Developing research support services: focus group interviews as a method for librarians to understand the everyday life of researchers

Abstract

[Please download PDF for full abstract with references, 2 pages] The development of research support services is a topic that at the moment gains much attention in research libraries. Especially since questions of open access and publishing support over the last decade have increased as a part of research libraries’ assignments. However, according to Wiklund (2012) there is a lack of research on how libraries support research or researchers, not least perspectives based in the everyday practices of the researchers. Often the literature adopts a library perspective and describes specific projects in a particular library or focuses on particular aspects of offered support, e.g. related to publishing issues. There is a need for more researcher-centered approaches. In this poster we discuss focus groups as a method for librarians to understand the everyday life of researchers. It is based on the results from a project at Lund University Libraries in 2012 (Voog et al, 2013; Wiklund & Voog, 2013 ). The main purpose of the project was to identify areas where the research support services could be developed both on a faculty level and in collaboration between the libraries at the university. The starting point was to look at the problem as a strategic one and grasp various aspects of support, not only specific parts.