Mary Anne Kennan

Bibliometrics and Research Data Management Services: Emerging Trends in Library Support for Research

Developments in network technologies, scholarly communication, and national policy are challenging academic libraries to find new ways to engage with research communities in the economic downturn. Librarians are responding with service innovations in areas such as bibliometrics and research data management. Previous surveys have investigated research data support within North America and other research services globally with small samples. An online multiple-choice questionnaire was used to survey bibliometric and data support activities of 140 libraries in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, including current and planned services, target audiences, service constraints, and staff training needs. A majority of respondents offered or planned bibliometrics training, citation reports, and impact calculations but with significant differences between countries. Current levels of engagement in data management were lower than for bibliometrics, but a majority anticipated future involvement, especially in technology assistance, data deposit, and policy development. Initiatives were aimed at multiple constituencies, with university administrators being important clients and partners for bibliometric services. Gaps in knowledge, skills, and confidence were significant constraints, with near-universal support for including bibliometrics and particularly data management in professional education and continuing development programs. The study also found that librarians need a multilayered understanding of the research environment.

Connecting with new information landscapes: information literacy practices of refugees

Purpose – The purpose of the research reported in this article is to understand how refugees learn to engage with a complex, multimodal information landscape and how their information literacy practice may be constructed to enable them to connect and be included in their new information landscape. Design/methodology/approach – The study is framed through practice and socio‐cultural theories. A qualitative research design is employed including semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews and focus groups which are thematically analysed through an information practice lens. Findings – Refugees encounter complex and challenging information landscapes that present barriers to their full participation in their new communities. Social inclusion becomes possible where information is provided via sharing through trusted mediators who assist with navigating the information landscape and information mapping, and through visual and social sources. Research limitations/implications – The study is local and situated and therefore not empirically generalizable. It does however provide rich, deep description and explanation that is instructive beyond the specific research site and contributes to theory building. Practical implications – The study highlights the role, and importance, of social and visual information sources and the key role of service providers as mediators and navigators. Governments, funders and service providers can use these findings to inform their service provision. Originality/value – This is an original research paper in which the results provide practical advice for those working with refugees and which also extends theories of information literacy practice as an information practice.

Changing workplace demands: what job ads tell us

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse job ads as relatively accessible indicators of the knowledge, skills and competencies required of librarians by employers. It then uses a framework provided by the literature on professional jurisdiction to examine what may be trends and shaping factors for the Library and Information Studies (LIS) profession with regard to jurisdiction in a changing information landscape.Design/methodology/approach – Job ads were examined in two separate studies; one comparing job ads in Australia and the USA over eight weeks in 2004, and the other looking at one month snapshots of Australian job ads in 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004. The text from the job ads was analysed using a content analysis software package. The literature on professional jurisdiction provided an interpretive framework.Findings – The Australian snapshots over time showed that there is an increasing lack of clarity about the skills and competencies required of librarians. The American job ads seemed to r...

What Do They Want?: A Study of Changing Employer Expectations of Information Professionals

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of position vacant announcements appropriate for library and information studies (LIS) graduates appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald over a four week period in each of the following years: 2004, 1994, 1984 and 1974. The period studied witnessed change-demanding developments in information technologies as well as changes in workplace conditions and client expectations. The study collected data on the demands of employers as expressed through job advertisements that included data on work status (full-time, part-time, contract, casual), qualifications and the experience required of the information professional during the periods selected. To investigate similarities and differences between periods a content analysis and co-word analysis of the job advertisements was undertaken. The advertisements indicated a movement from simple advertisements in 1974 inviting applications for reference or technical services librarians, to complex and special...

Settling in: The relationship between information and social inclusion

Social exclusion is a process that directly reduces people’s capacity to participate in society. An important factor that contributes to social exclusion is the inability to recognise or understand important sources of information that facilitate social inclusion and participation. Social inclusion requires an ability to develop effective information practices that enable connection to compliance, making available everyday and nuanced information that constitute elements of the information landscape which need to be accessed and understood in order to participate in their adopted community. For refugees who are establishing themselves in Australia, the information landscape appears unfamiliar, complex, and difficult to navigate. To enable them to settle in Australia, new information practices may be required to enable them to find and interpret information, resolve problems, and deal with everyday situations which enable social inclusion and prevent social exclusion. This paper reports the findings of a p...

On Becoming Citizens: Examining Social Inclusion from an Information Perspective

On becoming citizens: Examining social inclusion from an information perspective: A reflection

Institutional repositories: review and an information systems perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to review the current literature and discussion on institutional repository (IR) and open access (OA) issues, to provide examples from the information systems (IS) literature, and to propose the use of IS literature and further research to inform understanding of institutional repository implementations for library managers.Design/methodology/approach – Recent literature is reviewed to provide the background to, and current issues in, the development of institutional repositories to support open access to refereed research output.Findings – The brief examples in this paper indicate that research can build on existing knowledge already gained by IS researchers to enhance our understanding of IR and their users. Research can also lead to learning to create more successful IR implementations and therefore the more successful dissemination of refereed research output and other intellectual and research contributions of institutions such as universities.Practical implic...

Changing Trends In LIS Job Advertisements

The study reported in this paper is part of a larger program of studies designed to review and renew the curricula of Library and Information Science (LIS) and the broader Information Management (IM) courses. This paper analysed job advertisements as readily accessible indicators of the knowledge, skills, and competencies required of IPs by employers and potential available roles. It presents current findings and compares them with trends identified in earlier Australian job advertisement content analyses based on data collected in 2004. The information revealed by the study may be utilised by educators to inform curriculum review and renewal. Current advertisements were collected from web-based sources; ALIA’s employment web pages and two national web job-boards, Seek and MyCareer.com. Text from job advertisements was analysed using a content analysis software package. The data revealed an increasing demand for IPs with records management skills, and skills in business content management, web management ...

Learning to share: mandates and open access

Purpose – Online open access (OA) to research publications comes to scholarship as a vision that makes sense and is congruent with the aims of science and scholarship. It is argued that research, often funded out of the public purse, should be a public good. Given its visionary characteristics and its congruence with the aims of scholarship, the purpose of this paper is to examine why OA is not practiced by all researchers, all the time, or more encouraged by library managers.Design/methodology/approach – The findings reported in the paper are built upon analyses of the literature, the current discussion occurring in e‐lists and other public forums, and upon qualitative research using observation, document analysis, interview techniques and thematic analysis conducted as part of a PhD study in two Australian universities.Findings – One of the universities had a long‐standing institutional mandate to encourage OA and the other did not. In terms of findings, of the universities studied, the institution with...

Academic authors, scholarly publishing and open access in Australia

This paper briefly describes the rapidly changing research evaluation and funding landscape in Australian universities, specifically in relation to open access and institutional repositories. Recent announcements indicate that funding and evaluation bodies are becoming increasingly concerned that publicly funded research be made publicly available. The paper then reports a survey of all levels of academic staff plus research students at one Australian university, conducted in May 2006, prior to the introduction of an institutional repository. The survey, in line with previously reported surveys, found that while there was a high level of engagement with scholarly publishing, there was a low level of awareness of, or concern with, either open access (‘green’ or ‘gold’) or the roles repositories can play in increasing accessibility of research. Practically, this indicates that much work needs to be done within this university to increase knowledge of, and change behaviours with regard to, open access and repositories if the university and its academics are to make the most of new funding requirements and research evaluation processes.