Developing the Community of Researchers: A Role of an Academic Librarian

When instructors and researchers work together to support the entire research lifecycle, amazing things happen! Find out how the Research Consortium at the KSU College of Education is combining the skills of the librarian and faculty members to foster the scholar identity, research skills, and scholarly communication competencies of researchers. Through a Research Consortium, we are developing collaborative research models, tools, and resources that support everyone, from doctoral students to teachers - scholars in the field. The presenter, an academic librarian and a member of the KSU College of Education Research Consortium, will describe examples of how a productive alliance between librarians and faculty members improve the research and learning processes. Examples include: a) the formation of the Research Consortium, a faculty-driven community of practice (virtual and face2face) that supports research and sharing knowledge of all aspects of scholarly communication; b) the design of new interactive models and tools of teaching research design and methods; c) the set of workshops, courses, consulting sessions, including a literature review and scholarly communication seminars to assist beginning researchers, d) the interactive Research Methods Lab, which uses AR and other initiatives that support and engage emerging scholars. In this presentation, the author will not only describe previously mentioned successful initiatives but also will show results arising from their evaluation. The presenter will also address the misconception about the role of the librarian in scholarly communication. When librarians discuss scholarly communication, the emphasis is on advocacy for open access and academic library’s initiatives in the dissemination of scholarship/publishing. Less attention is placed on a librarian’s role in supporting the whole research lifecycle and collaboration between librarians and faculty in research; this creates a void in fostering emerging scholars’ identity, their research skills, and knowledge of scholarly communication