Research Collections and Support
Libraries are increasingly leveraging the raw materials of scholarship and knowledge formation by emphasizing the creation and curation of institutional research assets and outputs, including digitized special collections, research data, and researcher profiles. Our work informs current thinking about research collections and the emerging services that libraries are offering to support contemporary modes of scholarship. We are encouraging the development of new ways for libraries to build and provide these types of collections and deliver distinctive services. Our efforts are focused in the following three areas:
Publications
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Summary of Research: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
31 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brooke Doyle, Lesley A. Langa, Merrilee Proffitt, Bruce Washburn, Itza A. Carbajal
Synthesizes OCLC’s findings for the Building a National Finding Aid Network project. The research investigated end user and contributor needs for finding aid aggregations and evaluated EAD encoded finding aid data quality and consistency from existing regional archival aggregators.
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Focus Group Interviews: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Merrilee Proffitt, Lesley A. Langa, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brittany Brannon, Brooke Doyle
Investigates the needs of archivists and others who might contribute to a national archival aggregator through focus group interviews with archivists and archives administrators from across the United States.
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Pop-up Survey: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Lesley A. Langa, Chela Scott Weber, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Summarizes OCLC’s findings from a national survey of more than 3300 end users searching for archival materials online for the Building a National Finding Aid Project.
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User Interviews: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Itza A. Carbajal, Lesley A. Langa, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brooke Doyle, Brittany Brannon, Merrilee Proffitt
Details methods and summarizes findings from semi-structured individual interviews with end users of archival aggregation.
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'People Need a Strategy:' Exploring Attitudes of and Support Roles for Scholarly Identity Work Among Academic Librarians
10 April 2019
Marie L. Radford, Vanessa Kitzie, Stephanie Mikitish, Diana Floegel, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Academics increasingly use digital platforms and social networking sites to manage their scholarly identities (SI). This empirical study proposes that academic librarians can assist in digital SI management and identifies strategies for librarians to increase SI support across platforms.
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Container Collapse and the Information Remix: Students’ Evaluations of Scientific Research Recast in Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
10 April 2019
Amy G. Buhler, Ixchel M. Faniel, Brittany Brannon, Christopher Cyr, Tara Tobin Cataldo, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Joyce Kasman Valenza, Rachael Elrod, Randy A. Graff, Samuel R. Putnam, Erin M. Hood, Kailey Langer
A scientific communication life cycle publishes results in a variety of containers, formats, and genres to reach diverse audiences. This paper examines 116 students’ selection of scholarly and popular scientific content to compare how consumers use resources across the communication life cycle.
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Assessing for Alignment: How to Win Collaborators and Influence Stakeholders
22 June 2018
Stephanie Mikitish, Vanessa Kitzie, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
This chapter, excerpted from Shaping the Campus Conversation on Student Learning and Experience, proposes how academic libraries can leverage the Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success (AiA) approach to advance communication, collaboration, and institutional mission and alignment.
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Librarians' Perspectives on the Factors Influencing Research Data Management Programs
9 January 2018
Ixchel Faniel, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
This study contextualizes librarians’ roles in campus research data management (RDM) programs at US academic libraries through their RDM experiences supporting research needs. Interviews with academic librarians surfaced five factors of influence that facilitate or constrain academic library RDM activity.
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2012 Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries: A Review of the Trends and Issues affecting Academic Libraries in Higher Education
1 June 2012
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Janice S. Lewis, Stephanie Alexander, Yunfei Du, Brad Eden, Barbara Petersohn, +
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If We Build It, Will They Come? Recommendations and WorldCat
1 October 2011