Research libraries are caught between twin pressures. There is pressure on resources as public and private institutions review and reallocate investment against changing priorities. There is pressure on services as changing research, learning and information behaviors create new demands (think of data curation for example).

Many library functions can now be outsourced or addressed collaboratively, and an imperative for distinctive library services is accelerating the transformation of organizational culture.

The past practice of collecting information resources and helping people when they come to the library to use them is no longer adequate.  Libraries need to continue to shift their focus to more proactive ways they can support the research and teaching processes. This may require recasting services, re-skilling staff, finding new uses for library spaces, hiring post-doctoral grads and other specialists from outside the traditional library fields, and taking on entirely new responsibilities. With these changes come new technological impacts, challenges in managing change, and the need to integrate new types of staff.

OCLC has a strong interest in understanding and shaping how library services are changing and a responsibility to help libraries plan for and manage these changes. To progress in this area, OCLC Research has established a dedicated thematic area—advancing the academic mission—that draws on our capacity to convene staff from key institutions to review emerging new practices and to make recommendations for action.

We'll explore the shift from passive provision of information to active involvement in the research process, all the way from grant proposal to dissemination of results. We'll look at new uses of library space to support teaching and learning. We'll seek out unmet needs that require local solutions and present opportunities to make better connections to mission-essential activities. Our objective is to understand the ways that libraries can have maximum impact in providing support to academic departments.

Areas of focus

• Evidence: Accumulating qualitative and quantitative evidence and literature syntheses that help libraries prepare themselves to provide better support for teaching and scholarly research.
  
• Internalization vs. externalization: Determining where services outside the library are sufficient to rely upon, so that local efforts can focus on distinctive services tuned to the local academic environment.
• Convening: Bringing together the best examples of services, the most creative thinkers, and those who want to do more, to make recommendations and provide models for exemplary support services.

How we advance thinking

Activities provide library managers with information that will help them provide distinctive services that reflect their institution’s research mission.

We focus on:

• Identifying researchers' needs to understand key issues, delineating disciplinary differences, and explore emerging trends and patterns.
  
  • Example activities:
    • The Changing Scholarly Record (web page coming soon)
    • Support for Research Workflows
    • Dissemination Information Packages for Information Reuse
  • Key outputs:
    • Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development [pdf]
    • A Slice of Research Life: Information Support for Research in the United States.
    • Research Support Services in UK Universities
    • Supporting Research: Environments, Administration and Libraries
• Identifying parent institution's needs to understand the library's role in assisting in the management of research information.
  • Example activity:
    
    • Role of Libraries in Data Curation (encouraging a campus-wide data management policy)
      
  • Key outputs:
    • Re-thinking the Boundaries of the Academic Library [pdf - page 16 ]
    • A Comparative Review of Research Assessment Regimes in Five Countries and the Role of Libraries in the Research Assessment Process [pdf]
    • Research Assessment and the Role of the Library[pdf]
• Identifying ways in which the library can be proactive in supporting research and teaching.
  • Example activities:
    • Role of Libraries in Data Curation (selection of datasets for preservation and access)
    • Innovative uses of space (web page coming soon)
    Key outputs:
    • Support for the Research Process—An Academic Library Manifesto [pdf]
    • Keeping Research Data Safe; Phase 1 [pdf] and Phase 2 [pdf]
    • Economics of Data Integrity
    • Lasting Impact: Sustainability of Disciplinary Repositories
    • MOOCs and Libraries: A Look at the Landscape
• Providing a venue for community engagement and stakeholder consultation, where organizational leaders and decision makers can collaborate with peers.
  
  • Example eventss:
    • Libraries Rebound: Embracing Mission, Maximizing Impact
    • MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?
• Amplifying our research efforts by:
  • Engaging with Partner institutions interested in these issues.
  • Collaborating with other research organizations with similar interests, such as Ithaka, the Coalition of Networked Information, Research Libraries UK, and the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER).

Current work

• Changes in Scholarly Communication
• Role of Libraries in Data Curation
• Support for Research Workflows

Please note, Advancing the Research Mission is an updated theme that was previously referred to as  Research Information Management.