Supporting research by becoming a researcher: how librarians can use their own research experience to benefit library users

This article explores the ways in which engagement in practitioner research can enhance the librarian's ability to support researchers. It first clarifies what is meant by ‘research’ and highlights some differences between academic and practitioner research, then it considers some of the ways in which both the act of doing research and the results of that research can enhance our ability to support researchers

Northampton Open Journals: a publishing service for researchers

Northampton Open Journals (http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/) is a small collection of peer reviewed scholarly journals edited by staff at The University of Northampton and hosted and supported by the university library. This article will describe the development of the collection and the role played by the librar

Facilitating a research culture in an academic library: top down and bottom up approaches

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider why and how a research culture might be established in an academic library and to describe and evaluate efforts to achieve this at the University of Northampton. Design/methodology/approach: Contextualised within current literature on this topic, the paper examines the top down and bottom up approaches taken to facilitate practitioner research in one academic library. Findings: The approaches taken have led to a significant increase in practitioner research activity from library staff, resulting in a variety of enhancements to library services; a number of innovative practices being shared with the professional community through conference presentations and publications; and consequent rise in profile and reputation for individuals, the Department and the University. Practical implications: The paper offers a wide range of ideas and practical suggestions for encouraging and facilitating practitioner research in an academic library. These include incorporating research activity into job descriptions and annual performance reviews; facilitating peer support for research; and providing competitive research awards, research training opportunities and funding for staff presenting at external events. Many of these require relatively little resource yet offer significant benefit to those involved. Originality/value: It is rare, and maybe unique in the UK, for an academic library to attempt to instil a research culture throughout its staff and to provide ongoing resources, activities and practical support for this. The many positive outcomes from this work demonstrate its success and value. The experiences described in this paper are transferable to other academic and research libraries and, if replicated, have the potential to increase librarians’ engagement in research activity, promote research informed practice, and stimulate interest in library and information research across the sector

Research reporting using Eprints at The University of Northampton

Each year The University of Northampton research administrators produce an "Annual Research Report" for each of the university's six Schools. Before 2007, and in the absence of any centralised research database, research details were simply collated and word-processed into one-off documents. NECTAR provided the opportunity to store bibliographic details in a systematic manner and the potential to re-use these data for research reporting

Research reporting using Eprints at The University of Northampton

Each year The University of Northampton research administrators produce an "Annual Research Report" for each of the university's six Schools. Before 2007, and in the absence of any centralised research database, research details were simply collated and word-processed into one-off documents. NECTAR provided the opportunity to store bibliographic details in a systematic manner and the potential to re-use these data for research reporting

Research reporting using Eprints at The University of Northampton

Each year The University of Northampton research administrators produce an "Annual Research Report" for each of the university's six Schools. Before 2007, and in the absence of any centralised research database, research details were simply collated and word-processed into one-off documents. NECTAR provided the opportunity to store bibliographic details in a systematic manner and the potential to re-use these data for research reporting

Research active

The authors talk about how the library and learning services team at the University of Northampton are promoting practitioner research. This included staging a conference – one of the first to feature a whole programme of research activity from a single academic library