours are now 06-22 all days throughout the year. This means that our users can use the library also when it is unstaffed.  Our experience with extended opening hours will be discussed.

A project on rethinking the library premises was established in 2012, and involved all employees at the library P48. Weeding the collection to create more space was imperative to gain alternative space. New furniture and other equipment were introduced in 2014 and 2015. The visits to the library increased 15,3% from 2014-2015.  During spring 2016 we did a new TTT to further investigate the use of the premises and made new plans for our main goal: to make the library as the preferred place to study. The visits to the library increased with 25% from 2015-2016.

Research Data Management (RDM) is part of the research process, and aims to make the research process as efficient as possible. Beyond that, RDM has to meet expectations and requirements of the university and research funders (e.g. Horizon 2020). These funders nowadays ask for efficient tools that outline how data is handled both during research, and after the project is completed.

The presentation will first give a short overview of the initiatives an RDM being launched in Austria at the moment and will later concentrate on a specific project that was initiated in 2017 by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW). The goal of this project is to promote a coordinated approach in the implementation of RDM workflows within Austrian universities.

Academics are increasingly required to demonstrate their research activities, ideally via measurable performance indicators. At the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the university library has started a program to support university management and faculties as well as individual researchers in improving the visibility and impact of their research.

In August 2016, the Department of Architecture first approached us for advice on how to change its publishing culture to make it more open, international and competitive. The department struggles to provide evidence of their research output, which does not fit the classical system of scholarly communication. Architectural works come in a wide range of formats and their impact is hard to measure. 

Following our usual course of action, we conducted a survey on profiles and performance indicators of TUM architecture professors regarding their scholarly output. Not surprisingly, a comprehensive analysis on Web of Science and Scopus confirmed that only a small number of the professorate are represented. However, we found various works on Google Scholar and individual lecturers use academic networking sites to present their work and projects.

This led us to the question: Do academic networking sites have the potential to fill the visibility gap for academics with a non-classical publishing culture such as architects and offer them an alternative route to provide evidence about their research activities?

Top management in academic/university libraries must play a more significant role within the academic setting by reorganizing library spaces or building new libraries that will be aligned with the new teaching pedagogies and today’s students learning styles. The aim of this study is to present and discuss trends related to how librarians are redefining academic libraries’ buildings and spaces in order to better be aligned to changing pedagogies and students’ learning styles and needs.

The paper has an implication for improving knowledge-sharing strategies on the development and use of different library spaces and library buildings. There is a need for knowledge about what types of library spaces university students and faculty will most likely use in order to more effectively accomplish their academic requirements and obligations, enhancing thus the teaching and learning experience.

This paper offers input and practical suggestions on how academic libraries can make a more significant impact in the university community and increase its role in collaborating with students’ overall academic success.

The overall findings show that (1) there is still nowadays a vivid discussion about the ability of the academic library building survive amidst the tech driven society and learning habits by the “Y” and “Me” generations; (2) Print collections, although is decreasing in volume, are not still “dead”; (3) Students still seek and value the library for individual studies and research; and (4) students use the library for socializing purposes and collaborative learning; (5) students will come to the library when it is remolded or built aligned with their needs and learning styles in mind.

Serving our academic community expects us to understand the researchers, their professional lives, motivation, needs, workloads, work organization, partnerships, etc. – maximum information that stand behind their work. A lot is identified just by serving the academic community.

In order to step ahead to identify future development in research support, the stories and expectations behind the work of researchers were sought. A deep interview survey was conducted among researchers at our university from various research fields in engineering, age groups, and professional experience. Due to expected differences in information needs between users in academic and industrial environments, also a brief insight into the information support in industry was taken.

As a conclusion, the survey revealed that researchers rely highly on their own know-how, experience and skills. Several aspects play key role in their information and publishing behavior, e.g. the nature of the research (basic vs. applied), the extent of cooperation with industry, the aim of the activities (teaching vs. research), and scientific prestige and rate of financial dependence on the income from the research.

