RAILS9

On June 18th I headed down to the 9th Research Applications in Information and Library Studies event held at RMIT in Melbourne. The day was ok. Very hit and miss with presentations. Much of it wasn't the in depth research I was expecting but lots of student type stuff (not necessarily the student papers) which many of us partake in daily without knowing. My notes are below:

Research consultations revisited: Resource-intensive for libraries but highly effective for researchers (student paper)

Jennifer Warburton, University of Melbourne Library/RMIT
UoM - almost 5,000 Phd's
Only 65% complete - 5% within 5 years
Personalised support based on their needs
Students draw on previous research experience (which isn't always that good)
Contribute - better lit reviews - research rigour - not duplicating
Help to refine lit searching and showing specialist databases
Librarian role/supervisor turf - unsure
go to events/faculties etc. - Get known
Save researchers time - ROI?
Read - Research - Write

Exploring the use of evidence by Australian special librarians in daily library and information practice

Alisa Howlett (student paper) Queensland University of Technology
Often libraries use a combination of all three:
- local evidence
- research evidence
- professional knowledge and experience
Evidence "simmers" before it is used (ie. folders of info)
EBP is messy in practice - not clear cut

The future of knowledge sharing strategies: how elements that influence an individual’s knowledge sharing differ by demographic variables

Alexander Schauer (student paper) The University of Sheffield, UK
Baby boomers retiring - knowledge gap
Interviews in UK, Netherlands, China, US.
6 contradictions:
Too many knowledge management tools/not enough...
Not enough time/time is fine...
Staff not co-located/staff are fine...
Recognition for sharing info/recognition not required...
Familiarity with colleagues/not knowing is fine...
Social opportunities outside work/not an issue...

Differences due to: department allocation; ethnicity; country; language - these were then further explored.

Riding the wave of open access: Providing library research support on scholarly publishing literacy

Deakin University Library Linlin Zhao
Publish or perish! Academia!
Publication pressure - employment; promotion; grant applications; ERA rankings; HERDC; GFC; Research funding cuts.
2002 - 38 OA journals
2013 - 9587 OA journals
Huge growth!

Assessment and Evaluation of Public Library Websites in Australia

Diane Velasquez University of South Australia
Lots of literature out there on Academic libraries - little on public (surely none on health then!)
Website = MARKETING!!!

Curation of "big data" in the public sector: opportunities and challenges

Bob Pymm, Sigrid McCausland and Mary Anne Kennan School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University
150,000 hours of YouTube per day
200 million FB status per day
500 million tweets per day
All of this is BIG DATA. Then other data (like research data in digital repositories)

High volume; High velocity; High variety!

Buried in all this data is new information. Just have to piece it all together and analyze.

GovHack2013 - government release data and let public analyze it and come up with something cool from it.

Shortage of skilled professionals to handle Big Data - potential for LIS Schools to build on existing strengths and move into this area.

Analysis of trends in demand for the skills & qualifications for a future library project manager

Zhixian (George) Yi School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University
Skills required by Project Managers in libraries:

Personal; General Management; Project Management; Professional ILS; ICT