transferrable thrills: taking the librarian out of the library
TRANSCRIPT
Transferrable thrills? Taking the Librarian out of the Library
Elizabeth Gadd, Loughborough University
Overview
• Context• Before – life in the Library• Developing a specialism• The journey – needing a change• After – life in the Research Office• General lessons & thoughts
Before: Life in the Library
• Managed Academic Services Team (job share)• Research Support Coordinator• Structure of Academic Services Team
Library wide responsibility for research support
The birth of bibliometrics at Loughborough
• Web pages & training• Publication strategy session for
academic staff• Publication & visibility strategy
for PGRs• Enquiry and stats provision
service for academics• Feeding in to discussions around
relevant metrics for PDR
Developing a specialism
• See a gap and fill it• 1996 – interest in copyright
clearance• No UK-wide forum to discuss• Set up Lis-Copyseek
• 2010 - interest in bibliometrics• No UK wide forum to discuss• Set up Lis-Bibliometrics• 4th Bibliometrics in Universities
event coming up in December
Understanding the bigger picture
• Professional responsibilities• Bid for research funding• Bid for bursaries or travel
awards• Training courses –
Certificates & Diplomas• Internal secondments• Job shadowing
Ranking troubles
• Poor citation performance• Been knocking on doors about this for
some time• Consultancy work• Reported the results to high level staff• Coincided with poor REF results• Recognised that there was a need for
someone to take this forward in the institution
• Publication Policy job created in Research Office…
•
After: Life on the other side
Similarities Differences
Same research support topics:
Publication strategy and visibilityBibliometricsOpen accessRDMSocial media
Still sit on the Library Research Support Group
Still provide training
Different perspective on those topics:
MonitoringReportingCompliancePolicy developmentConsultation response
Smaller teamLess line mgt responsibility More time to think strategically Greater access and visibiity
A day in the life…
• Provision of citation data for Research Quality Enhancement Committee
• Responding the requests for advice about Journal Lists by Associate Deans for Research
• Writing a case for institutional take-up of Altmetric for Institutions
• Delivering training on publication strategy• Developing policy messages around what, when and how
people might make their research visible• Lobbying for a Change Project in this area
The beauty of being new to a field
• Have a different perspective • Able to ask stupid questions• Learn a lot • Have time to think strategically• Have energy for the challenge!
The beauty of having been a librarian
• Understanding of the scholarly communication process• Researchers, publishers, services and tools
• A service focus • Seen the other side of joint agendas• A recognition that it’s not all about
research
The beauty of having been a researcher
• Understand the research process• Bidding for funding, • Doing the research • Writing it up• Getting published
• Having a publication profile
Research projects –big…
Project RoMEO
Righ
ts &
Rew
ards
Pr
ojec
t
…and small
The Matthew Effect…
• ARMA Metrics SIG Champion
• SciVal User Group Steering Committee member
• Expert Reference Group for a Jisc project on Research Data Metrics for Usage
General lessons
• Take your place at the table – you have a right to be there• Opportunities are rarely offered – they are seized• Go for roles where you have the potential to succeed, rather
than where you are already fully/over-qualified• Face down “Imposter syndrome”• Geographical / time constraints needn’t hold you back• You can have (bits of) it all…• What do you actually want?
Why you?
• Where do you want to be in 5 years time?
• What opportunities can you seize to make it a reality?
• Why you?
Contact details
Elizabeth Gadd MSc, MCLIP, FHEAResearch Policy Manager (Publications)Research OfficeLoughborough UniversityLoughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU T: 01509 228594S: lizziegaddE: [email protected] Google Scholar Citation ProfileLinked In