Overall, researchers have their own ways, tools and social ties to obtain information, and have little motivation to learn new things. They cope with the principle of least effort, they prefer quality over quantity, the speed and availability of information. The survey has shown that the overall information behavior in engineering has not changed much compared to the literature of the 1970s.

This paper will describe the particular detailed findings in the area of information and publishing behavior of engineers in academic environment and their attitude towards current aspects of scholarly communication incl. Open Access and social networking.

The work was conducted for a dissertation at the Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, defended in 2016.

A diverse and fluid range of digital tools are increasingly being used in university libraries as students absorb, create and communicate their academic understanding. Information and digital literacy (IDL) is central to this work; blending the transferable graduate attribute of information literacy with digital tools and skills enhances the development of actively engaged students. Emerging pedagogical approaches, which are central to the University of Sheffield’s Learning and Teaching Strategy, are placing students not as passive recipients of knowledge and learning in our society but as active knowledge creators. Engaging with information in a critical and ethical way allows for deeper understanding. The synthesis or ‘remixing’ of information, often using a highly visualised approach, creates and communicates new meaning.

This paper will present the development of our new vision for information and digital literacy and will outline what our distinctive offer will mean to current students and Sheffield graduates. The Library’s Learning Services Unit are driving this initiative and have explored national (UK) and international perspectives of IDL, before drawing on a narrative based approach to collaboratively write a vision for the future. The thought leadership at Sheffield has been influenced by work Anne previously led at Deakin University in Australia, shared at earlier IATUL conferences.

At Sheffield, collaborations with external stakeholders are now informing the development of a university wide framework for IDL whilst our workshops and online tutorials are being co-designed and co-delivered with a team of Student Associates. The paper will end by presenting the latest developments in this work before inviting IATUL delegates to continue to participate in dialogue around IDL and its interpretation and relevance in different institutional contexts.

Since its debut in November 2004, librarians have raised several criticisms at Google Scholar (GS) such as its inconsistency of coverage and its currency and scope of coverage. It may have been true in the early years of Google Scholar but is this still through twelve years after? Is this sufficient to ignore it totally either in our information literacy programs or evaluate its value against the values of subscription-based abstracts and indexes?

In this era of severe budget constraints that libraries are facing, can we imagine of substituting most or all of our subject databases with the free access of Google Scholar for discoverability? How much overlap between our databases and Google Scholar? How reliable is Google Scholar? How stable is its content over time?

Open Access is getting to be the predominant form of getting access to peer reviewed articles. Many new non-traditional tools (institutional repositories, social media, peer to peer sites) are available out there to retrieve the full-text of peer reviewed articles. What can be said in terms of content and reliability of both Sci-Hub and LibGen?

This article reports on preliminary results of a one year study of Google Scholar where 2,800 random samples (peer reviewed journal articles) coming from fifty six different databases covering all disciplines (Arts & Humanities, Law, Music, Social Sciences and STM) are tested against GS. The samples have been searched against Google Scholar at four different intervals during the year.

The same samples have been searched against both Sci-Hub and LibGen in order to see how much full-text content is available under these platforms. Different data such as publication year, publishers, language of articles and OA are being looked at to see if content is affected by either or all of these parameters.

To verify the currency of information in Google Scholar, Sci-Hub and LibGen, research articles from both Nature and Science (from current issues, Nature Advance Online Publication and First Release from Science) were searched on a daily basis. Results are showing that most of the peer review articles are available in Google Scholar, Sci-Hub and LibGen.

This paper is focused on projects regarding the digitization of documentary collections in academic libraries. It's based on processes regarding physical materials (books, documents, multimedia files, etc) and it’s not to be confused with the born digital area or with the open repositories.

The aim of the work is to suggest a valuation of digitization projects by using a set of parameters deduced by the observation of national and international models.

To create this valuation scheme it has been necessary to look at the recent national and international academic literature and compare different case studies. The parameters were created by thinking about the whole process of digitization and also taking into consideration a user centred valuation.

