Thing 22 - On the Horizon & Thing 23 - Library as a Research Tool

Is there any tool/trend/*thing* out on the horizon that you would like to share or discuss? If not pick one of the links above and read/reflect/discuss.

As I mentioned in a previous post, perhaps we could look at:

• 23 Research Data things 
• 23 Digital Literacy things
• Copyright & Licencing awareness sessions in practical academic teaching and learning (incorporating aspects of it into our information literacy classes.
• Digital Technology 'speed dating' sessions with Librarians and academics where Librarians could meet with Faculty to show them interesting apps / programs / directly relevant to their teaching, learning or research
• Augmented reality is something that can be a tool to be explored by the Library, it would require major investment costs though. I was thinking something along the lines of a recent "trend' session I had attended at Deakin University. One of the speakers at the session - Sarah Kenderdine showed us how they were using augmented reality to enhance museum visitor experience. She termed the AR as "immersive visualisation technology". Here is a TEDTalk she had given "How will museums of the future look?"

While 3-D printing is picking up as a trend, it may be something that Academic Institution faculties may adopt as opposed to Libraries.

Library as a Research Tool

The blog has highlighted a wide range of visual support material online to help researchers, along with now completing the 23 Research Things, I think we have a great pool of knowledge to also tap into and offer our researchers.

I believe that a Research Librarian or Liaison Librarians can take a more proactive approach to research support.  There should be dedicated programs / workshops offered to cross-disciplinary researchers and they could presented in collaboration with the ACU Research Services Division. These workshops can be themed and can be strategically plotted around key Research cycle times - i.e. towards the beginning of the year provide sessions on

• "Beginning your research journey - highlight library services and facilities and resources", "
• Searching using Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus / Tracking key authors and papers
• Using Reference management software - advanced EndNote sessions
• Getting Published - this can be where Guest speakers from Faculty or outside can come and talk about their experiences around their research and publishing journey(s), Publishers can come and talk about choosing papers for getting published - the whole process behind this aspect

Its well and good to suggest a tool like LiL for HDR's but having this face-to-face approach will also enable the library to gain 'trust' by pooling in the knowledge and resources together with the 'research industry professionals'! {Just a term that I came up with :)}