posted on 2013-10-31, 13:13authored byClaire Creaser, Valerie Spezi
This study investigated the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff. The
academic library community has been dealing with the issue of how best to demonstrate its value
for years, especially value to students. Yet although a good deal of evidence is collected, much of
this is evidence of activity rather than evidence of value and impact, especially value to and impact
on teaching and research staff.
The study showed that libraries are struggling to find appropriate, and systematic, ways to capture
evidence of their value for teaching and research staff. Much work is needed to build an evidence
base in this area. Libraries can show their value to teaching and research staff most effectively
by describing this in terms of benefits, for example, staff time saved, increased quality of student
assignments, increased contact hours.
The study found that librarians generally understood the needs of their users in very broad terms,
and provided services to meet these needs. Embedded information literacy instruction is highly
valued by teaching staff. Increasingly, this is developing into integrated teaching and curriculum
development activities. Support for research appeared less well embedded, but there is evidence
of successful partnerships between librarians and research staff in the areas of literature reviewing
and data curation, in particular. Meeting research staff one-to-one and targeting services to meet
specific needs was an effective, albeit time-intensive, way for librarians to raise their profile and
value.
There are concerns that not all teaching and research staff appreciate the level and extent of
the support available from the modern academic library. Working in partnership with teaching
and research staff was found to be an effective way to promote the library, and to increase the
perception of value.
Funding
SAGE Publications
History
School
Science
Department
Information Science
Citation
CREASER, C. and SPEZI, V., 2012. Working together: evolving value for academic libraries. Loughborough: Loughborough University.