The parameters identified are:

            •           Stakeholders

            •           Economics

            •           Collections

            •           Resources’ visualization

            •           Preservation over the long term

            •           Privacy and copyright

            •           Accessibility

            •           Portal architecture/ Project structure

            •           Interoperability

            •           Metadata

 The valuation scheme created has been tested on a sample of digitization projects of Italian, European and American academic libraries. Selected projects include:

             •           DigitUniTo, University of Turin

            •           Impronte digitali, University of Florence

            •           Sapienza Digital Library, Sapienza University of Rome

            •           Salernum, University of Salerno

            •           Harvard College Library Digitization Program

            •           Cambridge Digital Library

            •           Bibliothéque numérique patrimoniale, University of Strasbourg

With this kind of analysis it was possible to check the validity of the valuation scheme created, to identify points of strength and of weakness within the Italian system and to compare it with the international best practices analyzed.

University libraries offer a much bigger prospective than presenting students with quality research material and a place to study. They promote the idea of working together by providing group workrooms with workstations, beamers, and others modern tools. Such as any other institution, there is a tangible wish to continue to modernize, although often not possible due to financial constraints. However, this

reflects an untapped potential for university libraries: they present a window of opportunity for in-house developed projects. At the University of Applied Sciences Wildau, the collaboration between the library

and the Telematics team, a telecommunication and informatics degree course, have successfully proved this theory. Over the years, through this partnership, we have developed several great applications for large multi-touch displays, tablets and mobile devices, presented in previous IATUL conferences, and, now, we present our new project: an indoor positioning system. There has been an increasing trend in maps and localization systems within buildings over the last few years. Both large companies and open source map developers have been working on solving this problem and have done so successfully. Regrettably, most of these solutions are only possible in supported venues, mainly due to crowd sourcing solutions. The granularity of the end position is in these cases still very coarse, e.g. navigating to a store. Our solution covers both levels: a fine granularity within the library and a broader one for the rest of the

campus. By using the Bluetooth based iBeacon technology we have achieved an accuracy of around 2m, thus allowing library visitors to be navigated, for example, to a specific bookshelf. We are looking forward to share our experience on building this system, but especially on the feedback-development iteration between the library and the Telematics team.

Libraries have been digitizing old stock for several years now – mostly for a specific and restricted scientific user group. But what about the social obligation to preserve, and therefore call to mind digital cultural heritage in a contemporary manner?

Flora Graeca is a masterpiece of printing, engraving, color and design of the plants of Greece in the late 18th century comprising ten volumes. It was discovered in Darmstadt’s University and State Library three years ago. Encouraged by the overall good condition and the almost one thousand finely crafted, hand-colored illustrations, the library conducted a high-quality digitization of the whole work in order to make it digitally available to the public. The key question was how to reach a circle beyond scientific users, i.e. botanists and historians, and draw the general public’s interest to this wonderful masterpiece. The offer should ideally address the student library patrons, who use the library in hundreds as place of work and communication. Why not making them curious in the libraries treasures while coming here every day? So, the idea was to enrich the illustrations by further information about the botanic illustrations by linked open data from the semantic web, such that entities could be linked semantically, and the digital copies could be connected to additional information. In combination with a presentation platform developed in a former project particularly for mobile usage, a virtual edition of Flora Graeca was formed, implemented as an edutainment application with responsive design and exploratory search for an intuitive and ludic handling. It breaks fresh ground by leaving the classic search and find paradigm towards digital strolling: just like a physical visit to a library or a museum, it allows strolling through a collection, discovering and comparing objects, and getting inspired.

A dynamic and innovative library management brings about diverse projects, which are worked on simultaneously at the same time. Project outcomes, as well as existing services and products need to be made visible for our patrons.

Hence, services, products and innovations require communication measures and promotion. To handle marketing activities strategically and efficiently from one source, the library management identified the need of a holistic marketing strategy to cover activities of all library departments. 

During the development of the strategy, the marketing officer together with the library management classified target groups, analysed communication channels and defined product groups. They examined current marketing activities and opportunities to improve them. Therefore, the marketing officer collected information throughout the library and its departments, revised it systematically and merged it into a marketing strategy.

The overall aim was to create a marketing concept with efficient workflows, defined marketing aims and set measures considering the specific requirements of a university library environment.

