{"id":284,"date":"2016-05-17T08:13:03","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T12:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/?p=284"},"modified":"2017-05-26T13:37:42","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T17:37:42","slug":"supporting-the-needs-of-faculty-the-research-services-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/2016\/05\/17\/supporting-the-needs-of-faculty-the-research-services-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting the Needs of Faculty – The Research Services Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Research Services Forum met last week to discuss the recent Ithaka Faculty Survey<\/a>.\u00a0 Ithaka S+R has conducted a survey of faculty every three years since 2000, providing libraries with a \u201csnapshot of practices and perceptions related to scholarly communications and information usage.\u201d This year, the survey population consisted of faculty members from all disciplines in the arts, sciences and most professions at U.S. colleges and universities (offering bachelor’s degree or higher). This translates to a\u00a0 survey distribution of\u00a0 145,500 faculty members yielding a response of 9,203 (6.3%). The Ithaka surveys rightfully receive a good deal of attention in the higher education and library press, as providing\u00a0 useful data on trends in faculty perceptions and needs \u2013 essential for librarians to know about and consider for their own work.<\/p>\n

Ithaka Faculty Survey: A Key Finding<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Discovery starting points remain in flux<\/em>.<\/strong> After faculty members expressed strongly preferring starting their research with a specific electronic research resource\/database as compared to other starting points in previous cycles of this survey, they are now reporting being equally as likely to begin with a general purpose search engine as they are with a specific electronic research resource\/database. Furthermore, the online library website\/catalog has become increasingly important for conducting research since the previous cycle of the survey.<\/em><\/p>\n

This finding was based on the following question and response, “Below are four position starting points for research in academic literature. Typically, when you are conducting academic research, which of these four starting points do you use to begin locating information for your research?”<\/p>\n

\"ithaka<\/a>This finding is notable as an indicator of changing\u00a0 research behaviors, as well as for its potential implications for library work. But it’s a bit more complicated.<\/p>\n

Local Research with Religious Studies Faculty<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The timing of Ithaka\u2019s publication was fortuitous, as here at Temple Libraries we are also talking with faculty about research practice and beginning to synthesize our local findings. Ours is also an Ithaka-sponsored project with a different methodology – a series of structured open-ended interviews with 12 faculty in the Religious Studies department. The local research team is made up of Fred Rowland, Rebecca Lloyd, Justin Hill and myself. Fred did a great job of contacting faculty and helping to arrange the interviews – the research team shared conducting interviews and reviewing the transcribed recordings. Update: Final Report is now posted here:\u00a0 templeuniversity_religiousstudies_finalreport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The project is part of a broader investigation into discipline-specific practice (the final report will include 40 libraries), but covers similar ground to understand how faculty:<\/p>\n