Theme: The quest for deeper meaning of research support
At the turn of the century there were many that believed that academic libraries were dying and were seeking new roles and responsibilities to get off ‘life support’. Since then changes in higher education pedagogy, digitisation of scholarly content, and increases in the influence of technologies have transformed academic library services, and academic libraries are moving away from reactive research support and towards a proactive role as a contributor to the research and research production process. This transformation is demanding a ‘deeper meaning’ of research support for the researcher and the research process. In support of that ‘deeper meaning’ libraries are providing a new and expanded set of services which includes, inter alia, research data management, curation and preservation; facilitation of open access and bibliometric analysis. The use of research performance management tools to scan the research landscape, strengthening of self-retrieval of scholarly literature, assistance in the dissemination of research results via publication, and assistance in determining impact factor, are all part of this suite of services offered by a newly transformed research support service of the academic library.
We invite you to submit a proposal for the first day of the satellite meeting of IFLA’s Academic and Research Libraries Section to be held in Cape Town South Africa 13-14 August 2015.
The second day will be a workshop on research data management. Preference will be given to proposals that address the following issues:
• Bibliometrics including impact factor
• Digital curation and preservation
• How are librarians gaining skills/knowledge/expertise in supporting research services • User self-directed learning and the utilization of new technologies in support of this
• Utilization of research performance tools in support of research and research production
Objectives: • Engage in debate on the challenges and benefits of providing new research support services; • Identify new research support services and establish a community of practice; and • Have a deeper understanding of research data management
Submission Guidelines Proposals should include:
• Title of the presentation
• Abstract of no more than 400 words
• Author(s) name, professional affiliation, postal address, e-mail address
• A brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words
Proposals should be submitted before 27 February 2015
Submissions will be reviewed by the Program Committee with successful proposals identified by 13 March 2015. Successful applicants will have until 31 March 2015 to confirm acceptance of the offer.
To provide for dynamic content, full text papers in draft form should be submitted in a Word file by 14 May 2015. The length of oral presentations will be 25 minutes.
Key Dates
27 February 2015 Closing date for call for proposals. Brief abstract required
13 March 2015 Applicants will be informed as to whether their paper has been accepted
31 March 2015 Applicants to confirm their acceptance of the offer
14 May 2015 Deadline for submission of full papers
31 July 2015 Submission of presentations
Please note This satellite meeting is sponsored and will be free of charge to the attendees. However, all other expenses, including travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation letter can be issued. All presentations will be in English.