In this paper, the process of creating a marketing strategy will be presented. Beyond that, one of the aims of the marketing strategy will be described, which is to embed information about library offers in our patrons’ environment.

It is a time of change for Concordia University Library (Montreal, Canada). A major renovation and expansion project of the Webster Library (17,300 m2) is underway and scheduled to finish in 2017. This major project is one objective from the Library's strategic plan "Inspiring Success", part of the overall University's strategic directions. Since the inception of the space program and throughout its development, a clear vision had been communicated and reinforced for all decisions that were made. It can be summarized by the following: Creating an intellectually inspiring space, bringing more natural light and transparency in the building, making visible activities held in the library, expressing with architecture choices how the library is a community space, as well as bringing joy and beauty in the daily life of our students. In order to create a coherent technology program, we adopted a similar approach used for the development of the space program. It was designed in collaboration with consultants, technology specialists, librarians, architects and an anthropologist. The technology program, among other elements, consists of hardware and software specifically developed to make visible and audible our digital collections in the library spaces, digital and interactive signage, a technology sandbox, a visualization and virtual reality studio. The two programs together provide students with a choice of 22 different types of study and learning environments. Consultation, observation, communications and input from students and faculty were part of an on-going process throughout the project. This presentation will focus on the spectrum of study environments and the consultation process that ensured the relevancy of the renovated library for the university community.

Within the last few years we have witnessed a significant paradigm shift in teaching in the academia from teacher focused instruction to learner-centered or student-centered learning. This shift came as a result of many faculty and administrators worrying on how to get their students to learn more and better (Tagg, 2008). In fact, creating a learner-centered environment is the most important thing an educator can do to optimize students’ learning (Doyle, 2008, p.xv). A learner environment is different from traditional environment where students take notes and pass tests. It is an environment that allows students to take responsibility over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn (Doyle, 2008). In other words, a learner-centered teaching simply means subjecting every teaching activity (method, assignments, or assessment) to the test of a single question: “Given the context of my students, course, and classroom, will this teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?” Learner-centered learning is therefore about students as ‘active participants’ in the classroom, as partners who contribute to reaching the required outcomes of a course or programme.” In order to optimize students’ learning there is a need for a variety of learning/teaching activities that employ different strategies for attaining the learning outcomes. In so doing, you will be more likely to appeal to the different learning styles that are present in the student population. You will also create opportunities for students to be exposed to diverse perspectives and to “stretch” themselves by trying new approaches. As Doyle (2008, p. xv) notes, “teachers can make learning fun, interesting, exciting, and challenging, or they can make it awful, boring, painful, and useless.” It is my rationalization that adopting a learner-centered approach will make learning more fun and exciting. In this paper, I will explore the various activities deemed critical to the success of learner-centered teaching.

This project arises from the need to conform to safety regulations four buildings very different from each other: the Social Science Periodicals Library, the Geography Department Library, the Geography Museum, and - for the next five to seven years - the Library of Economics. The library should in fact be transferred in the building of the Department of Economics, now under restoration.

These libraries are set in three adjoining historical buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries, overlooking one of the oldest streets in Padua.

The safety requirements called for a radical rethinking of library space arrangement, which has to match the needs of different types of public, and the relationship with the new little Geography Museum. In order to satisfy the needs of a diverse audience, the space has been rearranged with an approach similar to that found in public libraries, and adjusted according to different users' needs.

Every space is flexible thanks to adaptable furniture, and the reading rooms can be used for workshops, lectures and exhibitions.

The aim of this project is to cater to different needs of the audience (scholars, students and school kids) in a safe environment, adding value to the historical buildings where such spaces are situated.

This study aims to make an inquiry regarding the advantages and challenges of integrating augmented reality (AR) into the library orientation programs of academic/research libraries. With the vast number of emerging technologies that are currently being introduced to the library world, it is essential for academic librarians to fully utilize these technologies to their advantage. However, it is also of equal importance for them to first make careful analysis and research before deciding whether to adopt a certain technology or not. AR offers a strategic medium through which librarians can attach digital information to real-world objects and simply let patrons interact with them. It is a channel that librarians can utilize in order to disseminate information and guide patrons in their studies or researches. And while it is expected for AR to grow tremendously in the next few years, it becomes more inevitable for academic librarians to acquire related IT skills in order to further improve the services they offer in their respective colleges and universities.

