A series of webinars organised by Dr Beth Montague-Hellen, covering a variety of topics in library and information research. These seminars may be of interest to anyone working in academic or research libraries.

Webinar Schedule:

• 29th September, 3pm
  Obstacles to Open Access publishing for researchers with weak institutional ties - epistemic injustice in academic publishing
  Speaker: Nataliia Kaliuzhna
  Register & Attend via Cassyni

• 31st October, 3pm
  Higher Education librarians and social class background
  Speaker: Darren Flynn
  Register & Attend via Cassyni

• 28th November, 3pm
  Using visual research methods to explore the student experience – photovoice for research
  Speaker: Gillian Siddall
  Register & Attend via Cassyni

All webinars are hosted through Cassyni, which requires a free account to RSVP and receive the webinar link.

For the full series and more information, visit the Cassyni Series Page.

Save the Date for LIRG's AGM and Assessing and Recognising Research Excellence session, Friday 11th July 13:00 - 14:00

On Friday 11th July, the Library and Information Research Group will be hosting a session on Assessing and Recognising Research Excellence, followed by a short Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The session will include:

What is the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and where do libraries come in?

Dr Martin Brooks, Research Excellence and Research Strategy, Liverpool John Moores University

Martin will speak about the REF at LJMU, including what it is, why we do it, what's involved, and our timeline for taking part. As Martin will discuss in detail, the library is integral to LJMU’s REF preparation, both preparing parts of our submission and enhancing our overall research ecosystem

Recognising all research outputs and everyone involved in their creation

Professor Simon Hettrick, Director of Strategy, The Software Sustainability Institute and Director, The Southampton Research Software Group

If we don't recognise everyone who is vital to research, then we limit our ability to conduct research. Current practices around research assessment focus on publications as the key metric of research success, but there are significant problems with this approach. It incentives amassing publications rather than some of the practices that we would like to see researchers following to produce reliable, reproducible and transparent research. But possibly more importantly, many of the people who are vital to the conduct of research are not typically named in publications and so miss out on the credit that they deserve for research success.

The Hidden REF works to raise recognition for everyone involved in research. It started as a one-off competition but has since transformed into a long-running campaign that works alongside research communities to help their contribution be recognised. The campaign was recently funded by Research England to help raise awareness, increase trust in all research outputs and to help universities implement a research environment that will make research more equitable and, importantly, more effective.

This session will be followed by our AGM, which we encourage participants to stay for. The meeting will be held virtually on zoom and registration link will be available soon. Please note attendance is free. 

Attribution: Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

We are pleased to share that Libby Tilley, the winner of our LIRG Research Award has completed her research and has published a paper in the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice:

Tilley, E., & Marshall, D. (2024). Shaping the Future: A Research Agenda for U.K. Libraries . Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 19(4), 71–107. https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip30577

Libby has also shared with us her reflections on engaging in the research below:

1. Working with library colleagues across library sectors was hugely rewarding and exciting. Despite professing to know about different sectors to my own, I realised that I really didn’t! Connecting with colleagues in overarching organisations such as SLA and Libraries Connected when sourcing participants from different sectors was such a great help. Those participants in their turn have been remarkably generous with their time.
2. Being given the time and inspiration to consider what methodology to use for research. I didn’t realise just how interested I would become in the nature of the methodology. There is probably a paper to be written just about this aspect and especially the use that I made of conference programmes to kick-start the research. I would love to talk to others about how this came about and how to improve the use of such data.
3. I was excited about the outcomes of the research. Even more exciting was the reaction of workshop colleagues who agreed on the outcomes, despite their sector differences! Consensus didn’t seem possible at the outset of the workshop, and yet ultimately, agreement was feasible. (The top-level trends agreed on can be found in the paper) Even more than reaching an agreement through a research process, I could see that colleagues had been able to share their experiences and learn about other sectors, just as I had done.
4. Writing a research article can (as I understand from others) be quite painful! I certainly found this to be the case. Passive voice and waffling are all things I suffer from when writing. So, through using colleagues to read chunks, my co-author’s readings and written work, and eventually the peer review process I was able to get the paper written in a form that is more readable. Looking back on the process I am excited to think that I DID learn a lot and I hope that it will stand me in good stead in the future!

I was really pleased to be able to undertake this work and I am very grateful to LIRG for providing a grant to support this work. LIRG academic colleagues were supportive in the initial stages of the research work. I am also grateful for the help of David Marshall, an expert in User Experience Research from the University of Cambridge, who supported the face-to-face workshop, especially the card-sorting activities. The Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and particularly the library were particularly supportive of CILIP research activities and provided space to run the workshop.

You may have seen Gillian Siddall's post from HLG conference last week, well she also went to CILIP conference 2024, 10th-11th July in Birmingham, to present on the LIRG research project and share her reflections with us. 

