Monthly Archives: November 2019

Grant Winner Report, Nigeria

IFLA 2019 Congress Experience by IFLA WLIC 2019 Attendance Grant Winner

My first attendance at the IFLA World Library & Information Congress in Athens, Greece did not disappoint! I had the great opportunity to attend for the first time an IFLA Congress with generous sponsorship by Ex Libris and SAGE. I was advantaged to be selected as one of the attendance grant winners for IFLA ARL Attendance Grants for IFLA 2019 from Africa.

Pre-Conference Workshop

I arrived in Athens via Istanbul on the 21st of August, 2019 to be part of pre-conference workshop organized by IFLA Journal Editorial Committee and the Social Science Libraries held at the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library, Piraeus, Greece, the pre-conference workshop was an eye-opener to the latest trends in social science research, thanks to the scholarship grants by the IFLA Journal Editorial Committee.

Main Conference

At the end of the pre-conference workshop on the 23rd of August, along with other participants, I moved to the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre (MAICC) to pick the conference materials. MAICC offers the finest facilities, stunning aesthetics and cutting-edge technology. A landmark in the centre of Athens. I was not disappointed with what I have read about Athens around May 2019 when I was scheduling date for my visa interview; No doubt, Athens has been rising as Southern Europe’s most exciting city-break destination. The city’s appeal as a tourist destination is booming, thanks to infrastructure and cultural attractions, transportation network, green spaces, and the unification of the city’s main archaeological sites. I was privileged and excited to attend ARL meeting at the Athens College, where I was introduced as the Grant winner from Africa by the chair ARL standing committee; Mimi Calter.

The Opening Ceremony took place at the Lambrakis Hall on Sunday, 25 August. The event brought together over 3700 librarians and information professionals to discuss ideas relating to the Conference theme Libraries: dialogue for change. The second and third days of the Conference was an intensive and totally enlightening environment for me due to the large spectrum of topics discussed. Through the papers presented, I realized clearly that Libraries serve as open, free, democratic, inclusive and participatory meeting places. I had a chance to join interesting sessions where presenters talked about their publishing experience, open access initiatives, as well as measures to research evaluation. I also had a chance to talk to some of the technology vendors’ representatives exhibiting their products and services in the marketplace hall.

During the conference, I enjoyed learning about initiatives to drive change in international representation among scholars. I gained new knowledge by participating in sessions where topic experts presented their perspectives on Libraries: dialogue for change. I am grateful to have gained these perspectives.

Indeed the IFLA WLIC 2019 in Athens presents a great opportunity for my professional development and I am more than happy to be able to contribute to the discussions during the conference. The theme of the 2019 conference was Libraries: dialogue for change. As IFLA says, “Libraries serve as open, free, democratic, inclusive and participatory meeting places. I couldn’t agree more, and I dialogued extensively with new friends about the exciting future of libraries across the globe. The discussions that have the potential to define the future of our profession for years to come. Indeed, Athens inspires and seduces its visitors, leaving its mark on their hearts and minds. Surrounded by a lining of stunning seas and mountains, this travel-friendly city is filled with gems just waiting to be discovered. Ohhhhh I have to come back very soon!

I returned home very excited, awestruck by the excellent organization of the conference, and professionally richer by gaining plenty of new ideas to be shared among my colleagues back home in Nigeria. Thank you once again to IFLA ARL Standing Committee for offering me the funding: I am very grateful!

Adetomiwa  Basiru

Tekena Tamuno Library, Redeemer’s University, Ede Osun State, Nigeria.

tommybashy06@yahoo.com   adetomiwat@run.edu.ng

Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity was published on 14 September 2018 and The Code of Conduct entered into force on 1 October 2018.

Why is this code of conduct important:

It gives an overview of rights and duties for individual researchers as well as research groups or organizations dealing with research.

This Code has been adopted by many Dutch organizations like e.g. he Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and others.

The code  also respects the scope of international framework documents such as the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity (2010),the OECD’s Best Practices for Ensuring Scientific Integrity and Preventing Misconduct (2007) and ALLEA’s recently revised European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2017)

Contents of the Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

It covers and describes five ethical principles:

Honesty

Scrupulousness

Transparency

Independence

Responsibility

Many people wonder if research ethics and research integrity are the same things. Well it is clear that it is closely related. In most cases they say that research ethics is a subset of research integrity. We could say Research Integrity covers the full research process and research ethics focuses more on the principle of avoiding harm to research subjects.

