Tworząc powiązanie: rola biblioteki w ułatwianiu współpracy naukowej

Collaboration is a key factor in the development of science and scientific achievements. Having said that, libraries meet the challenge as intermediaries by providing services that aim to facilitate collaboration between scholars, which ultimately leads to increased research performance.  The aim here is to discuss possibilities and examples of library services that facilitate collaboration as a means of fulfilling institutional objectives, in this case, to increase research performance in the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library of Stellenbosch in South Africa (SULIS).  The article identifies services and solutions implemented in SULIS, which strengthen the growing trend of scientific collaboration. The authors focus on three service aspects: (1) space and facilities that enable collaboration, (2) to create awareness of collaboration opportunities, and (3) bibliometrics as an example of service that supports and facilitates scientific collaboration and networking. In conclusion, the authors confirm the relationship between research collaboration and performance, and also demonstrate the importance of the library in helping researchers to identify suitable collaborators and creating an environment that facilitates access to the network and enables involvement and collaboration. The article shows through real-life examples how libraries are able to respond to new trends in learning, fulfill institutional objectives and establish new roles for librarians in the academic community. The meaning of "Creating connections" goes beyond simply initiating cooperation between scientists. It is the ability to recognise and identify changes in the dynamic scientific community by designing activities according to the University's institutional objectives and creating services that link them together.Współpraca stanowi bardzo ważny czynnik w rozwoju nauki i dorobku naukowego. Mając to na uwadze, biblioteki stanęły przed wyzwaniem bycia pośrednikiem w świadczeniu usług, mających na celu ułatwienie współpracy między naukowcami, co ostatecznie prowadzi do zwiększenia produktywności naukowej. Celem artykułu jest opisanie możliwości i realizacji usług bibliotecznych ułatwiających współpracę badawczą jako sposobu na realizację celów instytucjonalnych, w tym wypadku zwiększenia wydajności badań w Bibliotece i Centrum Informacji Naukowej Uniwersytetu w Stellenbosch w RPA (SULIS). W artykule zostają opisane usługi i rozwiązania rozpoznane na SULIS, które wzmacniają rosnący trend współpracy naukowej. Autorzy skupiają się tutaj na trzech paradygmatach usług: (1) przestrzeni i udogodnień sprzyjających współpracy, (2) tworzenia świadomości o możliwości współpracy oraz (3) bibliometrii jako przykładu usługi wspierającej i ułatwiającej współpracę naukową i tworzenie sieci powiązań. W konkluzji autorzy potwierdzają związek między współpracą badawczą a produktywnością badań, a także pokazują, jak istotną rolę mogą pełnić biblioteki poprzez pomoc naukowcom w znalezieniu odpowiednich współpracowników oraz stworzenie zaplecza, ułatwiającego dostęp do sieci i sprzyjającego zaangażowaniu i współpracy. Na konkretnych przykładach artykuł pokazuje, jak biblioteki są w stanie reagować na nowe trendy w nauce, realizować cele instytucjonalne oraz ustanawiać nowe role dla bibliotekarzy w społeczności akademickiej. „Stworzenie powiązania” znaczy więcej niż tylko zainicjowanie współpracy między naukowcami. Oznacza to także dostrzeganie i rozpoznawanie zmian w dynamicznym środowisku naukowym poprzez dopasowanie swojego działania do celów instytucjonalnych uniwersytetu i kreowanie usług, które je ze sobą powiążą

MCubed: The Formation and Output of Incentivized Interdisciplinary Collaborations.

Interdisciplinary collaboration involves many challenges. Simply finding researchers with the complementary expertise necessary to answer certain research questions can be a challenge. Once researchers find collaborators, differences in tacit disciplinary knowledge can make communication and agreement on research approaches difficult. Adding to these difficulties are the accepted norms regarding the theoretical and methodological approaches to research of the institutions surrounding various disciplines, such as university departments and publication venues. It should come as no surprise that conflicting evidence exists regarding the effect of interdisciplinary collaboration, with some studies showing benefits and others suggesting that the costs outweigh the benefits. This study uses a mixed methods approach to understand how these challenges affected the interdisciplinary projects funded by the MCubed initiative at the University of Michigan. Many researchers who participated in MCubed found their collaborators through existing professional networks, rather than the MCubed website. While prior interactions appeared to strongly influence the researchers chosen for collaboration on MCubed projects, those prior interactions did not appear to influence output from those projects. The use of certain technical tools—specifically, shared file repositories—was positively correlated to certain types of project output. The degree of institutional financial support—both within a department and the funding available to various disciplines—played a large part in both the decision to collaborate on a project and the output from a project. Each research project can produce a wide range of outputs. The perceived value of that output is greatly influenced by the norms of each discipline, as evidenced by individual departments and larger disciplinary institutions, such as funding agencies and publication venues. Moreover, disciplinary similarity was positively correlated to peer-reviewed project output. These findings suggest that the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration are a matter of perception and degree.PhDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116723/1/kkervin_1.pd

A Study of the Success of Group Formation in Virtual Teams Using Computer-Mediated Communications

In the digital domain, virtual teams within organizations and corporations are becoming common. Restructuring an organization or corporation is vital because competition and globalization are increasing. In this era of globalization, distributed working groups need to develop a competitive advantage in these ever-changing environments. Historically, teams had experienced problems stemming from geographical and temporal limitations. With the increase of technology in telecommunications, organizations are increasingly forming virtual teams, which have become critical to the survival of nearly any corporate entity. Virtual teams have some of the same problems that regular teams have. One of the key challenges is the method of forming teams, while such challenge is exacerbated in digital environments. Despite the difficulties, the digital environment has made successful team development all the more challenging. The variation in people\u27s skills makes the formation of teams even more difficult. This is why organizations cannot determine in advance if a virtual team will be a success. To evaluate the success of team formation in a virtual setting, this research study assessed the role of different computer-mediated communications (CMC) levels employed (no-CMC/face-to-face, online learning system, online learning system + social networking site) on the success of team formation measured by the level of task performance (TP), team cohesiveness (TC), computer skills (CS) and social bond (SB), while assessing the differences on such relationships when controlled for demographic information such as gender, age, education level, academic major, as well as academic year. Empirical data was collected from students at the Medical Sciences Campus in the University of Puerto Rico with 140 usable records. Using three teams and 140 participants, the results indicated that there is a statistically significance difference in the role of CMC levels employed (no-CMC/face-to-face, online learning system, online learning system + social networking site) on the level of perception of CS in team formation. Significant differences were also found in the role of CMC levels employed on the levels of TP, when controlled for gender. In addition, there is a significance difference in the role of CMC levels employed (no-CMC/face-to-face, online learning system, online learning system + social networking site) on the levels of CS, when controlled for education, academic major and academic year. The outcomes of the study contributed to the body of knowledge for both practice and research, to help organizations identify ways to support effective team formations in virtual environments