Research Support
What the Libraries can do for Researchers & Postgraduates?
Our KUHeS libraries actively support the growth and development of research activities in universities by providing high-quality resources, facilitating scholarly communication, and promoting research output.
OUR CORE SERVICES
01.
Scholarly resources
Traditionally, print books and journal collections have been the most visible indicators of a library’s support for research. However, the shift from print to electronic journals, databases, and e-books has resulted in a significant shift in the importance of collections as an indicator of research support.
02.
Support for Grants
Library staff have become active partners with academic staff in the application process for research grants, and have been successful in obtaining funding for a variety of activities, including:
- Digitizing research collections.
- Providing funding aids to primary research material.
03.
Research Consultations
The models of service delivery vary, but interaction is increasingly taking place in the faculty rather than the library. These outreach services have frequently replaced reference desk services with personalized services provided to researchers where they work.
04.
Trainings
With so many new electronic services and resources available to support research, there is an increased demand for training for both postgraduate research students and academic staff. Among the training workshops are:
- Information literacy for researchers.
- Bibliographic management software.
- Referencing styles for academic publishing
- Citation searching
05.
Library as Place
Researchers’ increased use of electronic information has given the impression that they are virtual users of library services and resources and no longer regard the library as a physical space. Academic libraries, on the other hand, continue to provide special spaces for researchers within the library building, such as:
- Researchers’ Centres.
- Postgraduate Reading Rooms.
- Private Study Rooms.
06.
Library as Place
Researchers’ increased use of electronic information has given the impression that they are virtual users of library services and resources and no longer regard the library as a physical space. Academic libraries, on the other hand, continue to provide special spaces for researchers within the library building, such as:
- Researchers’ Centres.
- Postgraduate Reading Rooms.
- Private Study Rooms.
07.
Research Output Services
To assist researchers, a variety of new services focusing on the university’s research output are emerging. Many of these research output services are initiated and/or promoted by library staff, who in many cases have the technical skills and expertise to make research output globally available via the Internet. Libraries are becoming publishers of scholarly information as a result of these services, which go beyond simply providing access to published scholarly information. Here are some examples:
- Electronic theses.
- Institutional repositories of peer reviewed e-prints.
- Data repositories of research data
- E-press publishing of institutional journal titles.
- E-press publishing for conference proceedings
- Repositories for grey literature.
08.
Online Reference Services for researchers
The provision of reference services to researchers has traditionally been an important role for the reference librarian. The transition to e-services has enabled academic libraries to develop a suite of research support services that were not possible in the print environment. Today’s services found on the reviewed websites include:
- Electronic current awareness alerting services to databases.
- RSS feeds to services such as new additions in the collection.
- Linking in the catalogue from citations to articles.
- Electronic reference services including online chat, SMS, and email.
- Online recommendations to suggest new book titles.
- Table of contents (TOCs) from publishers’ websites
- Links to information of importance to researchers such as ethics, regulations, copyright, and intellectual property.
09.
Research Output Services
To assist researchers, a variety of new services focusing on the university’s research output are emerging. Many of these research output services are initiated and/or promoted by library staff, who in many cases have the technical skills and expertise to make research output globally available via the Internet. Libraries are becoming publishers of scholarly information as a result of these services, which go beyond simply providing access to published scholarly information. Here are some examples:
- Electronic theses.
- Institutional repositories of peer reviewed e-prints.
- Data repositories of research data
- E-press publishing of institutional journal titles.
- E-press publishing for conference proceedings
- Repositories for grey literature.