Exploring the scholarly communications landscape at the University of Saskatchewan

Poster presented at the 2013 Canadian Library Association (CLA) conference in Winnipeg.This poster presents the results of an exploratory survey to understand the current publishing behaviours, and open access awareness and attitudes, of faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. The research was conducted in an effort to establish a basis for the potential development of a scholarly communications program at the University Library

Breaking-up is hard to do: A unique methodology for unbundling a “Big Deal”

Slides from presentation at the Centre for Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (C-EBLIP) Fall Symposium, October 15, 2014Academic libraries acquire access to many journal titles through “Big Deal” bundles. As serials prices continue to rise at unsustainable rates it will become increasingly necessary to consider breaking-up these packages and just subscribing to the most important titles individually. Recently, it appeared that the University Library, University of Saskatchewan would likely no longer be able to afford the American Chemical Society (ACS) bundle of 40+ titles, and tough decisions would need to be made. Usage data on each title were readily available – but is that enough evidence? Working under the common assumption that the primary users of this package are the Chemistry Department researchers, a citation analysis was conducted on what ACS journals these users recently published in and cited in their articles. In an effort to engage chemistry researchers and offer them a voice in the process, a survey of their opinions on each ACS title was also conducted. It was hoped that combining data from these three discrete sources: usage statistics, citation analyses, and user feedback, would enable us to arrive at the most conscientious, evidence-based decisions possible. This study took the novel approach of applying a citation analysis technique to usage data and survey responses. Although unconventional, this unique methodology proved useful in this situation. This presentation will describe the steps taken and discuss the benefits and challenges of this method so that librarians may consider whether this approach could be adapted to their own collections analysis needs

Open science and crowd science: Selected sites and resources

Diane Dawson, Natural Sciences Liaison Librarian, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, [email protected]

Effective practices and strategies for open access outreach: A qualitative study

President's SSHRC (U of S)Peer ReviewedINTRODUCTION There are many compelling reasons to make research open access (OA), but raising the awareness of faculty and administrators about OA is a struggle. Now that more and more funders are introducing OA policies, it is increasingly important that researchers understand OA and how to comply with these policies. U.K. researchers and their institutions have operated within a complex OA policy environment for many years, and academic libraries have been at the forefront of providing services and outreach to support them. This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that investigated effective practices and strategies of OA outreach in the United Kingdom. METHODS Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 individuals at seven universities in the United Kingdom in late 2015. Transcripts of these interviews were analyzed for dominant themes using an inductive method of coding. RESULTS Themes were collected under the major headings of “The Message”; “Key Contacts and Relationships”; “Qualities of the OA Practitioner”; and “Advocacy versus Compliance.” DISCUSSION Results indicate that messages about OA need to be clear, concise, and jargon free. They need to be delivered repeatedly and creatively adapted to specific audiences. Identifying and building relationships with influencers and informers is key to the uptake of the message, and OA practitioners must have deep expertise to be credible as the messengers. CONCLUSION This timely research has immediate relevance to North American libraries as they contend with pressures to ramp up their own OA outreach and support services to assist researchers in complying with new federal funding policies

Strategies of Effective Open Access Outreach Services to Researchers: A Qualitative Study

ACRL 2017 ConferenceMany academic libraries now offer support services to assist researchers in making their outputs open access (OA) and in complying with funder OA policies. The focus of this qualitative study was on outreach efforts to raise the awareness of researchers about OA, their funders' policies, and the services available to support them. Objective: To determine effective strategies and characteristics for OA outreach to researchers

Exploring the scholarly communications landscape at the University of Saskatchewan

Poster presented at the 2013 Canadian Library Association (CLA) conference in Winnipeg.This poster presents the results of an exploratory survey to understand the current publishing behaviours, and open access awareness and attitudes, of faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. The research was conducted in an effort to establish a basis for the potential development of a scholarly communications program at the University Library

“Outreach by Stealth” and Other Strategies of Effective Open Access Outreach Services to Researchers

Many major funders around the world are now mandating that grant recipients make the products of their research publicly available through Open Access (OA) outlets; and many academic libraries now offer support services to assist researchers on their campuses in complying with these funder policies. This presentation will discuss the preliminary results of a sabbatical research project that investigated good practices of successful OA support services offered by academic librarians, and other professionals, at research-intensive institutions in the U.K. The focus of the project was on outreach efforts implemented to help raise the awareness of researchers about OA, their funders' policies, and the services available to support them in making their research products OA. This study is especially important and timely considering that the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications was recently implemented in Canada. Currently, Canadian academic librarians are considering how to bolster their services in response to the growing needs of researchers in this area

The Scholarly Communications Needs of Faculty: An Evidence-Based Foundation for the Development of Library Services

Objectives – This exploratory research seeks to broadly understand the publishing behaviours and attitudes of faculty, across all disciplines, at the University of Saskatchewan in response to the growing significance of open access publishing and archiving. The objective for seeking this understanding is to discover the current and emerging needs of researchers in order to determine if scholarly communications services are in demand here and, if so, to provide an evidence-based foundation for the potential future development of such a program of services at the University Library, University of Saskatchewan. Methods – All faculty members at the University of Saskatchewan were sent personalized email invitations to participate in a short online survey during the month of November 2012. The survey was composed of four parts: Current Research and Publishing Activities/Behaviours; Open Access Behaviours, Awareness, and Attitudes; Needs Assessment; and Demographics. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. Results – The survey elicited 291 complete responses – a 21.9% response rate. Results suggest that faculty already have a high level of support for the open access movement, and considerable awareness of it. However, there remains a lack of knowledge regarding their rights as authors, a low familiarity with tools available to support them in their scholarly communications activities, and substantial resistance to paying the article processing charges of some open access journals. Survey respondents also provided a considerable number of comments – perhaps an indication of their engagement with these issues and desire for a forum in which to discuss them. It is reasonable to speculate that those who chose not to respond to this survey likely have less interest in, and support of, open access. Hence, the scholarly communications needs of this larger group of non-respondents are conceivably even greater. Conclusion – Faculty at the University of Saskatchewan are in considerable need of scholarly communications services. Areas of most need include: advice and guidance on authors’ rights issues such as retention of copyright; more education and support with resources such as subject repositories; and additional assistance with article processing charges. The University Library could play a valuable role in increasing the research productivity and impact of faculty by aiding them in these areas

Information Privilege: Talking to Undergraduates about Scholarly Communication

Slides also posted here: https://coppulscwg.ca/training-day/regional-training-day-2019-presentation-materials/Non-Peer Reviewe

Open science and crowd science: Selected sites and resources

Diane Dawson, Natural Sciences Liaison Librarian, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, [email protected]