SURVEY SAYS: Expanded Library Support for Faculty Research 1 National Conference for African...

1SURVEY SAYS: Expanded Library Support for Faculty Research

National Conference for African American Librarians St. Louis, MO

Sandra Phoenix, Executive Director, HBCU Library Alliance (GA)

Elizabeth Brumfield, Distance Services LibrarianPrairie View A&M University (TX)

August 7, 2015

2

HBCU Library Alliance

Membership organization for White House-designated historically black colleges and universities

Established in 2002, Incorporated in 2006

Governed by Board of Directors elected from and by the membership

Mantra Henderson, Mississippi Valley State University – Board Chair

Strengthen membership by developing library leaders, preserving collections and planning for the future

3

A bit of background

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project

Partnership with HBCU Faculty Development Network

Assess and strengthen library services in support of faculty research

Foster improved library services on individual campuses

Develop collaborative approaches to expand HBCU community-wide support

4

Assessments

Faculty survey

- assist libraries in understanding faculty research challenges, needs- HBCU Faculty Development Network- Faculty Library Advisory Committee- Statistician provided expertise in survey design, distribution strategies, quantitative summary- Ithaka Faculty Survey for comparison

Library survey

- determine current services, capacity and needs- Library Advisory Committee

5Faculty Demographics – Title and Tenure

Faculty Respondents by Title

Professor17.8%

Associate Professor 31.7%

Assistant Professor36.6%

Visiting Professor 0.6%

Visiting Associate Professor 0.0%

Visiting Assistant Professor 1.51%

Instructor 9.06%

Lecturer 2.72%

Faculty Respondents by Tenure Status

Tenured42.2%

On Tenure-track 30.3%

Not on Tenure-track 24.5%

No Tenure System 3.06%

at institution

6Faculty Demographics – Teaching Level and Primary Discipline

7Library Demographics – Institutional Control, Position and Number of Staff

More respondents reported institutional control as public (28), rather than private (21). Data from the NCES 2012 Academic Library Survey reporting on 99 HBCU libraries indicated an almost even comparison of 50 public and 49 private institutions.

8Faculty Finding – Research Challenges

Library funding is the greatest barrier to the expansion of library services to support faculty research.

Liaison services, individualized assistance to faculty for research, consultations are common services provided by libraries. Fewer faculty indicated their libraries provide assistance with planning, publishing and executing research.

9Library Demographics: Budget by Carnegie Class

10Faculty Findings – Categorize Research Interests and Library Research Activities

Research is primarily for professional or discipline-related purposes.

Research process begins using their own library and a general purpose search engine on the internet.

11Faculty Finding – Selecting New Projects

How important is each of the following for selecting new research projects?

Rating Average (10=Extremely

Important, 1=Not Important at All)

My own interests 9.23

Available opportunities to publish 8.51

Practicality or feasibility of a project 8.42

My perceptions of gaps in the existing literature 8.10

My library's ability to access information and materials not owned by the library 7.86

Available funding 7.85

Adequate library collections 7.56

Tenure, promotion, and other research 7.20

Reproducibility of needed data, images, or primary source materials 6.91

Advice from peers 6.61

12

Faculty Finding – Importance of Resources

Highest Ranked Resources, Lowest Ranked Resources

How important is each of the following resources to your research? (10=Extremely Important, 1=Not Important at All) All Faculty Professor Associate Assistant

Instructor/ Lecturer

Abstracts 6.57 6.35 6.34 6.84 6.62

Archival materials or rare books 5.26 4.52 5.46 5.36 5.94

Blogs or social media 3.88 3.16 3.51 4.16 5.15

Books in print 6.82 6.96 6.73 6.71 7.56

E-books 6.15 5.8 6.52 6.03 6.26

Electronic journal articles 9.24 9.05 9.55 9.27 8.47

Film, video, sound recordings, and other non-textual media

4.82 3.77 4.43 5.26 6.24

Imagery (art, art image collections, illustrations, photographs, etc.)

4.45 3.57 4.1 4.6 6.33

Journal articles in print 8.15 8.43 8.21 8.1 7.71

Magazines and trade journals that are not peer-reviewed

4.64 4.53 4.12 4.88 5.34

Maps or geospatial data 4.19 3.43 3.66 4.57 5.97

Non-English language materials (books, journal articles, etc.) 3.26 2.96 2.91 3.69 3.44

Non-peer-reviewed "gray literature," such as reports published by government agencies or Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

5.52 4.91 5.72 5.69 5.53

13Library Demographics – Materials Expenditure by Type and Carnegie Class

14Library Finding – Total Expenditure by Type

Databases and serials are the highest expenditure by collection.

15

Faculty Finding – Communicate Support Needs?

Contact with individual librarians 70.7%

Faculty visits to the library 61.3%

Library liaisons 38.3%

Sponsored Projects, Research and Development 12.8%

Viewing academic dept. websites 8.6%

Faculty Senate 8.6%

Through social media 2.6%

A large majority of faculty report they use contact with individual librarians to communicate their research needs. Other larger proportions use faculty visits or library liaisons to communicate their research needs.

16Library Finding – Learn About Research?

17Faculty Findings - Support Needs

18Library Finding: Activities performed by Library Liaison by Carnegie Classification

Library liaisons are subject specialists who provide support for faculty and student research, instruction, and scholarly communication.

19

Faculty Finding – Use of Services

How often do you use the following library services? Rating

Average (6=Very Often,

1=Never) Research reference via e-mail or electronic access 4.14

Digitized documents 3.47

Referrals to content outside of the library for research support 2.89

Assistance with using technology for research 2.87

Faculty sessions in utilizing research databases and other scholarly resources 2.51

Borrow equipment for research use (laptops, cameras, projectors, etc.) 2.19

Use of the library as institutional repository for faculty research publications 2.12

Promotion of recent faculty scholarly outputs within the campus community 2.0

Assistance with preparing grant proposals 1.86

Preservation of research documentation 1.86

Recommendations of funding sources 1.86

Advice on copyright and intellectual property rights 1.85

Advice on preserving research documentation 1.84

Tools to assist in preserving research documentation 1.84

Assistance with publishing faculty research guides 1.8

Assistance with the preparation/editing of publication output 1.75

Assistance with assessing the impact of a research publication 1.71

Assistance with social media use 1.67

Assistance with preparing and editing conference presentations and posters 1.62

Recommendations regarding where to publish a given work to maximize its impact 1.61

Assistance with understanding and negotiating favorable publication contracts 1.59

20Library Finding – Frequency of Library Services

21Faculty Recommendations to improve library support

Resources to expand holdings

Offer faculty to publish with librarians on topics of interest

A closer relationship between faculty and librarians

Provide faculty workshops on how to locate information and explore databases

Seminars to explain what the library can do/does for faculty

Conferences, seminars and working days that promote research and publications

Additional funding and additional staff are needed for library support of faculty research

Move grant and research support from Grants Office to Library Services

22

Model Projects

Sub-Grants

Atlanta University Center (GA)

Fisk University (TN)

Jackson State University (MS)

North Carolina A&T State University

Prairie View A&M University (TX)

Savannah State University (GA)

Shaw University (NC)

Southern University Baton Rouge (LA)

23

Educational Programming

Faculty Support Strategies

Marketing and Promotion

Communication and Collaboration

Copyright and Research

Library Liaison Services

24

Questions?

Thank You!

sphoenix@hbculibraries.org

ejbrumfield@pvamu.edu