The study shall employ the pragmatic approach to research, conducting an extensive review of available literature on AR as used in academic libraries, designing a prototype to illustrate how AR can be integrated to an existing library orientation program, and performing surveys and interviews on patrons and librarians who used it. This study can serve as a guide in order for academic librarians to assess whether implementing AR in their respective libraries will be beneficial to them or not.

Provisioning of personal computers for use is one of the services provided by SMU Libraries to support the learning and research needs of the user community. A total of 48 computers are provided spread over 2 levels of Li Ka Shing Library, one of the two libraries under the umbrella of SMU Libraries. Of these, about 8 are dedicated for access to specialized financial databases with the remaining being used for general purposes. The computers are commonly used by students to access electronic databases or for initiating print jobs.

In recent years, the library had seen a sharp increase in the number of laptops owned and operated by its patrons. In addition, the library had also undergone a master planning exercise to better utilize its space. As result of the evolving external environment, the Library decided to study if the current model of providing common PC’s was effective in supporting the learning needs of the SMU community. Anecdotal and casual observation gave strength to the opinion that students did not require such PC’s anymore, and their needs would be better served by removing the PC’s and turning the whole area into a student study space. 

Previously, the next logical step would have been to re-design the space based on these observations and implied assumptions. However, in 2013, SMU Libraries also embarked on an initiative for creating a “Culture of Assessment” among its staff. Lakos & Phipps (2004) define this as “…..an organizational strategy requiring decision-making based on "facts, research, and analysis, and where services are planned and delivered in ways that maximize positive outcomes and impacts for customers and stakeholders”. As of today, over 95% of staff have been trained in Lean Six Sigma and had worked on a number of business improvement projects. As a result of this training, a small team tasked with the study, decided to test the assumption using scientific methods.

In his book, The Laws of Subtraction, author Mathew E. May, talks about how ignorance tends to be classified as an absence of knowledge. However, in the authors’ view this offers a very simplistic reasoning and tends to ignore the various types of ignorance that even rational people fall prey to. He elaborates on two. One type of ignorance is misconception – often mistaken or disguised as a well-formed opinion or theory. When this is applied to real world scenarios, these may even appear to hold true. However, when faced with the test of a scientific method, misconceptions are forced to yield to empirical fact. Another type of ignorance is the confirmation bias or prejudice that acts on the rational mind to deny reality in place of a reality that is somehow more personally favourable.

In the case of SMU Libraries, though conventional wisdom dictated that the students’ needs would be best served by removing the PC’s since they had their own devices, our Lean Six Sigma training cautioned us to take a closer look, moving beyond just assumptions and bias. Enter “Genchi genbutsu”, a philosophy commonly used in Lean Six Sigma. This is a Japanese Term for “go look, go see”. The practise is simple. Observe first, design second. The goal is to observe people and their behaviour in the context of their entire lives. In this context, it meant observing student behaviour and their interactions with the space in the microcosm of a day in the life of an SMU student.

The study was split into 3 tracks. Both quantitative and qualitative measurements were used and carried out over the course of an entire academic term starting from 2nd Jan 2014 – 31st March, 2014.

• The first was to obtain quantitative measurement on the usage of the PC’s. This was accomplished by observing and recording usage patterns of the PC’s over the course of the 3 months. The data was recorded for every week, with each day being split into periods of 2 hours starting from 10 AM to 6 PM. The findings were recorded into Excel.
  

• The second was to obtain qualitative feedback through a few communication channels. The first channel was Facebook. Comments were invited on the Facebook page, regarding the placement of PC’s. The second methodology used was a survey. The survey was responded to by slightly over 100 participants, and the responses were tabulated and analyzed.
  

• The third track was to analyze the common issues that were highlighted during the measurement phase. The team explored various technological solutions along with the University’s IT Department, to mitigate some of the major issues faced in the availability and the usage of the common PC’s.

