Question/Purpose: The New York University (NYU) Health Sciences Library used a new method to arrange in-depth discussions with basic science researchers. The objective was to identify collaborators for a new National Library of Medicine administrative supplement. Setting: The research took place at the NYU Health Sciences Library. Methods: Using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORTER, forty-four researchers were identified and later contacted through individualized emails. Results: Nine researchers responded to the email followed by six in-person or phone discussions. At the conclusion of this process, two researchers submitted applications for supplemental funding, and both of these applications were successful. Conclusions: This method confirmed these users could benefit from the skills and knowledge of health sciences librarians, but they are largely unaware of thi

Williams, Jeff D.

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Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student Articles, Chapters, Presentations, Learning Objects Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses 2015 An extensible and successful method of identifying collaborators for National Library of Medicine informationist projects Jeff D. Williams Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change Follow this and additional works at: https://aura.antioch.edu/stuworks  Part of the Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship Commons, and the Leadership Studies Commons Recommended Citation Williams, J. D. (2015). An extensible and successful method of identifying collaborators for National Library of Medicine informationist projects. Journal of the Medical Library Association., 103 (3) https://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.103.3.008 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Articles, Chapters, Presentations, Learning Objects by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact hhale@antioch.edu, wmcgrath@antioch.edu. CASE STUDYAn extensible and successfulmethod of identifyingcollaborators for NationalLibrary of Medicineinformationist projectsJeff D. Williams, MLIS, AHIP; Neil H. Rambo, MLibrSee end of article for authors’ affiliations.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.103.3.008Question/Purpose: The New York University (NYU)Health Sciences Library used a newmethod to arrangein-depth discussions with basic science researchers.The objective was to identify collaborators for anew National Library of Medicine administrativesupplement.Setting: The research took place at the NYU HealthSciences Library.Methods: Using theNational Institutes ofHealth (NIH)RePORTER, forty-four researchers were identifiedand later contacted through individualized emails.Results: Nine researchers responded to the emailfollowed by six in-person or phone discussions. At theconclusion of this process, two researchers submittedapplications for supplemental funding, and both ofthese applications were successful.Conclusions: This method confirmed these users couldbenefit from the skills and knowledge of health scienceslibrarians, but they are largely unaware of this.Keywords: Basic Science Researchers, Grant Funding,Informationist, Collaboration, Information-SeekingBehavior, Outreach, Data Management, KnowledgeManagement.INTRODUCTIONThe New York University (NYU) Health SciencesLibrary had a history of challenges in providingmeaningful and effective support to basic sciencesresearchers. In 2012, the National Library of Medi-cine (NLM) provided a new opportunity for engag-ing with researchers through the NLM Administra-tive Supplements for Informationist Services inNational Institutes of Health (NIH)–Funded Re-search Projects [1]. This new initiative providedfunding for dedicated support to address data orknowledge management challenges. After carefulreview of this new initiative, the library’s leadershipdecided this possibility of additional research fund-ing offered a fresh motivation and rationale forengaging with their researchers.In deciding to pursue this opportunity, thelibrary leadership’s first question to address washow to identify and approach eligible researchersregarding a possible collaboration. A particularchallenge was that most of the library leadership,as well as many of the overall organization’slibrarians, were relatively new to the institution,with limited contacts in the research community.Library leadership thought that approachingknown ‘‘friends’’ or champions in the researchcommunity was too limited an approach andunlikely to be successful. Having this limitationand few other options, library leadership decidedto follow the recommendations provided in theNLM announcement: use NIH RePORTER toidentify researchers with eligible grants and dis-cuss the opportunity with them. This approachproved successful in both identifying eligible andinterested researchers, and learning about the dailydata and knowledge management challenges thatresearchers experience. Researchers also learnedabout expertise and services that the librariesoffered of which they were unaware.Beyond the NYU Health Sciences Library, otheracademic health sciences libraries have reportedchallenges in providing meaningful and effectivesupport to basic science researchers. Research hasshown that these users perceive themselves to belargely self-sufficient in information discovery, in-dependent of age or job classification. There isconflicting research