Monday, March 14, 2016

ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit

ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit


ACRL sees a need to vigorously re-orient all facets of library services and operations to the evolving technologies and models that are affecting the scholarly communication process. There is wide variance in the background understanding of and engagement in scholarly communication as a critical perspective and worldview for academic librarians.

Integrating Scholarly Communication into Your Library


New technology and innovative business models offer proven opportunities for enhancing the sharing of scholarly information – research papers, primary data and other evidence, creative activity, and other products of research and scholarship – across institutions and audiences. This scholarly communication – understood as the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use – promotes a shared system of research and scholarship. ACRL sees a need to vigorously re-orient all facets of library services and operations to the evolving technologies and models that are affecting the scholarly communication process. There is wide variance in the background understanding of and engagement in scholarly communication as a critical perspective and worldview for academic librarians. This Scholarly Communication Toolkit was designed by ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee as a resource for education and advocacy efforts in transforming the scholarly communication landscape.
Following nuanced and passionate discussions, we came to understand that the idea of bringing the full cycle of scholarly communication – from discovery and creation of knowledge, to its dissemination, preservation, and reuse – into all aspects of our work is central to the continued success of academic libraries. As information is captured, created, and communicated in digital forms, the activities of making scholarly resources well structured, discoverable, archived, and readily available move closer to the creators of knowledge – largely, faculty, students, and others within the academy. Understanding and influencing that shift is central to our goal. We believe these issues are key for our profession, and it is time for all librarians to fully own them. Librarians have always been an important node in the communication process, and they already facilitate many aspects of scholarly communication. The scholarly communication movement (and its attendant apparatus of author rights, repositories, and other freely-available services) allows library leadership to visualize and realize ways services can change permanently once there is an engagement with the whole process of scholarly communication – rather than just with managing products.
This toolkit provides the context and background, along with exemplars of specific tools, so that you can engage faculty and students in conversations on campus or begin taking action in your own library setting. Please download presentation templates, integrate our text into letters to your faculty, print out and distribute flyers, link to this and other pertinent web sites, and otherwise treat this information as if it was created for your library alone. In the spirit of open communication, you can also contribute your tools and case studies on your local scholarly communications campaigns thereby providing colleagues with the benefits of your library’s lessons learned. Together we can promote a shared system of research and scholarship to meet the needs of scholars, students, the academy, and society at large.
Contact the Scholarly Communication Toolkit Editing Team if you have comments and suggestions for the toolkit.
Last updated October 1, 2015 by Steven Harris and Adrian Ho

Top Skills for Tomorrow's Librarians


Top Skills for Tomorrow's Librarians ....


Dear Library Colleagues

Our work environment is a dynamic one. See the skills listed below, mostly “soft skills” required to continue as a librarian in the current and future work environment. We constantly need to explore ways to remain relevant, since we can be relevant in so many ways.

How many can you tick off?


1
Advocacy/Politics
This key competency has two distinct but overlapping paths: raising awareness of value among stakeholders, with an eye to maintaining or increasing funding, and building community, organization, and outreach, with an eye to expanding those services and effectively serving the constituencies who need them. According to Patrick Losinski, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH (2010 LJ Library of the Year), the field needs “people who are very comfortable in the public sphere. Must participate and be proactive—not rely on past reactive methods.”
To get there, says Rivkah K. Sass, director of the Sacramento Public Library, CA, and the 2006 LJLibrarian of the Year, “Library education that includes courses in public policy, budget advocacy, and building partnerships will be more critical than ever.”

2
Collaboration
Both within the staff and among board members, community organizations and individuals, and other libraries, the ability to work collaboratively is hardly a new skill in libraries but one that will be increasingly important as economies of scale produce everything from shared collections and off-site storage to complex ecosystems like SHARE and DPLA (the Digital Public Library of America).

3
Communication/People Skills
Mentioned in some form by virtually everyone we spoke to is an ongoing necessity to communicate effectively to stakeholders—“to articulate our value in communities and the ability to speak about all of our offerings and how those offerings can practically impact people’s lives,” explains Nicolle Ingui Davies, executive director of the Arapahoe Library District, Centennial, CO, and the 2016 LJ Librarian of the Year.
This skill is also essential in dealing with library staff, as in “giving and receiving professional critique, conflict resolution, and active listening,” specifies Sean Casserley, county librarian, Johnson County Library, Overland Park, KS, and his executive team. Last but not least, it comes into play with patrons, “providing meaningful exchanges and experiences for our users,” according to Rosemary Cooper, director of the Albert Wisner Public Library, Warwick, NY, the 2016 LJ Best Small Library in America.

