Abstract
Objective: The paper provides a review of current practices related to evaluation support services reported by seven biomedical and research libraries. Methods: A group of seven libraries from the United States and Canada described their experiences with establishing evaluation support services at their libraries. A questionnaire was distributed among the libraries to elicit information as to program development, service and staffing models, campus partnerships, training, products such as tools and reports, and resources used for evaluation support services. The libraries also reported interesting projects, lessons learned, and future plans. Results: The seven libraries profiled in this paper report a variety of service models in providing evaluation support services to meet the needs of campus stakeholders. The service models range from research center cores, partnerships with research groups, and library programs with staff dedicated to evaluation support services. A variety of products and services were described such as an automated tool to develop rank-based metrics, consultation on appropriate metrics to use for evaluation, customized publication and citation reports, resource guides, classes and training, and others. Implementing these services has allowed the libraries to expand their roles on campus and to contribute more directly to the research missions of their institutions. Conclusions: Libraries can leverage a variety of evaluation support services as an opportunity to successfully meet an array of challenges confronting the biomedical research community, including robust efforts to report and demonstrate tangible and meaningful outcomes of biomedical research and clinical care. These services represent a transformative direction that can be emulated by other biomedical and research libraries.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of the Medical Library Association |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2018 |
Funding
The Bibliometric Services Program at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library provides both standard and customized bibliometric services to NIH employees. Services provided through the program include consultations and advice on bibliometric approaches and methods, training on bibliometric theory and practice, standard bibliometric profiles of the intramural research produced by NIH institutes and centers, and customized bibliometric and portfolio analyses upon request by intramural and extramural staff. These customized analyses include bibliometric profiles of specific departments or grant portfolios, grant funding profiles for NIH institutes and centers, and landscape analyses to identify the major producers and research directions of publications in specific topics or disciplines. \u00A7 CTSA is the Clinical and Translational Science Award program by the US NIH, and universities receiving these awards often develop CTSA-related institutes to support research infrastructure and pilot funding (among other projects) on their campuses. The John W. Scott Health Sciences Library wanted to better understand the level of expertise and amount of effort required to support researchers in competing for research funding. To learn more, the librarian supporting the Faculty of Nursing approached the university\u2019s grant assist office with a proposal to work on a bibliometrics project for a researcher who was likely to be applying for funding in the near future. The librarian was matched with a potential grantee who was applying for funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Canada\u2019s national health research funder). US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library
Keywords
- Bibliometrics
- Library services
- Research assessment
- Research evaluation
- Research impact
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Informatics
- Library and Information Sciences