This is a talk presented to ALIA HLA Lunchtime Series 2021: 'All things Open' - updates on the current state of Open Scholarship in Australia: Event 1 ABSTRACT: "This talk will consider the challenges associated with identifying and acquiring the skills needed in scholarly communication. It will describe some of the findings from a recent Australasian survey https://cpas.anu.edu.au/research/research-projects/scholarly-communication-knowledge-and-skills-australasian-research considering the educational and training backgrounds of people working in scholarly communication support, and their confidence in a range of specific competencies. The talk will also discuss the need to identify and articulate a curriculum for scholarly communication for the research community and how this will both inform the skill sets needed within academic and other research libraries and assist future workforce planning."

1. Hard won:
The challenges of obtaining
scholarly communication
knowledge & skills
ALIA HLA Lunchtime Series 2021:
'All things Open' - updates on the current state of Open
Scholarship in Australia: Event 1
15 July 2021 – Online
Dr Danny Kingsley
Associate Librarian (Content & Digital Library Strategy)
Flinders University
Image CC-BY
Danny Kingsley

2. Very hot off the press! RLUK report
https://www.rluk.ac.uk/rluk-publishes-report-on-the-role-of-research-libraries-in-the-production-of-scholarly-
research/

3. It takes a village
https://twitter.com/helenclare/status/1413128775164862477

4. Recommendations -RLUK

5. Our study
https://cpas.anu.edu.au/research/research-projects/scholarly-communication-knowledge-and-skills-australasian-research

6. People working in LIS are highly educated

7. Cambridge study in 2016
• The hypothesis:
• there is a systematic lack of
education on scholarly
communication issues available to
those entering the library
profession. This is creating a time
bomb skills gap in the academic
library profession and unless
action is taken we may well end up
with a workforce not suited to
work in the 21st century research
library.
• Over 500 respondents from around
the world
https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1313

8. Results of 500+ responses to UK survey
Slide from: Sewell, C. (2018). Avoiding Extinction Re-Skilling
the 21st Century Academic Librarian [Presentation
file]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.25996

9. So why don’t they feel secure about their
school comm knowledge?
“3 in 4, or 75 percent, of [scholarly communication]
librarians reporting above-average feelings of
impostorism”
https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/24984

10. Possible causes?
Scholarly Communication staff are
working with academics – who often
don’t value people who don’t have
PhDs in their own field (!)
https://www.amazon.com/Academic-Tribes-Territories-
Intellectual-Discipline/dp/0335206271
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-
08/apo-nid307708.pdf
Promoting Scholarly
Communication requires
developing multiple cross-
campus partnerships

11. Does all this education help?
Slide from: Sewell, C. (2018). Avoiding Extinction Re-Skilling
the 21st Century Academic Librarian [Presentation
file]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.25996
“Part of the problem librarians’ face in this
area is the issue of Universities being
hierarchical institutions where the PhD is a
piece of cultural capital that is often
necessary to be taken seriously by
academics. I don't think my PhD will make
me a better librarian but it will make them
think I am a better librarian!”
Respondent to our survey

12. Is it because what is required of LIS has
changed?
• Many schol comm roles are new
Sewell, C. (2018). Research data supporting: Where do they come from? The
educational background of people working in scholarly
communication [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.25991

13. Experienced librarians, newish roles
Some components of scholarly
communication are a natural
progression of traditional library activity

14. Scholarly Communication competencies
https://www.coar-repositories.org/files/Competencies-for-
ScholComm-and-OA_June-2016.pdf
https://www.nasig.org/Competencies-
Scholarly-Communication

15. Forget ‘research skills’, no scholarly
communication skills here
https://www.alia.org.au/foundation-knowledge-skills-and-
attributes-relevant-information-professionals-working-
archives
Under (much needed) review

16. HLA competencies are much closer to the
mark
https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/HLA%20Competencies.pdf

17. Short report – (limited data!)
https://www.johila.org/index.php/Johila/article/view/48

18. So what do people do beyond education?
Examples of formal training identified
• Nature Masterclass https://masterclasses.nature.com/
• CWTS https://www.cwts.nl/
• Coursera courses https://www.coursera.org/
• Creative Commons Certificate
https://certificates.creativecommons.org/
• Also - Queensland University of Technology Master’s in Library and
Information Studies (no longer available)

19. Who is paying?
https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/service-ceiling/
“We illustrate how
the cost of
professional
development and
service is a “service
ceiling”, a barrier to
inclusion for many in
our field, and the
implications of this
exclusion.”

20. No wonder people look to other forms of
training

21. • We also asked respondents how
they were developing a range of
skills needed in scholarly
communication work – through
their formal education, on the job
training or self-directed learning
(such as additional reading,
MOOCs or job shadowing)
• Again too much detail to cover
now but to give you an overview
• Green section – represents those
who learnt the skills through
formal education = comparatively
low, especially on scholarly
communication specific skills
• If the ‘normal’ route into
librarianship is still through
formal education and the LIS
degree are we setting ourselves
up to fail? If these are the roles
we see advertised in academic
libraries and librarians are not
coming into the profession with
these skills are we setting
ourselves up for a problem?
How are librarians developing their
scholarly communication skills?
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Formal education On the job training Self-directed learning
Slide from: Sewell, C. (2018). Avoiding Extinction Re-Skilling
the 21st Century Academic Librarian [Presentation
file]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.25996

22. It’s not just money - “time poor”
(consistent response)

23. Take homes?
• Scholarly comms is a muli-complex area and it is not easy to get up to
date and stay current
• Generally, staff don’t cover the whole range of school comm areas,
these are part of a wider set of responsibilities
• In some libraries such as health libraries, scholarly communication is
having to be absorbed within managing the whole library service
• Managers and institutions need to recognise this - Give people time
to stay up to date
• It would be good to have more formal opportunities too?

24. Thanks!
danny.kingsley@anu.edu.au
Image CC-BY
Danny Kingsley