The IATUL Special Interest Group for Information Literacy (SIG IL) was founded in 2012 with ten librarians/information professionals from IATUL libraries as active members.

The SIG IL seeks to promote collaboration and to share best practice among IATUL members interested in Information Literacy. It also aims at contributing to IATULs service portfolio, so group members agreed on working on joint projects and support other member libraries.

Group members meet and present their work on the annual IATUL conference. An internal forum offers possibilities to discuss work in progress, seek expert advice and collaborate on common interests. Discussions of current and emerging trends and sharing best practice have been a constant activity in the group, in addition to personal networking activities.

The group has been working on two projects.

Project 1: Policies and Frameworks at IATUL member libraries

This project aims at collecting existing IL policies or frameworks of all IATUL member libraries as well as national policies, publishing the results on the IATUL website and supporting the development of policies or frameworks in member libraries. The project is almost completed. The data survey and project report will be made available online soon.

Project 2: Workshop on e-research support services in collaboration with Czech Technical University of Prague - Central Library

Preparation of the current workshop.

Further steps and possible activities:

Evaluation of the existing special interest group infrastructure: communication infrastructure and commitment, possible topics of interest, number of participants, further steps.

Bibliographic instruction. Information literacy. Subject librarians. Faculty liaisons. Embedded librarianship. Databrarians. These are just a few examples of terms representing a long journey that our academic and special libraries have walked in order to provide relevant and individually tailored services to the researchers and faculty members. And, without any doubts, many new milestones are about to be reached in the near future. How comfortable are we, librarians, in our new positions as a research team members? And how far can we go and push our limits? Is that a matter of stepping outside of our comfort zone or are we finally at the position where we have always meant to be? There are various visions of the future of academic (special / research) libraries. The transformations in the research practices are the cause of changes in the research support processes within our libraries. E-science and e-research provide a wide range of opportunities – are we ready to make the best of it? Traditional concepts (e.g. information literacy) are still relevant, however, they should be seen in the new light. Librarians in the position of research consultants, data managers, publishing activities coordinators, open science advocates and critical thinking enthusiasts – is that going to be an everyday reality? And if so, are we ready for that kind of new reality?

The international initiative eRIC (e-Research - Infrastructure and Communication) - an IATUL approved Cross Country Cooperation Project - aims at accompanying the entire life cycle of research projects by adaptive services related to the framework of information management. This includes, e.g. an electronic workbench, systematic reviews, data management plan services and bibliometric analysis, further IT systems for data management or the implementation of software tools as well as providing consulting and infrastructure for the publication of research results.

The University Libraries at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and the Technical University of Munich are jointly developing a paradigm of library services in which customers and librarians interact as partners on an equal footing. The paper describes the methodological approach and the status of the project as well as previously implemented applications.

E-Research in Canada. The Canadian Association of Research libraries has been working with other partner organizations to build a national coordinated approach to supporting the creation, archival storage, and re-use of Canadian researchers’ data. This paper gives an overview of how project PORTAGE began, the successes to date, and the plan for immediate future developments, especially as they relate to data literacy and the role for librarians in research universities.