The results of the study were a revelation in terms of understanding expectations of the various student groups as well as space design. In addition to students who undertake full-time courses for their Under-graduate and post-graduate studies, SMU receives groups of International exchange students, every term. This group of students rely on the common PC’s provided by SMU Libraries to carry out their assignment work as well as to access online electronic resources.

The following findings were recorded from the measurements obtained –

1)    The overall results showed that students want more space for study and more convenient access to the public PCs, but at the same time, they don’t want the space to be too crowded and the level of the noise must be controlled.

2)    The top problem that users faced was a seating issue. These include hogging PC, hogging the seat and space. A number of students used their laptops or text books on public PC tables which deprived students, who were looking to work on a PC, to finding one.

3)    The design of the PC tables themselves allowed for collaborative study among groups not necessarily requiring a PC, which was counterproductive to the purpose of the space.

4)    Though the usage of the PC’s had its peak and non-peak hours, the general pattern observed did not justify the reduction of PC’s from the library at that point. Respondents’ to the survey pointed out the need to have more of them during the assignment weeks.

The following conclusions were derived from the study conducted - 

• There was a demand from students for Public PC’s.
• The major issues which affected them in this area were seat and space hogging.
• The major tasks they do with public PCs were assignments, database access and printing.
• The current space which housed the PC’s ran counter to the purpose and usage of the space.
• Noise control was a cause of concern to the users of the space.

Based on the results of the study, the team made the following recommendations - 

With regards to Recommendation I - the Library used this opportunity to revamp the space to create a shared space concept for students facilitating noise control as well as collaboration.

Shared space is a design concept, borrowed from the Field of Urban Planning – According to this concept, a road by definition is for automobiles only, while a street is a place of integration, not of segregation. Streets are to be shared equally by all who travel within a city space, without giving priority or assigning a right-of-way to a single traveller. In essence, a street represents the concept of a shared space. It requires a different way of thinking, to produce a more user-friendly social context, governed by human interaction.

In the context of the Library space, this principle was used to remodel the area such that computer users and student groups will need to calibrate and maintain the equilibrium through self-governance with the aid of well-modelled modular furniture that can accommodate various needs. This in part also fulfilled Recommendation II arising from the findings. By using a form factor that follows the function of the space, students were encouraged to model the right behaviour expected of the space.

The team also studied various technica

Innovation management has been becoming a megatrend in libraries. Working culture is changing step by step as library management has to search for new ways to deal with an ever changing technological, cultural, and institutional context. On the other hand, academic libraries are commonly still labelled as static institutions by stakeholders like faculty and university administration. The organizational culture of both the library itself and its institutional background does not keep pace with the rapidly changing way of doing things.

The paper looks on this transitions from a leadership point of view. How can academic libraries communicate their new skills and innovative methods within and beyond their institutions? If academic libraries can become active promoters of e.g. Design Thinking on campus, they are able to strengthen their role as future proof units of the university as a whole.

Therefore it is necessary to break the boundaries of an IT-centred view on innovation in academic libraries. Digitalisation of services, systems, and resources has been and will be the main driving factor for further development. Hence everyone within the institution has to face the need for new ways of doing things wether he or she belongs to the IT-staff or not. Thinking out of the box will be one of the main skills for all librarians. The paper argues that spreading innovative thinking is one major tool to make both staff and institution future proof. Against the backdrop of discussions and experiences within seminars and workshops about innovation management in academic libraries, both in  institutional as well as educational contexts, the strategies and methods of promoting innovative thinking in academic libraries are highlighted in this paper. But also ways of sharing and communicating the respective skills within the broader context of the university are discussed.

The development of a bibliometric service point at the library of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UNIBZ) has to be seen in the light of the higher education reform in Italy in 2010. As part of the reform several measures regarding quality promotion and quality management have been concluded, which, as a consequence, lead to evaluation activities on different levels. At first bibliometric services at the UNIBZ were introduced primarily to support the UNIBZ management in bibliometric matters. Very soon, however, the demand for bibliometric services also emerged from the researchers’ side. This fact has lead to a continuous growth of services, to meet the requirements of both target groups, management representatives and researchers.

