Scholarly communications competencies: open access training for librarians

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe one example of an academic library using existing internal expertise and targeted events to provide training for liaison librarians in support of new scholarly communication initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – This article presents a case study of how a medium-size academic library without a designated scholarly communications librarian or office presented a series of open access (OA) training opportunities for the liaison librarians in preparation for the official launch of the institutional repository and the campus’ inaugural participation in OA week. Findings – The multiple opportunities to engage with the topics in diverse ways resulted in librarians being more comfortable with discussing OA with their departmental faculty. Opinions of OA were changed as a result of attending the events. Participants found the activities to be useful and were engaged enough with the topic to ask for specific areas where they would like more training opportunities. Look to other colleagues both on campus and in the broader region to tap their expertise or explore professional organizations or free webinars. Taking the initiative to organize events that require minimal effort can have a big impact. Practical implications – Librarians have limited opportunity for in-depth training to gain new competencies and re-tool their skills to match current demands; this article demonstrates that utilizing internal expertise to provide a variety of training can positively impact participants’ attitudes and confidence. Originality/value – This article presents methods and rationale for librarians to facilitate similar professional development opportunities for building new scholarly communication competencies in support of the emerging research and scholarly publishing trends.

Librarians Skills and Competencies for Scholarly Communication and Repository Management in Nigeria

“…Zhong (2017b) showed that there is inadequate knowledge and skills in developing standard interface and providing effective user information needs for achieving the best practice of institutional repository in Nigeria. lack of chances for in-depth training deprived librarians to gain new competencies and re-tool themselves with skills to meet the current demands (Rodriguez, 2015).…”

Databrarian ed? Preparing Information Specialists for Participation in an Open Datafied Society

“…Relevant competency frameworks developed by practitioners generally target SC librarians/specialists (Calarco et al, 2016;NASIG, 2017), although NASIG (2017, 1) notes 'scholarly communication impacts all librarians, and as such, specific duties are often diffused through an organization'. There is also a parallel discussion on in-house education for liaison librarians with a focus on OA (Brantley, Bruns and Duffin, 2017;Rodriguez, 2015;Sewell and Kingsley, 2017), which has generated useful learning resources, such as the University of Cambridge downloadable 'handy guides' and three-minute YouTube videos on topics such as OA basics, Creative Commons licences and mirror journals (https://osc.cam.ac.uk/outreach/supporting-researchers-21st-centuryprogramme).…”

Restructuring and Formalizing: Scholarly Communication as a Sustainable Growth Opportunity in Information Agencies?

“…They may be expected to assist faculty and other users with the scholarly communication process (Klain-Gabbay & Shohamb, 2016). Promoting the open access movement among library users is also seen as a scholarly communication problem (Potvin, 2013;Rodriguez, 2015).…”