How academic librarians, IT staff and research administrators perceive and relate to research

摘要

Academic libraries are changing how they support research. For example, their involvement in Research Data Management (RDM) implies a much deeper relationship with researchers throughout the research lifecycle. Perhaps we are witnessing a shift from support to partnership. The studyud reported here examined how librarians, IT staff and research administrators see research and their ud own relation to it. Within an interpretative methodology, twenty semi-structured interviews with librarians, IT staff and research administrators were analysed thematically. Librarians often talked about research via the discourse of research-led teaching. They also conceived of it via notions of collection and to a lesser extent through reference work or copyright expertise. They saw some ofud their own continuing professional development or service development work as akin to the work ofud university researchers, but at the other end of a spectrum. Some saw a categorical difference andud considered that research was only conducted by people who had a job title of researcher. ITud managers tended to see research via infrastructure or specialist expertise. But at least one IT staffud member saw himself as both partly a researcher and a bridge between research and support.ud Research administrators tended to see research through the roles of administrative support andud policy influence. In summary, seven broad narratives about research were identified, namely:ud influencing researchers to align with policy; being a researcher; being a bridge with research;ud offering expertise; providing infrastructure; supporting a research/teaching nexus; relievingud researchers of administrative burdens. As institutions develop research partnerships, e.g. aroundud RDM, training and curricula will need to expand existing conceptions and build deeper empatheticud relationships with research.