This presentation will provide the audience with an overview of how the author is currently employing ethnographic research methods with specific communities of engineers in order to develop, promote, evaluate, and refine tailored instruction for doctoral students, post-graduate researchers, and professors. The presentation of original research will describe specific research techniques, including the process of finding and gaining consent from research participants, structured and unstructured interviews, and a description of the fieldwork process—as well as the challenges of conducting longer-term ethnographic studies. The author will show the audience samples of original research data collected and describe the process of coding using the open-source qualitative analysis software, AQUAD. The author will describe how she, even prior to final analysis and completion of the entire three-year international research study which begin in 2013, applied initial research findings to the creation of a four-session instructional pilot for doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and professors in civil engineering and mathematics. These pilot courses, refined and promoted in conjunction with two professorial advocates, have led to the initial development of future tailored engineering support services for the Czech National Library of Technology’s surrounding engineering and technology campus as well as the development and launch of a specialized bilingual information microsite for chemical engineers (ChemTK), advanced academic writing support classes for engineers at the PhD level and above, as well as on-demand English editing and scholarly publishing support services. These services can be considered to be agile responses to original research about the specific needs of advanced engineering students. The author will describe the how the pilot courses and ChemTK microsite have been evaluated and will describe plans for promoting and evaluating the future English editing and scholarly publishing support services (classes and other services), which will be launched in September 2015. Regarding the latter, the author will describe how open-source customer relationship management (CRM) software is being utilized to facilitate organization of the service promotion process and how effectivity of future courses and services will be measured. The curriculum of the advanced writing support services classes and the model for scientific writing support services within the library will be described. The author will conclude the presentation with an overview of plans for future application of ethnographic research to the development of tailored academic services and classes for advanced engineering students and researchers.

Keywords: Ethnographic research in library and information science, scientific communities, survey research, academic library instruction, qualitative research, assessment of library instruction, scholarly publishing in engineering

The purpose of the paper is to present an overview of library approaches and methods for e-research support in four countries of the Baltic Region: Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland. The overview includes policies adopted by university of technology libraries in the frame of institutional or national policies to support e-research. It is based on the results of the research conducted in spring 2015 at the science and technology universities of countries considered.

Methodology: A common survey has been prepared to conduct a parallel research (in fact e-research) in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland. It includes definitions of basic terminology to avoid possible misunderstandings. Questions of the survey address several aspects of e-research support such as: libraries awareness of changes in research patterns and their consequences for libraries, on-going and planned library activities and services to u meet expected or predicted needs of researchers, patterns of cooperation with academic units, institutional policies for e-research support, internal and external sources of inspiration for librarians. Changing approaches to e-research support observed at university of technology libraries, in particular the ways of integration of e-research and library services will be referred to. The results from all the countries, collected and presented in a unified format, will form the basis for comparable analysis of approaches and solutions adopted in four countries discussed. Results of the survey will help to determine responsive and proactive role that libraries play in their academic environment. Its findings may be useful for libraries to assess their position and readiness to adjust to changing requirements of e-research and therefore to enhance their services. The comparable data can also be used for further study.

A common survey has been prepared to conduct a parallel research (in fact e-research) in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland. It includes definitions of basic terminology to avoid possible misunderstandings. Questions of the survey address several aspects of e-research support such as: libraries awareness of changes in research patterns and their consequences for libraries, on-going and planned library activities and services to u meet expected or predicted needs of researchers, patterns of cooperation with academic units, institutional policies for e-research support, internal and external sources of inspiration for librarians. Changing approaches to e-research support observed at university of technology libraries, in particular the ways of integration of e-research and library services will be referred to.

The results from all the countries, collected and presented in a unified format, will form the basis for comparable analysis of approaches and solutions adopted in four countries discussed.

Results of the survey will help to determine responsive and proactive role that libraries play in their academic environment. Its findings may be useful for libraries to assess their position and readiness to adjust to changing requirements of e-research and therefore to enhance their services. The comparable data can also be used for further study.

Keywords: e-research support, library services, integration of e-research and academic library services

Many academic libraries are planning or providing services for e-research support and Research Data Management (RDM) at their institutions. The university libraries of TUM (Munich), CPUT (Cape Town) and Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen (Munich) agreed on collaborating in this regard. They plan to implement an IT infrastructure for e-research support services and to enhance their advisory services to be more comprehensive and better support researchers throughout the research life cycle.

In 2014 the libraries set up working groups in order to investigate new service requirements and research support skills for librarians. The working groups developed an excel spreadsheet with a matrix concerning research life cycle components, necessary support services and knowledge areas involved. The groups compared possible requirements with the existing service portfolios. They looked closely not only at the library, but also at other units at their institutions. Research support services can only be established as a university-wide collaboration, including (if available) funding units, language centres, IT departments, and patent or inventor consultations. So part of the working groups tasks was to intensify network activities throughout the institution.

