Canadian Academic Librarians and the Need for a Systematic and Comprehensive Research-Support Model

Abstract

a b s t r ac tExpectations for Canadian academic librarians' research have evolved, but not all librarians have access to the support systems needed that aid and enable them to conduct and publish research. A survey was sent to librarians asking about the research supports available and most useful to them. "Research" was not defined and was left to the interpretation of the participant. The survey found that supports are sporadic, possibly leading to a two-tiered research climate between "haves" and "have-nots. " It is essential for academic librarians to initiate and engage in conversation about what library research is and how librarians' research competency may be improved. This should lead in turn to conversations about the support systems needed, which ones the universities and the libraries should provide, and how having a comprehensive research-support model would help librarians engage more with research, increase their research output, and improve the quality of their research.

From a network model to a model network: strategies for network development to narrow the LIS research–practice gap

“…, 2017; Kennedy and Brancolini, 2012, 2018; Kennedy et al. , 2020; and Kumaran, 2019). In some cases, such reports may focus on a single university (e.g.…”

“…These comprise collaborative writing groups, mentoring programmes, peer support groups, internal research fora, journal/reading groups, and the employment of research facilitators (e.g. Hoffman et al, 2017;Brancolini, 2012 &Kennedy, Brancolini and Kennedy, 2020;Kumaran, 2019). In some cases, such reports may focus on a single university (e.g.…”

“…For one community of LIS practitioners, however, adoption of the role of practitioner-researcher is critical to career advancement: for academic librarians in North America, research productivity is generally a requirement for promotion and tenure [as noted, for example, by Babb (2019, p. 2), Crampsie et al. (2020, p. 253), Kumaran (2019, p. 2) and Schmidt et al. (2021, p. 1)].…”

“…The same can be argued for networking focussed on research that is achieved through practitioner-only participation in other broader activities, such as the continuing education programme offered to US librarians through the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (Kennedy and Brancolini, 2018, p. 828) and the annual Librarians' Research Institute workshops hosted by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (Jacobs and Berg, 2013, p. 227; Kumaran, 2019, p. 2). There are also opportunities for LIS practitioners based in universities to network online.…”