Guiding students through a shifting landscape : integrating Open Research topics into information literacy training at the University of Strathclyde

Veitch, Karen (2023) Guiding students through a shifting landscape : integrating Open Research topics into information literacy training at the University of Strathclyde. In: UKSG Annual Conference 2023, 2023-04-13 - 2023-04-15.

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Abstract

In my role as Institutional Repository Support Assistant, I have been working closely with colleagues in the Research and Learning Support (RLS) service at the University of Strathclyde library to revise an existing Moodle training course on core 'Academic Library Skills' (ALS). Aimed at undergraduate and taught postgraduate students, this online course covers ten key topics in information literacy, including finding articles, evaluation of sources, using databases, advanced search techniques and referencing. As a member of the Scholarly Publications and Research Data team, I have been working collaboratively with colleagues in RLS to integrate key concepts and information about developments within Open Research and the wider scholarly publishing landscape into the ALS course. For example, the 'Finding Articles' topic now includes information on locating preprints, and the ‘Evaluation’ topic incorporates guidance relating to predatory publishing and article retractions. While the revision of the ALS course is still a work-in-progress, I would like to speak about my experience of working on this project, which sits at the intersection of information literacy instruction and scholarly communications. I am motivated to speak about this project because it provides a positive example of different teams within the library working together to update information literacy instructional materials in light of the changing research publications landscape that students will increasingly encounter. In so doing, this project brings together aspects of librarianship which often remain distinct. The training provided by scholarly communications teams within UK research libraries typically focuses on the academic-as-author, providing guidance on how to negotiate the increasingly complex world of Open Access publishing. However, the changing research publications landscape has implications for information literacy instruction aimed at students, as they will increasingly encounter and be required to evaluate novel output types such as preprints or registered reports and know how to evaluate sources which are made available at different stages of the publishing lifecycle, such as prior to peer review or 'early access'. For information literacy instruction to remain relevant and sustainable in future, it is vital that it addresses the challenges of navigating a transformed scholarly publishing landscape. Furthermore, I believe this example of collaborative working between academic librarianship and scholarly communications teams at the University of Strathclyde is a positive example that could be replicated across UK research libraries. This project, and the themes of the intersection of information literacy instruction and scholarly communications and collaborative working across teams are what I will focus on during this lightning talk.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)