Week 11 | Trends reflection | R. Support -The trends towards supporting HDR stds

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    • #2397
      Peldon P
      Participant

      It is a common knowledge that Australian universities give much importance to research, in fact most universities want to be known for their excellence in research. I have come from a country where the entire country has only one university, that too is a group of institutions and colleges scattered across the country brought under one umbrella in a name of a university. Therefore, research was a new concept for me in my first year in QUT. I failed to comprehend how research could benefit the university or boost Australia’s economy, therefore Alice Keller’s comparative studies about research support in European countries and Australia proved insightful for me. It highlighted an overview of the government and universities’ perceptions with respect to research. From her study it is evident that research performance is very important to both universities and the government, however, her argument that teaching may occupy second place to the research may not go down well with under graduate and masters by course work students.

      QUT Library Researcher

      Higher degree research (HDR) students are given special treatment in the Australian universities in terms of study support because increasing number of successful HDR students can bring financial advantages. For instance, QUT Library has a dedicated webpage for research only; on the library website there are one tab for ‘students’ and another for ‘researchers’, although HDR students may be included under ‘students’, the separate tab for them just highlight the importance given to them. HDR students enjoy the privileges of tailor made programs, products and services in Australian universities. According to Keller, academic libraries welcome the HDR students with emails and offer of appointments with their liaison librarians. She further argues that this sort of special treatment may be influenced the government policies.

      The support HDR students receive are in the form of orientation session, research training workshops and seminars, self-help guides and one-to-one consultations etc. Libraries have the mandate to ensure that researchers and academics get adequate support. Moreover, academic librarians like to think of themselves not merely as the support system rather as partners in research.

      Last but not the least, when we talk about the research support for HDR students, we need to consider the following questions?

      1. Are HDR students utilizing the research support offered by the library?
      2. Are the liaison librarians competent enough to provide adequate assistance?
      3. What are the success rates of such programs products and services?

       

      • This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Peldon P.
      • This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Peldon P.
      • This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Peldon P.
      • This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Peldon P.
      • This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Peldon P.
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    • #2451
      Peldon P
      Participant

      I could not write this post well, there are so many things I should have mentioned has been left out mainly because of my limited knowledge in library studies and practices. I’d like to request my mates to contribute few points through comments below. Thank you 🙂

    • #2461
      Ruth McConchie
      Participant

      Hi Peldon, I thought your questions were really thoughtful and quite difficult to answer. In response to your first question, I don’t think all HDR students do utilise the research support offered by the library, and those that do I’m not sure that they are using it at the right time in their research.  I think that liaison librarians are extremely competent but if their assistance and expertise is not used at the appropriate point in the research, their skills aren’t as useful. Your final question is the hardest to answer. Libraries measure the attendance of these programs, consultations with students and obviously the bibliometrics and altmetrics for publications, but how do you define success? If the librarian teaches the lecturer (who is probably very busy teaching and may not publish that much) who teaches the student (who may not publish anything) that seems like success but how do you capture that success?

       

    • #2486
      Deborah Fuller
      Participant

      Hi Peldon, that was interesting post and I like the idea of the questions at the end. After  all this is a learning exercise for us. Like yourself and Ruth, I think they are difficult questions to answer:

      1. I think researchers are like students: some will use every service the library offers them, other will dip in and out as needed and others will do it all on their own (or employ a research assistant.
      2. I do think liaison librarians are competent enough to provide assistance> they are the experts in information and will have at least a good working knowledge of databases and resources specific to their area. I don’t think they necessarily need to be an expert in the subject, just to know where to find information on it.
      3. I would like to  believe the programs and services were successful, but its hard to say without seeing the figures.

      Thanks for making me think.

    • #2528
      Saurav Khadka
      Participant

      Hi Peldon, the post was nice and informative, though you did not have any ideas about library information, still you presented it well. Like our other friends commented, its hard to answer your questions, because it totally depends on those who are doing research. For instance, if I was a research student I could have provided informative answers to those questions, but I hope this research section on QUT’s website must have been very effective for the researchers. As we have been studying in QUT we know how they value any information and their dedication towards their students.

      Cheers!

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