Providing Effective Library Services for Research

Citation

Henczel, S. (2008), "Providing Effective Library Services for Research", Library Management, Vol. 29 No. 6/7, pp. 633-633. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120810894662

Having just moved into a role where I am responsible for library services to researchers I found this book well written, well structured and comprehensive – and very useful. This book is clearly written for practicing liaison and research support librarians, however its content is very relevant to all academic librarians who work directly with researchers, and those who are scoping services for researchers and need insight into the requisite skills, issues/challenges and possible solutions.

Globally, research productivity and quality have become major priorities over recent years and yet the authors clearly acknowledge that many libraries do not have written policies for research support and are providing passive, reactive and inconsistent services to researchers. They rightly state that this blurs the perceptions of how libraries add value to the research process and the support role that the information professional could/should play. Throughout the book the authors provide examples of the types of services that libraries can provide to support researchers and the various ways in which the librarians can facilitate the research process.

The early chapters define the types of researchers and their behaviours, expectations and attitudes using data gleaned through surveys conducted by the authors and others. Of particular interest is the coverage of the diversity of researchers and the consequent complex and changing patterns of library usage, and the emphasis on the differences between new researchers that have been educated in the digital age and those with more traditional approaches to research. The authors discuss the importance of communicating with researchers, as many of them are unaware of the services the library can provide. As they rightly point out, this ignorance could easily compromise the quality of the research output.

Middle chapters cover the current challenges for libraries in their attempts to provide research support for libraries and services to facilitate research. They cover library spaces specifically designed for researchers, the librarians involvement in developing research proposals and the research activity, the development of institutional repositories and the specific challenges associated with supporting researchers who are largely off‐campus. Specific issues such as variations in the researchers' information literacy development, the importance of facilitating research and the different roles of the information specialist and the subject expert are covered.

Subsequent chapters address key challenges for the future, such as marketing (publications, communication, events), the inclusion of well‐designed research spaces in our libraries, e‐research and Web/Library 2.0 applications, the globalization of research and increasing collaboration, and providing and managing research collections.

The final chapter offers ten key principles of library support for researchers – all are common sense but are often forgotten in our attempts to be all things to all people.

Bonus inclusions are comprehensive lists of acronyms and abbreviations and a comprehensive glossary – very important for those of us outside the UK who may not be as familiar as the authors are with UK programs, projects, schemes, consortia and associations.

Everyone working with researchers, developing and assessing support services to researchers and developing research collections should read this book.