Presentation by Peter Cruickshank at LIRG LIS research resources briefing, July 10th 2012, London. Further details at http://lisresearch.org/2012/07/10/research-into-practice-lis-research-resources-briefing/

1. Research into practice:
The present situation
Peter Cruickshank
London
10 July 2012

2. Reminder: today’s aim
Increase knowledge and
understanding of the range of
research resources and
training materials available
to support the exploitation
of the existing LIS evidence
base and the execution of
LIS research projects.
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3. Challenge:
Engaging all sectors
• As with RiLIES1 we had low
response rates from public
librarians
– Are we asking the wrong
questions?
– Are we asking in the wrong
place?
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4. Most appreciated
Resources that were appreciated by respondents:
• JISC mailing lists
» Mailing lists (particularly operated by JISC) continue to be
the main source of knowledge for many who are interested
in research (or simply learning from colleagues)
• LIR Journal
• LIRG
• EBLIP Journal
• Blogs and Twitter feeds
• DREaM resources
• Honourable runner up
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5. Issues
Converting awareness into use
• A number of resources have still to get their
audience to move from "heard of it" to "have
tried it":
– particular examples are
• DREaM resources
• The EBLIP Journal
• LIRG resources
– A large proportion report having found them wanting
– The BAILER resource links have this problem too.
» Action: Review data and compare to stakeholders’ actual
requirements
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6. Issues
Low visibility
• Low awareness of existing resources, e.g.
– USA/EU resources such as dLIST, eLIS, RD Info and
ALA/RUSA
– Few respondents had heard
of KnowledgeHub CoP platform
• Even though it’s aimed at UK public sector
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7. Project output
What should we do?
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8. Project output
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9. Project output
Other ideas
Tip-sheets/ and brief guidelines
• On a broad range of topics
• Could only work if a process was in place to ensure the content is kept
up to date, another area where a long-term commitment is necessary.
Discussion space
• The LIS community routinely uses mailing-lists
• Could set up a new JISC LIS-* list, or use existing list
Link to resources outside the UK
• Clear need to make them more visible
• e.g. links to dLIST and RD
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10. There is no
shortage of
material
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11. Conclusion
• A real need for a directory of LIS research
resources
– low-cost
– centrally-funded
– community-maintained
– held in a known location
– long-term commitment to maintenance
– Caveat: Were we listening to the right people?
» We think this answer applies to all sectors
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12. Project responses
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13. Printed material
Fliers: impact & resources
Creative
Commons
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14. Printed material
Planning for impact
• advice on proposal
writing
• free to use examples
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15. Updated the current website
Four
categories
Clarity
about
freshness
Support
needed!
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16. Community resources
• Pages on site are the best we can do now
• Engagement & support is needed
– We know a passive approach does not work
• Can only work with engagement from
– individuals
– the community
– organisations
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17. Creating a sustainable answer
What else can be done?
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18. Supporting the community
Technical
•Coming up:
some thoughts
Community-
driven •…Next session
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19. Review of options
• JISC LIS research-related mailing lists
– Review to determine how they can improve LIS
practice
– Conclusion: Many of them have lot of activities
and their discussions are up-to date
• but the problem is that is still difficult to identify those
that could be helpful because
– sometimes people have questions but don’t get the required
answers or
– they get the answer and then don’t make a summary
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20. Review of options
• Library day in a Life Project
» librarydayinthelife.pbworks.com
– Has been maintained for four years and people
are still willing to share their stories.
– Maybe not in total but some of the approaches
can be useful
» Currently waiting for detailed replay
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21. A day in the life...
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22. Review of options
• Other possibilities using the wiki approach
+ easily updated
+ supports the community maintained approach.
– no way to search with a specific keyword
– difficult to find the required support
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23. Publications Wiki
slisapps.sjsu.edu/wikis/faculty/putnam/index.php/LIS_Publications_Wiki
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24. Choosing a platform
• Social bookmarking: delicious.com
– implement stacks with a specific name
• Creates folders where all the projects within the
specific subject can be stored
– using a specific tag (eg lisresearch) it will be easier
to search through the resources
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25. delicious.com
delicious.com/search?p=lis+research
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26. Choosing a platform
• Google Drive
– Save a file and make it visible to everybody on the
web
– But: place to publish the link is required.
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27. Review of options
• Ideas for further work.
– Search through workshops and conferences that
are discussing this subject and try to find
something about new projects.
– Contact university libraries and see how can we
relate to the small projects that are being done by
research students and could be also useful.
» These processes could be repeated regularly to pick up
new developments
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28. Demonstration: ALISS engine
• Please see the set of ALISS slides
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29. Conclusion
• This presentation has looked at issues and
solutions around
– sample teaching and community support
materials we have developed (leaflets)
– how we have addressed problem of fragmented
infrastructures (web pages)
– proposals for technical/community solutions to
issues of access.
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30. In the next session we move to
Next: The community response
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