Gillian is an Academic Librarian at University of Northampton

Presenting at a conference and getting a speaker’s place for a day is a great way to attend a conference you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. I’m grateful that by presenting on the LIRG research project I was able to attend the CILIP’s conference: uniting the sector’s leaders. I attended the second day of the conference and listened to inspiring speakers. Starting with the CILIP’s new CEO Louis Coiffait-Gunn, who encouraged us to fight for intellectual freedom and use evidence and civil discourse to lean into tricky debates. The conference was filled with interesting presentations that shared ideas to help promote and build our profession and role.

Janet Peden from Ulster University presented her experience as University Librarian, building and developing the staff and library sites. Her fundamental message was that in the current climate of significant digital acceleration and fluid change you must:

Turn the library inside out and become highly visible – you have to be seen, to be valued!

A lesson for us all: we can’t assume everyone understands the purpose or value of a library, we need to make sure it’s clear for all. Janet explained how the library service had moved from collecting resources to connecting the university community. A key change for her department was the move from service and support to partnership and expertise.

Speaking about becoming ‘match-fit for a senior leadership role’ Regina Everitt, from the University of East London, highlighted the importance of building trust in and with your team. As a leader, you set the culture for the department, so you have to be authentic and specifically engage with the digital landscape. Working with IT, rather than against or in isolation from it. Partnerships move everyone forward. From NHS England, Louise Goswami highlighted the importance of skills development to improve your knowledge and experience. In the current tempestuous times, it’s reassuring to hear from someone with experience that redundancy can be a positive step to help you buy time to think about what you want to do next. The knowledge and skills you develop come with you and those transferable skills are highly valuable: influencing, negotiating, and communicating skills. Louise encouraged us to remember that everyone’s a little bit frightened and you are not alone, work with your network, and your team.

Leading and managing a team is helped by understanding the ‘why’ – if you understand why something happens and you understand the language that resonates with the people you’re trying to influence, you can find your advocates. A key tip from both Regina and Louise was to always over-prepare your information and do your homework so you understand your audience and use the language and evidence that is most appropriate. Don’t blind them with library speak! In response to questions in the room, self-care came up as a key part of leadership. Leading by example (allowing people to say no, to have down-time and be honest) helps your team. If you look after yourself, your team will see it’s ok for them to look after themselves too and know that you’ll do your best to look after them as well.

Considering the entrepreneurial leader Tom Penford and Zak Mensah presented different ways of understanding and building your core ‘business’. From his role in Birmingham Museum’s Trust Zak encouraged the audience to look at the lifetime value of our customers, what can we do to support those true fans who will support us in return. Suggesting we consider how far we can push things without getting fired! Framing changes and developments in terms of the needs of your true fans (or community):

As a …

I need …

So that …

To understand and then justify the changes that need to be made.

Tom Penford explored the Lego story to help us understand why we need to think ‘around’ the box. To look at what our core values are and build on those (rather than trying to create something completely different or simply maintain the status quo). Linking back to Janet’s presentation – we need to be part of the conversation, visible to our community to help them understand the value we bring. Discover and demonstrate why you are key to the community you are in.

The inspirational talks continued after lunch when I went to a talk discussing inclusive collections. A really interesting point was the fact that the majority of libraries are outsourcing key library skills, such as acquisitions and we’re also not training people in them. If we’re to make a difference and make a coherent and relevant collection for our communities, we need to be clear about how and why we are purchasing (or subscribing) to resources. We should avoid being passive consumers and re-invigorate our skills with acquisitions and cataloguing – understanding the data (and the power it holds).

Presenting at a conference can be a nerve-wracking experience. However, Louise and Regina’s point about over-preparing really helps. The more confident you are in what you’re saying, the easier it will be to stand up and feel confident in what you have to share. Most library conferences I have been to have been incredibly friendly and supportive, attendees want to learn, and they want you to succeed. Hopefully if you keep that in mind, it will help you conquer your nerves. In my case, the value I took from the conference presentation was the breadth of ideas and expertise of the audience we were presenting to. It’s reassuring that even though we work in different sectors, we are all keen to see the profession grow and succeed. Sometimes we may only be making incremental steps, but we are moving forward and that is something to celebrate.

We are pleased to announce the upcoming session in our Lunchtime research methods series. 

Statistical Analysis with Elaine Sykes

When: Thursday 25th April 2024 - 12-1pm

Where: online but please register to get the link

Cost: Free (and the event will be recorded and circulated to those who have registered for the event)

Register here: https://www.cilip.org.uk/event/statistical-analysis 

Elaine is the Head of Open Research at Lancaster University. She holds a Maths degree from Durham University, an MBA, and has over 10 years' experience in academic libraries.

Upcoming webinar dates and titles - “LIRG's Research Methods: Lunchtime events series" : 

Friday 21st June, 2024 - Narrative Inquiry

There is still time to book for the first session of 2024 Online Interviews with Sheila Webber - more information on our previous post

More sessions will be added to the webinar series in the autumn. Each session will run virtually on Zoom and start at 12pm.

If you require more information please contact Marlene Rak