12 Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
These results of the SPEC Survey on Supporting Digital Scholarship are based on responses from 73
of the 124 ARL member libraries (59%) by the deadline of February 1, 2016. The survey’s introductory
text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response data and selected comments from
the respondents.
One vision of the future research library is as a collaborative partner within a broader learning and
research ecosystem, one that helps support interdisciplinary work and provide infrastructure for all
disciplines to innovate their research and teaching. Over the past two decades an increasing amount
of research has integrated digital tools, large data sets, simulations, visualizations, and even virtual
environments. Once the bleeding edge of scholarship, these technologies have become an integral part
of scholarly communications, as have the use of digital evidence and method, digital authoring, digital
publishing, digital curation and preservation, and digital use and reuse of scholarship. Such activities have
been collectively referred to as “digital scholarship.”
Research libraries are evolving along with these scholarly practices. They have made room
for collaborative workspaces, invested in visualization technology, incorporated emerging tools
such as text mining into collections decisions, and more actively collaborate across and beyond their
institutions. They have also created and/or repurposed library positions to engage directly with “digital
scholarship” as digital tools and techniques have become more and more attractive to a wider range of
scholars, including those in the humanities and social sciences. These roles engage in a broad range of
digital scholarship-related activities including, but not limited to, GIS, data curation and management,
digital humanities, scholarly communications, institutional repositories, digital libraries, data analysis/
visualization, online publishing, and collaborative scholarship. The library staff who take on these
new roles may work within traditional departments such as research and instruction, or they may
be part of new digital scholarship centers. They may also work with staff across and beyond their
parent institutions.
The purpose of this survey is to explore how library roles are evolving as multimodal and
collaborative scholarship become more visible in the research landscape and how the emergence of these
newly identified roles influence the work of library staff. It asks about the types of support libraries offer
researchers, how the individuals involved in digital scholarship activities are positioned within the library
organization, their range of responsibilities, collaboration with partners inside and outside the library,
how support for digital scholarship activities is funded, and how it is assessed, among other questions.
Survey Questions and
Responses
These results of the SPEC Survey on Supporting Digital Scholarship are based on responses from 73
of the 124 ARL member libraries (59%) by the deadline of February 1, 2016. The survey’s introductory
text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response data and selected comments from
the respondents.
One vision of the future research library is as a collaborative partner within a broader learning and
research ecosystem, one that helps support interdisciplinary work and provide infrastructure for all
disciplines to innovate their research and teaching. Over the past two decades an increasing amount
of research has integrated digital tools, large data sets, simulations, visualizations, and even virtual
environments. Once the bleeding edge of scholarship, these technologies have become an integral part
of scholarly communications, as have the use of digital evidence and method, digital authoring, digital
publishing, digital curation and preservation, and digital use and reuse of scholarship. Such activities have
been collectively referred to as “digital scholarship.”
Research libraries are evolving along with these scholarly practices. They have made room
for collaborative workspaces, invested in visualization technology, incorporated emerging tools
such as text mining into collections decisions, and more actively collaborate across and beyond their
institutions. They have also created and/or repurposed library positions to engage directly with “digital
scholarship” as digital tools and techniques have become more and more attractive to a wider range of
scholars, including those in the humanities and social sciences. These roles engage in a broad range of
digital scholarship-related activities including, but not limited to, GIS, data curation and management,
digital humanities, scholarly communications, institutional repositories, digital libraries, data analysis/
visualization, online publishing, and collaborative scholarship. The library staff who take on these
new roles may work within traditional departments such as research and instruction, or they may
be part of new digital scholarship centers. They may also work with staff across and beyond their
parent institutions.
The purpose of this survey is to explore how library roles are evolving as multimodal and
collaborative scholarship become more visible in the research landscape and how the emergence of these
newly identified roles influence the work of library staff. It asks about the types of support libraries offer
researchers, how the individuals involved in digital scholarship activities are positioned within the library
organization, their range of responsibilities, collaboration with partners inside and outside the library,
how support for digital scholarship activities is funded, and how it is assessed, among other questions.
Survey Questions and
Responses