Librarians at TUM, CPUT and Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen determined which support services needed to be implemented or enhanced. They also investigated skills and competencies needed and developed internal training plans for their staff, including onsite trainings and online courses. The outcomes show that the skill sets for research support librarians at the three libraries vary only in minor aspects and are in line with existing research into the question of skills for emerging roles of research support librarians.

The University of Sunderland library service has recently undertaken an in-depth revision of resources and support for our research community. The prime drivers for a review of our strategic direction were the requirements of the Higher Education Funding Council Research Excellence Framework, changes in scholarly publishing models and open access requirements and the universitys own research agenda.
The resulting model for research support was informed by best practice in the sector, guidance from UK national bodies, including HEFCE (2014), Research Information Network, (2011), RLUK, (2012) and VITAE, (2010) and an examination of the theoretical background and current research and developments in this area. This work has provided a clear focus on the librarys research support priorities in the short and medium term and informed the strategy for liaison librarian staff development.
This presentation will describe a staff development programme for liaison librarians, devised to enable the support of research activity at the University of Sunderland and the resulting opportunities this presented for closer collaboration with the research community.
The programmes aim was to enable a clearer understanding of the needs of the research community and to improve librarians skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting research activity.
Comprising a series of 1 or 2 hour events on subjects ranging from the institutional repository and open access publishing, to online tools for research and measuring impact, (bibliometrics and alternative metrics), sessions were developed and delivered by liaison librarians who have expertise in these areas.
Also invited to contribute to the programme were Faculty research staff, PhD students and the Universitys Assistant Director of Research Support who shared their research practice, perspectives, expectations and experiences of library support.
As well as fulfilling the original aim of the programme, the sessions delivered by speakers external to the library enabled a meaningful dialogue on ways in which Library, Faculties and the Universitys central research support service could work together in a number of areas, making best use of existing knowledge and expertise to improve the research experience.

This ideas and knowledge exchange has resulted in a greater understanding of one another roles, priorities and motivations and initiated a number of ongoing collaborations between Library Services, Faculties and the Research Support and Administration Service including:

• A joint investigation into the implementation of Data Management Planning.
• Co-authoring of the University Open Access Policy.
• Library staff working with Faculty research staff on the use of digital technologies for research dissemination and online researcher profiles.
• A small scale collaborative research project to investigate students use of subscribed library resources and engagement with library skills support during a r esearch methods module and the possible impact this may have on their subsequent marks/grade.

References

HEFCE (2014) Policy for open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework Available at: https://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201407/ (Accessed 17^th March 2015)
RIN and RLUK (2011) The value of libraries for research and researchers. Available at: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/value-libraries-research-and-researchers (Accessed 16^th March 2015)
RLUK (2012) Re-Skilling for Research: An investigation into the role and skills of subject and liaison librarians required to effectively support the evolving information needs of researchers. Available at: http://www.rluk.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/RLUK-Re-skilling.pdf (Accessed 23^rd March 2015)
VITAE (2010) The Research Development Framework. Available at: https://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers-professional-development/about-the-vitae-researcher-development-framework (Accessed 23^rd March 2015)

We present and teach courses in front of an audience of users on information literacy, about digital services like search engines, how to use and borrow tablets, Apps and so on. But how much must we know about them ourselves? Is it necessary to have more background information or to understand our own services and main USPs (=unique selling points) more thoroughly? Very often, it has been my personal experience, that users, such as researchers, do not expect digital services, or that we offer Research Data Management and sometimes they don’t believe in our competence in it. Not only do we need to face the challenge of new IT-technology due to our interface with users, but also for other reasons. We need to optimise workflows, to reduce our costs for commercial IT-solutions and software, to use Open Source, and to improve our CMS and our homepage. In order to be a part of the new technology world, we need new training sessions and tangible skills in IT matters. Current circumstances gave us an idea and pushed us to move forward on it. It was our idea to develop a program at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau, a course of study for professionals in informatics for librarians. This program has been launched and is designed for librarians already working in a library.

