Working groups

LIBER Digital Skills for Library Staff & Researchers Working Group

Please note that this working group has ended. Feel free to still take a look at the relevant information on this topic and published by the working group. 

 

Introduction

Which new skills are needed by library professionals? What training is required in order to better support research activities?

These and other skills-related questions are being examined by this working group. The group operates as part of LIBER’s Strategic Direction on Digital Skills & Services, which in turn is one of the key pillars of our 2018-2022 Strategy. We’re developing research libraries as hubs for Digital Skills and Services in both physical and virtual research environments.

 

The Context

In a rapidly changing digital world, libraries are regularly re-assessing existing services and offering new ones to support the work of both faculty (research) and students (education).

The advance of Open Science in particular has meant a reinvention of models, ways of working and techniques. This is, in itself, positive but the knock-on effect is a serious skills gap. Library staff and researchers need more training in order to be able to cope with a myriad of topics: electronic resource management, data access, blockchains, and text and data mining, to name a few.

This raises a number of questions related to careers and competencies:

  • What should we expect from new professionals emerging from library and information science schools?
  • How do we include non-librarian professionals such as researchers, computer science or data visualization engineers in library services?
  • How can we train research librarians in order to establish and share new skills, and to support research activities more efficiently?

Librarians with up-to-date digital skills can provide invaluable support to library users, and will personally benefit from better career prospects.

 

Join our group

Are you passionate about digital skills and Open Science, and how we can support research librarians in acquiring the training they need? We need your energy!

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Priority 1

Propose an analysis of Open Science skills of library staff members and researchers in Europe from selected cases. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3903141.

Case studies that have already been published are available on Zenodo. Open Science Skills visualisation diagram can be accessed here: https://libereurope.eu/blog/2020/03/10/open-science-skills-diagram/.

All useful references about Digital skills for Open Science are available on a Zotero library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/2340674/liber_digital_skills_for_open_science/library

 

Priority 2

Hold a yearly workshop:

– At LIBER 2020 with FAIRsFAIR and the EUA

– At LIBER 2019. The first part of the workshop focused on Open Science skills and showcases of Open Science skilling and training initiatives in Europe, and the second part was a session shared with the SSHOC project and the Digital Humanities & Digital Cultural Heritage Working Group. (See report from the Open Science Essentials: Towards a Skill Set & Showcases session and presentations from the second half of the workshophttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3906055

– At LIBER 2018, Let’s Build The Skills! LIBER & FOSTER Plus Workshop: https://libereurope.eu/blog/2018/07/12/digital-skills-liber-2018/