4
Creativity/Innovation
Pam Sandlian Smith, director of the Anythink Libraries in Adams County, CO, tells LJ, “I think creativity is probably the most important and the most lacking [skill], not only in library schools but in education in general.”

5
Critical Thinking
A baseline skill but one still perhaps more honored in the breach. The most hands-on guidance for librarians looking to develop this key attribute was offered by Casserley and company, who suggest “following the guidelines of Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Their work came from the Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking.”

6
Data Analysis
Both Losinski and Vailey Oehkle, director of the Multnomah County Libraries, Portland, OR, cited identifying the data needed to make decisions; knowing how to collect, analyze, and gain insight from that data; and presenting the accompanying narrative to explain it to others.

7
Flexibility
Not surprisingly, given the pervasive landscape of rapid change and repeated disruption, many leaders called out flexible thinking as an essential. That doesn’t mean not having any unmoving goalposts, however. Sandlian Smith cites the “ability to…balance flexibility with structure.” Oehkle adds into the mix the related concept of comfort with ambiguity.

8
Leadership
As Eva D. Poole, director of the Virginia Beach Public Library, sums up, “I believe library schools should be teaching leadership skills. As my generation retires, we need new leaders, especially those who can strongly advocate for libraries and library workers.”
Under this heading, also, came some aspects of self-knowledge: Casserley says these future leaders “should know their Myers-Briggs profile and have a good understanding of their personal preferences and work style. They should be aware of other personality styles and…how to flex to another style [and] know how to develop their own development plan.”
Beyond these tools, Cooper bottom lines the essentials of leadership: “Asking hard questions and being willing to listen to the answers and do something about it.”

9
Marketing
Another staple skill, marketing will be at least as important in the future as it is right now. Columbus’s Losinski notes that “it is important to differentiate among communications, community relations, public relations, advertising, government relations, etc. Few have this skill set.” Casserley calls out in particular “how to market the library and the services [it offers] through your social network and how to work with a marketing department in a collaborative manner.”

10
Project Management
Casserley and Oehkle both cite the importance of project management expertise, including scheduling and capacity planning. Related are budgets, facilities, and grant writing.

11
Technological Expertise

Web development (and “whatever comes next in that space”), technological literacy, and coding were among the specific examples of tech know-how called out. As Bonnie Tijerina, founder of the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference, says, “In order to critically evaluate what we serve up to users, we need more library professionals who can understand what’s happening underneath the surface.” And because tech is the fastest changing and most rapidly obsolescent skill set of those named, Oehkle points out that just as key as existing technical skills is the “willingness to continually learn new ones.”

Friday, March 11, 2016

Top Posts of 2015: Social Media and Digital Scholarship

Top Posts of 2015: Social Media and Digital Scholarship

An antidote to futility: Why academics (and students) should take blogging / social media seriously
Blogs are now an established part of the chattersphere/public conversation, especially in international development circles, but Duncan Green finds academic take-up lacking. Here he outlines the major arguments for taking blogging and social media seriously. It doesn’t need to become another onerous time-commitment. Reading a […]
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/category/social-media-2/

The role of ego in academic profile services: ... Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Mendeley, and ResearcherID

The role of ego in academic profile services: Comparing Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Mendeley, and ResearcherID

Academic profiling services are a pervasive feature of scholarly life. Alberto Martín-Martín, Enrique Orduna-Malea and Emilio Delgado López-Cózar discuss the advantages and disadvantages of major profile platforms and look at the role of ego in how these services are built and used. Scholars validate these services by using them and should be aware that the portraits shown in these platforms depend to a great […]
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/category/social-media-2/

Academic Librarians in Faculty

Library Connect
Is it time to re-envision the role of academic librarians in faculty research? Read the article online or download the PDF
http://bit.ly/1RDY4at




Sunday, March 6, 2016

HELIG Communique 2016 No 1



Dear HELIG Colleagues

Just a quick update on a few items, keeping you in the loop. This communique a brief newsletter, and we hope to send one on a monthly basis.