about where researchers go tofind information: research conducted on the in-formation-seeking behavior of NIH scientists dis-covered that the library’s website was a primaryinformation source for many of their researchers [2].In contrast, basic science researchers at the Univer-sity of Vermont did not consult the library’s websiteregularly when seeking information, instead relyingon a known network of internal and externalcolleagues. These same researchers reported anoverall positive impression of the library, describinglimited use of interlibrary loan and documentdelivery services, and assistance with using End-Note. Although not universal, most of theseresearchers expressed little awareness of or interestin library subject guides and literature-searchingassistance, and believed their graduate studentsreceived the required information discovery andmanagement training that they needed from peersand mentors. The research also described thecommunication challenges these users sometimespose. When asked to recommend services thatthe library could develop that they would finduseful, some recommended a program that wasnearly identical to the library’s established liaisonprogram [3].J Med Lib Assoc 103(3) July 2015 145METHODSThe NYU Health Sciences Library supports the NYULangone Medical Center, an academic medical centerwith four hospitals, a medical school, and an activebiomedical research community. The library hasseventeen librarians and fifteen support staff pro-viding services and initiatives across the medicalcenter’s research, education, and clinical missionareas. An emerging area of interest and work for thelibrary is research data management, so there isparticular interest in identifying collaborative projectswith researchers to learn more about needs and testnew services.The NLM Administrative Supplements for Infor-mationist Services in NIH-Funded Research Projectsmechanism provides up to $50,000 over 2 years tosupport adding an informationist to an NIH-grant-funded research team. The primary purpose of thesupplement is to enhance the storage, organization,management, and use of electronic research data.Secondary objectives for the supplements includeenhancing collaborative, multidisciplinary basic, andclinical research, as well as assessing and document-ing the value and impact of the informationist’scollaboration with researchers.The first step in identifying potential collaboratorswas using NIH RePORTER to identify researcherswith active grants who were eligible to apply for anadministrative supplement. NIH RePORTER is anonline tool that allows users to search across a re-pository of intramural and extramural NIH-fundedresearch projects from the past twenty-five years.Special attention was required as not all NIHinstitutes participated in this program, so researchershad to be funded through a participating institute.Targeted grants also needed to be active for at leastthe upcoming two years to be a match. Based on theseparameters and with some trial and error, the libraryrepresentatives identified forty-four NYU researcherswith fifty-three eligible grants.The next step was to consider how to approachthese researchers and inform them they were eligibleto apply for this funding. Various methods werediscussed, but the choice came down to either craftingand sending a single generic ‘‘blast’’ email to all of theresearchers and inviting them to respond or sendingindividualized emails to each researcher. The advan-tage of the blast email approach was ease and limitedeffort, but there was concern that this method wouldnot motivate researchers to respond. Based on theseconsiderations, the more personal approach of send-ing individualized emails was selected. The libraryleadership worked with administrative support tocreate a template for individual emails from thelibrary director citing the identified researcher’sgrants, informing them that they were eligible toapply for this administrative supplement, and brieflydescribing ways that the library could potentiallysupport their research. The email closed with aninvitation to respond if they had interest in arranginga brief discussion of this opportunity.RESULTSNine of the forty-four researchers responded to theemail asking for more information or asking todiscuss the administrative supplement further. Basedon brief email exchanges or phone calls, it wasdetermined that the best approach was to arrangeinformal discussions with six of the nine researcherswho responded to the original email. The librarydirector and an associate director met with eachresearcher over a period of a couple of weeks.The library representatives had two primary objec-tives during these meetings: (1) identify the one ortwo best candidates for collaboration on an applica-tion, and (2) learn more about the data and knowl-edge management needs of all of these researchers. Akey approach was asking the researchers to describetheir day-to-day data and knowledge organizationand management problems, rather than goinginto a lot of detail describing available services. Overthe course of these thirty-minute discussions, a num-ber of themes emerged regarding the researcher’schallenges:1. Many of their day-to-day data and knowledgemanagement challenges were similar to what hasbeen described in the literature and in anecdotaldiscussions.2. Some of these challenges, such as organizingcollections of portable document format (PDF) filesand discovering and accessing information licensedby