Implementation:

 All universities in the Netherlands are now developing their own policy on Research ethics derived from this Netherlands code.

Of course not all universities do this in the same way and I will explain below what happens in my University: the University of Twente (UT)

At UT we look at integrity from an integrated perspective and we see three different areas:

  1. academic/scientific integrity; includes research data management, research ethics and the overall research culture etc.
  2. social integrity; includes aggression protocol, code of conduct regarding relations at work etc.
  3. business integrity; includes security and ICT use, privacy of data of employees/students etc.

For each part the university is developing an action plan.

Some examples are:

  • implementation of ethical committees across UT and revision of integrity complaints procedure
  • assessment of external communication and awareness regarding integrity.
  • execution, development of data management plans and archiving of research data
  • training for postdocs and staff and integrity education in BSc/MSc curricula will be developed
  • researchers are asked to declare and sign the new code of conduct

I hope that with this blog we will start a series of blogs on Research Integrity in different countries.

So if you have suggestions to elaborate on this topic and what happens in your country on this front, please forward your blog posts to the ARL Section blog moderator at jerome.fronty@bnf.fr

Marga Koelen
Research Support Coordinator
University of Twente, Faculty ITC
Netherlands

Danish research libraries on the move: a new strategy

A new strategy for the association of Danish subject specific libraries, academic libraries, research and education libraries was presented, discussed and finally adopted at an annual meeting of the association’s members in Copenhagen this year on September 19. The Danish association, the research library association in short, has existed since 1978 and has about 55 library member institutions. The association has never before formulated a strategy, but with a changing library landscape in Denmark, mergers and closures — and an increased focus on Open Science, Citizen Science and new organizations — the time was now or never to consider the future of Danish research libraries.

The new strategy is, among other things, based on the major analytical work it initiated in the first half of 2019, resulting a the strategic report on “Future Research, Research and Education Libraries: Services and Competencies” prepared by the Danish Think Tank for Future Libraries and supported by the Ministry of Culture. The Think Tank is an NGO supported by both public library associations, municipalities, trade unions and the research library association.

The report of the Think Tank is partly based on 13 interviews and four workshops held with a total of 80 participants, the association board’s initial preparation of the strategy process, as well as a literature study of international trends and structural conditions relevant to the sector.

The report points out that both now and in the future there will be a need to identify and develop the necessary competencies of libraries and library staff: That is, competencies required to achieve visibility and create the relationships that can ensure continued relevant library service at a high professional level. Visibility and relationships are e.g. a prerequisite for libraries to participate in the research cycle, for collaboration with other disciplines etc. In addition, increased awareness of the potential roles of libraries is required by both libraries and library staff, as well as descriptions of necessary competence for performing new core tasks, better understanding of users etc.

By charter (1978), the mission of the Danish Research Library Association is to function as a member-run organization supporting its member libraries and their staff in meeting the demands and expectations of the future:

  • To promote initiatives that benefit research libraries and the overall library system
  • To provide a forum for discussion of library academic and library policy topics
  • To cooperate with other library organizations and related organizations at home and abroad.

The new strategic vision and plan

Based on its mission and the report, the association’s strategic vision is to ensure visibility, relationships and competencies, focusing on the following thematic areas: Research & Knowledge, Education & Learning and Society & Citizens.

The strategic objective of the association in the coming period 2020–2023 is then to contribute to the development of competence of the members and member institutions, as well as to increased cooperation and relations between the members and other actors, with an overall focus on contributing to the visibility and development of the competences of research libraries, broadly defined.

The implementation of the association’s strategy will in the coming years be supported by strategic actions of four types of activity:

  • Skills development
  • Networking
  • Common projects
  • Representation and advocacy.

The general assembly at the meeting of participants in September gave unanimous support for the new strategy and positive reception of the of the open strategy process.

The association will launch several strategic actions before the end of 2020, e.g. an identification of competence needs and strategic working groups to investigate and propose changes to both the association’s organizational and financial structure. All in all, it is going to be an exciting year!

Bertil F. Dorch

Library Director, Ph.D.

President, The Danish Research Library Association

University Library of Southern Denmark

 

References:

*Danish Research Libraries associaton Website (in English)

* Thonk Tank Webpage (in English)

* Final report (in Danish)