In this paper the phases of a life cycle of a traditional research product (e.g. journal article or contribution in a book) are described in the light of the Italian evaluation context from a research support perspective. In the production phase of an article, bibliometric support relates to the selection of a journal or a publisher, regarding formal criteria but also content. The primary target group in this phase are emerging researchers in the first stages of their career. After the publication of the article in the second phase, there is a high demand for data management, as the publication gets indexed in different databases used for evaluations. In the assessment phase of the publication, the most time consuming phase from a research support perspective, the focus is on counselling and support of the evaluation process with the aim of obtaining the most favourable results, for both the individual researcher and the organization.

The challenges implied are the time consuming field of data management on the one hand, as this is indispensable for getting complete and correct data, and the limited comparability of research results in Social Science and Humanities among countries on the other. This problem is specific for the multilingual and multicultural area of South Tyrol, as researchers from abroad often come from different research cultures and the application of national evaluation rules may turn out to be problematic. In this context alternative solutions are needed.

In October 2015, the University Library at the Technical University of Munich started to offer bibliometric services to support researchers, university administration and university leadership. These services are designed to help them understand the meaning, limitations, and applications of bibliometric data as well as improve the visibility and impact of their own work and that of the university as a whole.

Sixteen months later, the University Library evaluated the newly introduced services. With more than 80 requests for bibliometric consultations between October 2015 and January 2017, they were successfully established and well accepted. However, the scope of the requests was much broader than expected, and the bibliometric team found itself becoming a point of contact for a multitude of further questions in the area of performance measurement.

A number of issues turned out to be recurrent and could be dealt with routinely, resulting in the creation of guidelines for author profile improvement as well as impact and visibility. On the other hand, many requests were one of a kind, often unexpected and challenging, and required individual approaches.

Firstly, the paper analyses the total amount of bibliometric requests at TUM during a time period of 16 months (topics, origin, subject specific issues, methodological and communicative challenges) and highlights findings and lessons learned. In the second part of the paper, the results of the evaluation, current issues, and possible next steps are discussed against the background of current bibliometric research.

Developing European Open Access policy to scientific resources is one of the most important issues undertaken during the public debate about the future and trends in scholarly communication process.

The Open Access landscape is determined by several factors such as mandates. The open mandate may be voluntary or mandatory and implemented at the institutional, national or international level. It requires scholars to use open repository to deposit results of scientific research funded with public money and research grants.

The current paper reflects European Commission guidelines regarding dissemination of scientific results funded with EU funds together with recommendations at the national level for Polish universities.

The process of preparing and implementing Open Access policy at the institutional level, and the role of library in this process was presented on the example of Gdańsk University of Technology in comparison to the other technical universities in Poland.

Gdańsk University of Technology implements a project called Multidisciplinary Open System Transferring Knowledge. The acronym of its name in the Polish language is „MOST Wiedzy”, which means „the bridge of knowledge”.

The repository is a project of an archive of scientific publications, scientific documentation, research data, scientific dissertations, as well as other documents and sources, created as a result of scientific experiments and other research and development work conducted at the Gdańsk University of Technology. It will also be a solution supporting communication between researchers and a platform for cooperation between science and business.

This study focuses on the citation analysis of the undergraduate thesis on Human Resource Management. It aims to determine the relevance of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s (DLS-CSB) library collection by examining the citation patterns of Human Resource Management undergraduate theses from 1991 to 2013. A total of 612 undergraduate theses which generated 15,275 citations were analyzed. The research design used is descriptive method. Citations were extracted from the reference lists of each of the thesis submitted and sources of data includes; title of the cited material, publication date and type of the cited source of information. The data gathered were checked against the library collection by searching the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) to determine availability in the library of the cited materials and rank the list produced according to the number of times the title has been cited. It was found that students made use of various sources in their research in which books were found to be the most cited information material followed by journals. It was also discovered that majority of the materials cited were published from 1981 to 1990 and the most cited title was Management, a book written by Richard Daft, followed by Journal of Applied Psychology. It was also found that most of the references used by the students were available in the library. The study highlights the information materials used by the students for their research work and those which need to be added to improve the collection.