HELIG membership the highest in years!
HELIG is taking the lead! On 4 March 2016 we had 275 members preferring HELIG as their first choice, and 114 preferring HELIG as their second IG choice. 389 of a total of 923!!
This makes us so proud!! Visit http://www.liasa-new.org.za/membership-statistics/ for regular updates. Also - PLEASE encourage more colleagues to join LIASA. The Voters’ Role closes on 31 May 2016. Thank you colleagues for making this possible!! YOU are HELIG!
Thank you to Nikki Crowster for a great infographic to explain the benefits of LIASA membership!

SALW 2016
So many things can be done around this year’s theme for SALW: #libraries4lifelonglearning. Lifelong learning and self-learning are not only important for our users, but also for ourselves. There is also a strong connection with Open Access (MOOCs, OERs and more). All libraries received their promotional material way ahead of time (thank you to LNO!!), which is great. Please support your Branch events, and help them make a success of all. Click here for a list of SALW events. If your event is not listed, please do not hesitate to forward me the event details. Click here for access to the SALW 2016 web page.

Important election dates
The dates are also available on the LIASA web calendar, but feel free to click here for quick access to the election dates. The call for nominations and more will be done via the liasaonline mailing list. Thank you to Ingrid Thomson – HELIG Chair-elect – for coordinating the HELIG election process.

LIASA Professional Body Status
The LIASA National Office (LNO) has started issuing our e-certificates, and some of you might have received sms notifications already. The others – please be patient. This certificate can be included as part of your CV, portfolio, but also be printed in colour, framed and displayed in your office/at home.
FAQs on LIASA Professional Body Status – click here.
Also – please start preparing the following and have it certified. We will soon be expected to upload it in order to be assigned the appropriate designation, in line with LIASA Professional Body Status and SAQA requirements:
·         National Identity Document
·         All formal qualifications
·         A complete Curriculum Vitae
Please keep your personal details current on the LNO Membership Database.

Personalia
Do you have any good news to share e.g. promotions, awards, and more? Please forward to ina@assaf.org.za so that it can be added to the Personalia page on the web. We are delighted when our members are acknowledged for great work done, and would like to celebrate with you!

Conference
Thank you to all who have managed to submit proposals for posters/possible presentation at the 17th Annual LIASA Conference! I had a sneak peak and promise that – should you plan to attend the conference – it will definitely be worthwhile!! Registration is now open, and we hope to see all of you in KZN this year!

LIASA mobile web interface
Do yourself a favor and check out the LIASA web from your mobile device! The web page scales perfectly when displayed on a mobile phone/tablet, all for your convenience! We hope to soon add a Live Chat option to the web so that you can ask questions in real time, and get answers immediately. More info to be shared later.

HELIG Events in 2016
We have put out a call for webinar suggestions, and the HELIG committee has also come up with a couple of ideas. Each Branch also have Branch HELIG events planned. Thank you to all for contributing – click here to view the HELIG events calendar. Information on different events will be shared closer to the time, but in brief – HELIG National encourages you attending:
·         RDM MOOC – to be repeated later this year (presented by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & University of Edinburgh / Helen Tibbo & Sarah Jones)
·         ICT Development Capacity Building Workshop (RepCo was asked to identify a representative from each Branch – please follow up with the Chair of your Branch if interested)
·         Skillset for HE/Research Librarians Crowdsourcing Activity (all HELIG members can contribute)
·         InfoLit Curriculum Framework for SA HE/Research Crowdsourcing Activity (all HELIG members can contribute)
·         Webinars on the following topics: eResearch, Copyright, OA, Licensing, Research needs of PG students, Publishing tips, IL Strategies & Tips, financial challenges in libraries. Dates and presenters for these still need to be confirmed.
·         HELIG Western Cape activities
·         HELIG Free State activities

Annual General Meeting
We would love to meet all of you during our HELIG AGM this year! Your opinion matters, and if you have anything you would like to add to the agenda, please send it to the LIASA HELIG Secretary, Paulette Talliard Email: plt@sun.ac.za . Due date for agenda items: 15 August 2016.

Thank you to the HELIG Committee – Ingrid, Paulette, Sanele, Sebina – for all their work, which is completely voluntary. HELIG is an add on to our very busy normal work schedules, but LIS is our passion, and as long as we have your support and as long as it helps to take LIS forward, benefitting our users, we will go the extra mile! Thanks to you – our members – for supporting all HELIG activities.

Kind regards
Ina