Presented at LILAC 2019

1. Reinvigorating our information
literacy support for researchers:
Supporting researchers in raising their
profile, disseminating their research and
more
Sally Dalton, Library Research Support Advisor
Deirdre Andre, Library Research Support Advisor
University of Leeds

2. Please tell us which topics,
related to research visibility, you
offer support to researchers on?
Go to www.menti.com and enter code 83 32 55

3. Learning outcomes
• Outline why information literacy skills, specifically those related to
increasing research visibility, are important for researchers
• Summarise key drivers for improving researchers’ skills around
research visibility
• Use the Researcher Skills Development Framework to identify areas
where support for increasing research visibility could be developed
within your own institution
• Identify different methods of engaging researchers with research
visibility support

4. Why bother supporting increasing visibility?
OA policies
REF requirements
Increased pressure from
institution
Competitive research
environment
Good research practice
Increase collaboration rates
Increase citations or Altmetric
mentions

6. What support did we develop?
ORCID IDs: Connecting
research with
researchers - workshop
Using social media to
promote your research -
workshop
Introduction to
bibliometrics -
workshop
Open Access & REF essentials -
workshop
How to publish your PhD
as a monograph -
workshop
Research Data
Management
essentials -
workshop
Raising the visibility of your
research (covering a number
of different areas) - workshop
Contributed to grant
writing drop ins with
other services – drop in

7. Engaging researchers with support
• Generic workshops – not tailored to one certain department
• Working in collaboration with other services in the institution
• Asked researchers to help run sessions
• Used Open Access week to trial new workshops

8. We are now trialling bespoke sessions
• Designed and delivered to a specific department
• Using bibliometric analysis to identify where they may need specific
support
When planning session we can analyse:
• Collaboration rates
• Citation scores
• Number of ORCID iDs
• Altmetric scores
• Social media use

9. • Use the RDF information literacy lens to identify areas where you
think further support for your researchers, related to increasing
visibility, may be needed
• Think about other services which you could collaborate with
• Identify methods for engaging researchers
• Use the Support Plan handout
Over to you – 10 mins

10. What did we learn?
• Engaging research staff can be tricky!
• Postgraduate Researchers are more open to engaging with our
support
• Drop-in sessions don’t always work
• Working in collaboration with services outside of the Library has been
really beneficial
• A bespoke service seems to be more useful for research staff but this
is a lot more time consuming (and you may need specialist
bibliometric support)
• Getting ‘buy-in’ from institution can take time

11. Summary
• Helping researchers improve their information literacy skills around
research visibility is becoming increasingly important
• The RDF information literacy lens may help you to shape your services
• There are many different ways you can engage researchers with the
support you offer but…
• It doesn’t come without its challenges!

12. Sally Dalton
Research Support Advisor
University of Leeds
Email: s.dalton@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone: 0113 34 36974
Twitter: @SallyDalton18
Deidre Andre
Research Support Advisor
University of Leeds
Email: d.andre@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone: 0113 343 5552