the library, were standard types of supportregularly provided by librarians.3. Other needs that went beyond typical librarysupport—such as the need to automate literaturediscovery and mining, improve lab process organiza-tion, and develop a data model to support mapping oftwo databases—were approachable for the library asthey were areas of expertise for the library.Although not surprising based on past experienceand review of the literature, another consistent themewas that these researchers rarely or never thoughtabout the library, and if they did, their conception waslimited and traditional. To them, the library repre-sented books, journals, a facility, and little else. Theyhad some awareness of basic services that the libraryand librarians provided—for example, literaturesearching support, assistance with bibliographicmanagement software, and interlibrary loan—but noawareness of the library’s broader expertise inknowledge management or interest in expandingsupport in related areas like data management. Onemotivation in responding to the library’s email forsome of these researchers was curiosity about whatlibraries and librarians did in the contemporary era ofdigital information.At the conclusion of this process, the libraryrepresentatives and two researchers agreed to collab-orate on separate applications for the supplementalawards. The library representatives decided that theother four research projects did not offer as robustdata management possibilities as the two selected.In each of those cases, however, standard libraryWilliams and Rambo146 J Med Lib Assoc 103(3) July 2015services were made available to satisfy identifiedneeds. The two applications that were developedwere subsequently approved:& ‘‘Role of Proteases and Peptides in Cancer Pain’’& ‘‘Clinical Management of Cochlear Implant Patientswith Contralateral Hearing Aids’’In 2013, NLM again provided the opportunity toapply for this administrative supplement, and thelibrary repeated this process. During this secondround, forty researchers with forty-six eligible grantswere again identified through NIH RePORTER andwere sent individualized emails from the director.Eight researchers replied, and through the sameprocess of in-person and phone conversations, twoapplications were submitted. Once again, both ofthese applications were funded:& ‘‘Synaptic Basis of Perceptual Learning in PrimaryAuditory Cortex’’& ‘‘Multicultural Community Dementia Screening’’DISCUSSIONThis process for identifying researchers for potentialcollaboration is an extensible and successful approachto identifying, contacting, and ultimately selectingbasic science researchers for collaboration on NLMadministrative supplements. Although limited inscope, it is a potent way to develop new andknowledgeable library champions in the researchcommunity who can attest to the value of librariansin research data management. This approach waspresented at a professional conference as well asshared informally, based on multiple inquiries fromcolleagues at other academic health sciences libraries.Although this approach was introduced as a strategybased on lack of other options, colleagues haverepeatedly described it as novel in contrast toapproaching known contacts with whom there wasa preexisting relationship. The authors contend thatcasting a broader net, as in the cases described,yielded opportunities and information that we wouldhave been unaware of otherwise.The library’s discussions with researchers con-firmed that they would benefit from the skills andknowledge of health sciences librarians. This hasinfluenced subsequent initiatives and an overallemphasis in the library on pursuing many opportu-nities to communicate directly with researchers abouttheir day-to-day data and knowledge discovery andmanagement challenges. Everything that is beinglearned from these discussions is helping guide thelibrary’s strategic directions and future activities.REFERENCES1. PA-13-276: NLM Administrative supplements for informa-tionist services in NIH-funded research projects [Internet].,http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-13-276.html..2. Grefsheim SF, Rankin JA. Information needs and in-formation seeking in a biomedical research setting: a studyof scientists and science administrators. J Med Lib Assoc.2007 Oct;95(4):426–34. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.95.4.426.3. Haines LL, Light J, O’Malley D, Delwiche FA. Informa-tion-seeking behavior of basic science researchers: implica-tions for library services. J Med Lib Assoc. 2010 Jan;98(1):73–81. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.98.1.019.AUTHORS’ AFFILIATIONSJeff D. Williams, MLIS, AHIP,jeffrey.williams@nyumc.org, Associ-ate Director, Research, Education,and Clinical Support; Neil H.Rambo, MLibr, neil.rambo@nyumc.org, Director, Health Sciences Li-brary and Knowledge Informatics;NYU Health Sciences Library, NewYork University Langone MedicalCenter, 577 First Avenue, Room 204,New York, NY 10016Received January 2015; accepted February 2015Identifying collaborators for NLM informationist projectsJ Med Lib Assoc 103(3) July 2015 147

An extensible and successful method of identifying collaborators for National Library of Medicine informationist projects

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An extensible and successful method of identifying collaborators for National Library of Medicine informationist projects

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