Anna Grigson London School of Economics and Political Science Helen Blanchett JiscSupporting scholarly communications activities is now a core part of many libraries’ mission. But it’s a fast-moving area – roles can be variable between different institutions, new skills sets and aptitudes are emerging. Established career paths for library staff are being disrupted, presenting both challenges and new opportunities. If you’re a new professional, what skills will you need to build a career and what are the possible career opportunities? If you’re a manager, what skills will you need in your staff, and how can these be developed? This session will outline the current state of skills development and training in scholarly communications support within university libraries, and the work being done to coordinate activity across the community by universities a range of professional associations including UKSG, Jisc, SCONUL, RLUK, UKCoRR, ARMA, Vitae, Cilip and the British Library. It will be an interactive workshop, and attendees will be encouraged to reflect on progress to date and help shape future activities

1. Helen Blanchett
Scholarly communications subject specialist, Jisc
helen.blanchett@jisc.ac.uk
Anna Grigson
Head of Content and Discovery, LSE
Education Officer, UKSG
a.c.grigson@lse.ac.uk
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
Developing careers in scholarly communications support
Opportunities and challenges

2. Research Support
Open Access
Copyright and Licensing
Bibliometrics and Impact Assessment
Repositories
Research Data Management
Publishing Services
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
What is scholarly communications support?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

3. Employers
We’re all chasing a
few experienced staff
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
What is the challenge in scholarly communications support?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019
Early career professionals
Difficult to find experience
and training
Skills gap

4. SC3: Scholarly Communications Competencies Coalition
• What jobs are out there, and what do they do?
• What are the skills needed?
• How can we support skills development?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

5. RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
What jobs are out there?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

6. RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
What skills are needed?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019
CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB)

7. RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
What skills are needed?
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

8. 1. Select the competencies which you think are required for the role
2. Grade each selected competency as either:
• Entry level (green)
• Core level (red)
• Specialist level (blue)
3. If you think there are any competencies missing, write them in at the bottom
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
Activity 1
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

9. Think about the experience that could be used to demonstrate selected
competencies – especially ‘equivalent experience’ or transferable knowledge
Write examples onto post-it notes.
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
Activity 2
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

10. More about SC3
www.ukcorr.org/partnerships
• Blogs about our activities
• Research we have done
• Resources about the experience of
working in scholarly communications
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019

11. Nancy Pontika, Skills and knowledge for scholarly communication roles (2019)
https://www.slideshare.net/JISC/skills-and-knowledge-for-scholarly-communication-roles
NASIG Core Competencies for Scholarly Communication Librarians (2017)
http://www.nasig.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=310&pk_association_webpage=9435
COAR Competencies for E-Research and Scholarly Communication (2016)
https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/support-and-training/task-force-competencies/
Lis-Bibliometrics Competencies for Bibliometrics (2017)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0961000617728111
RLUK Conference, 15 March 2018
More about competency maps and job analysis
UKSG Annual Conference, April 2019