It is a distance learning course which also includes a limited number of weeks on campus.

University Libraries nowadays, in terms of new challenges in research and development, have become important strategic partners to academicians and their research and publication activities. One of the main factors, which influences the scientific publishing, is the evaluation system of research, which is based on questionable requirement of producing a number of quantitatively evaluable publications. This fact significantly affects mainly young scientists, who do not have scientific experience just as senior researchers do.

They are compelled by their institutions and colleagues to meet all this evaluation criteria and under this pressure they form their own moral principles and their career strategies. However, the question is whether the system should not be more motivating rather than stressful.

Therefore it is clearly necessary to provide all possible support to young researchers in every step of research and publication cycle. At the Czech Technical University, editorial office of two university scientific journals is part of university library and we are glad, that we can present a good experience with this interesting a beneficial activity, which aims to contribute to successful collaboration of young researchers in international scientific community.

An importance of information literacy for young researchers. A researcher as a user and creator of information. The cycle of scientific information and links to information literacy topics. Didactic principles of information literacy for young scientists, researchers and also university teachers. Special features of sciences, e.g. information literacy methods in social sciences, humanities, life sciences. Previous experiences at the Charles University, visions and conceptual designs. The role of modern information technologies in education and information literacy.

The authors describe the role of academic library in supporting services which address research.

The presentation shows the addressees of the library training and kinds of teaching forms and methods used by Information Literacy trainers.

The authors also discuss other Library services for supporting the WUT e-research and the curriculum, such as the WUT Digital Library, the recently created WUT Repository and services offered by subject librarians. The usefulness of the library's website in supporting these processes is also shown.

As part of the presentation the following topics will be discussed:

1. Library E-learning platform
• tailored Information Literacy training (traditional or blended learning):
1. for the faculty staff
2. for students
3. for librarians
2. Other library services for supporting e-research and learning:
• WUT Repository
• WUT Digital Library
• Subject librarians
• Thematic blocks and bookmarks on the ML HomePage for scientists and students
• Tools for the online services:
1. HAN system
2. E-Resoures: A/Z List,Table of Databases, LinkSolver
3. Dawsonera and EBL databases

Keywords:
Information Literacy, E-learning, library services

An awareness of students' perceptions and prior knowledge in information literacy is essential for university educators to understand their students’ educational needs and provide suitable learning experiences for them. Yet, with only a few studies previously conducted, a severe gap is present in the understanding of information behaviour among university students in Hong Kong. Previous studies largely revealed that students, from freshmen to postgraduates, have a tendency to heavily rely on quick web information for research, and lacked awareness and capability to evaluate information and acknowledge sources. These findings echo the state of information literacy (IL) education in Hong Kong. With development mostly reliant on the scattered efforts of individual librarians, IL concepts remain unfamiliar to the university community and IL integration into curriculum is not yet a standard practice. This paper presents an IL enhancement project that aims to bring about a paradigm shift for information literacy education in Hong Kong. Delving deeper and with a wider pool of subjects than previous research, a large scale study of students’ information behaviour from different disciplines across all eight government funded institutions is first conducted. The study will allow a comprehensive assessment of IL educational needs among Hong Kong university students. The assessment of IL educational needs will form a knowledge base which will then inform the development of an evidence-based shared multimedia courseware that provides relevant IL learning experiences for students in all eight institutions. Through implementing and promoting the IL courseware, the project aims to enhance IL among Hong Kong university students and strives to bring about a paradigm shift to a valuing of IL among university management and faculty, as well as in-depth embedment of IL into the university curricula.