Transcript Slide 1

The Research Libraries Consortium:
a Project funded by the
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Activities in 2006-2007
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through Collaboration.
Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Outline of Presentation
• Background to the Project
• The Library & the Research Environment
• The Three Components of the Project
– The Librarians’ Academy (the librarians)
– The Portal (access to digital content)
– The Commons (physical space)
• Phase II (roll-out to more institutions)
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Background to the Project
• Three libraries involved,
by invitation of CCNY:
– Cape Town
– KwaZulu-Natal
– Witwatersrand
• Grant of US$2.5 million
• Funding from August
2006
• Called “Research Libraries
Consortium”
• Full-time project
manager, January 2007Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Background to the Project
The purpose of the project is to
“model transformation and enrichment in the support offered to
researchers by South African academic libraries”
and to do this by
“taking advantage of existing strengths in South Africa’s leading
academic libraries to sustain, improve, and consolidate the troubled
research enterprise in our country”
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Background to the Project
• We have made significant progress in Year I:
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Successful library academy in September 2007
Identification of US partners for internships
Selection of first software package for Portal
Portal to go live in early 2008
Identification of spaces for Research Commons
Physical remodeling of spaces underway
Research Commons services to open in 2008
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library & the Research
Environment in South Africa
• South Africa’s research context is complex
and country-specific
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Research is a national imperative
Cadre of aging researchers
Educational system in transition
Disparities in preparation of students for research
Intense competition for available talent
Linguistic and cultural diversity
Need to build on talents of whole population
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library & the Research
Environment in South Africa
More access to more information, by itself, is not a
sufficient solution:
– Emerging researchers are often not autonomous information
users
– They need physical location with appropriate support
– They need librarians with subject domain expertise
– Many SA librarians have LIS training but no formal subject
training or qualifications
– Researchers need support in the use of all types of resource
– Project components are therefore interdependent & fully
integrated
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library & the Research
Environment in South Africa
• Co-operative links with e.g. Center for Research
Libraries (US)
• But project takes note of local needs:
– Special effort to provide and aggregate Africa-related
content
– Development of local & institutional repositories (IR’s)
– IR training planned and already started
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library & the Research
Environment in South Africa
• We recognise that better library services
for researchers will not produce more or
better research by themselves
• But we believe that without better library
services, we cannot improve research
quality in South Africa
• Thus, necessary but not sufficient
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Three Components
• The Librarians’ Academy
– Focused on existing library staff
– Focused on gaps in education, not in LIS training
• The Research Portal
– Bringing digital resources together
– Making appropriate resources more easily accessible
• The Research Commons
– Personal support for emerging researchers
– “If we build it, they will come”
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Three Components
The three
components
are all
interdependent
RESEARCH
COMMONS
RESEARCH
PORTAL
RESEARCH
LIBRARIANS
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library Academy
• Week One:
– Researchers talking about research
– Wide range of disciplines
– Wide range of epistemologies
• Week Two:
– Role of the research librarian
– Why library support is important for research
– Development of appropriate skills
• Plus some fun events (yoga, a quiz, outings)
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Participants mentioned that they
believed that they were listened to
and heard during the Academy
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Library Academy
Some comments from participants:
– …provided an intellectual framework that has given me
confidence and understanding…
– …fascinating, humbling and necessarily uncomfortable…
– …good balance between presentations and hands-on…
– …very privileged to have been a participant…
– …Yoga was great!
– …second week was of less overall value…
– …planning and organisation of the Academy was excellent…
– …superb venue…
– …every institution should investigate ways of sending all
librarians to such an Academy…
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Portal
• More than just a library web page
• Offers various «value-added» services
• First component is serials and database
access
• Offers sophisticated search options
• Will go live early in 2008
• Will offer other services later
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Portal
• The first package is TDnet, allows users to access electronic serials
and other databases:
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Portal
Users can either search for specific titles or browse journal
lists like this:
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Portal
But the real novelty is the ability to search across combinations of data
bases:
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Commons
• Funding is for three spaces, one on each campus
• Decision thus required from multi-campus
institutions
• How to extend RC service to all campuses?
• Building on previous experience with the Knowledge
Commons
• Will open in early 2008
• Academy graduates will help to run the Research
Commons facilities
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Research Commons
The experience at
UCT with the
largely
undergraduate
Knowledge
Commons was
that demand
outstripped
available space
pretty
consistently:
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Wits Research Commons
The new
Commons is
being built in the
William Cullen
Library on the
Wits Campus, and
will be ready to
open in early
2008…
The Research Commons in
the Cullen Library at Wits is
already fitted with some
furniture, including comfortLiving the Future 7:able
Transforming
Libraries through
window seats…
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Commons at UKzN
The University of KwaZulu Natal has selected a well-lighted space in the
Howard Library, and construction work is well advanced
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
The Commons at UCT
•
The University of Cape Town’s RC is in the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library
on Upper Campus
Construction work here has involved the removal of several separating
Walls and the knocking down of some ceilings…
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Rolling Out the Concept
• This has already
started
– Two Rhodes librarians
at the Academy, at
Rhodes expense
– Other institutions are
already very interested
• And if further funding
becomes available…
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Rolling Out the Concept
• April 2008, six interns working in top US research
libraries for four weeks
• September 2008, Academy II
• ca. April 2009, second group of interns to US
• Constitutes intervention in LIS education debate
• Research Commons in service, 2008• Research Portal expanded to offer new services
• Possibility to seek funding for second 3-year period
• Possible involvement of other institutions
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008
Finally, a Challenge…
…many more of our librarians must themselves
hold PhDs, whether in librarianship and informatics
or in any academic subject under the sun…
…the PhD friendly specialist librarian can do almost
everything a good supervisor can do for a PhD
student; and can use all the tools of great libraries
better than the supervisor or the student….
Prof. Renfrew Christie (Dean of Research at UWC)
at the Library Academy, September 2007
Living the Future 7: Transforming Libraries through
Collaboration. Tucson, Arizona, 30 April-3 May 2008