opportunity to be field librarians in ARL’s study on new publications models.3 This involved interviewing researchers on how they may be utilizing or creating new models of scholarship. These interviews allowed our liaison librarians to put into practice their recent faculty engagement training. The interview guide was also well designed for promoting the kind of faculty engagement we were encouraging: the questions were designed to invite librarians to operate from a place of curiosity in their dialogue with researchers Involvement in the study demonstrated to our liaison librarians that faculty engagement about new models of scholarship can be a natural progression from their usual liaison activity. Further, it afforded them the opportunity to learn more about faculty research needs and where they could potentially advance their liaison roles in scholarly communications. Many librarians observed that their faculty loved talking about their research, making this kind of engagement an easy and enjoyable experience. One liaison librarian reported, “the conversation [with the faculty member] led her to a greater understanding of the larger nature of how this faculty member conducted research and how he built up a network of contacts.” Another said: “this kind of liaising effort allowed me to see firsthand how the faculty researcher communicates, networks, keeps informed and gets up-to-date information via blogs, RSS feeds, RSS feed aggregates, Wikis, YouTube, and various other online groups and mechanisms.” In addition, several liaison librarians became involved with working with a faculty member to further develop their new publishing. Developing Service Models to Facilitate Compliance with New Public Access Mandates In response to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and similar emerging mandates in Canada from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) that are expected to follow, the Project Manager constructed a working group of key medical faculty, the Director of the Office of Research Services, UBC grant fund managers, and key medical and health liaison librarians to deliberate on support for UBC researchers who must comply with these mandates. As part of the project plan, health sciences liaison librarians were RLI 265 25 Scholarly Communications: Planning for the Integration of Liaison Librarian Roles ( C O N T I N U E D ) AUGUST 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC This kind of liaising effort allowed me to see firsthand how the faculty researcher communicates, networks, keeps informed, and gets up-to-date information...
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