Author: Jayshree Mamtora, Manager, Scholarly Communications, James Cook University, Australia
In Australia, Research Support Community Day (RSC Day) has become the premier professional development event for research librarians, and open to anyone working or interested in research support and related services. It started “small” with the very first event held in person at Griffith University in Brisbane in 2013 with just 100 participants. This year close to 300 participants attended the 11th Research Support Community Day/s held online from 27–29 June 2023.
RSC Day started as a free, annual event and has remained a free, annual event. Due to circumstances and world events the event has been run online since 2021, and over a period of three days. It is held in three-hour blocks each day to enable as many colleagues as possible in different time zones in our region wherever they may be – Australia, New Zealand or further afield – to be able to easily participate.
Each of the three days is headlined by a keynote speaker followed by a series of speakers who can select a 15–20-minute slot depending on their chosen topic or opt for a five-minute lightning talk giving as many different speakers as possible to present on a variety of different research-related subject areas.
We have been fortunate to have had the support of Dr. Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist who has presented a keynote at two of our recent events and who has announced open access to research outputs as one of her four strategic priorities. Other keynote presenters have come from a variety of research backgrounds including senior research academics, research administrators and representatives from research funding bodies.
As founding member and Chair of the Research Support Community Day organising committee, I invite you to check out the recordings of the online presentations from our YouTube Channel. You can view the details of all 11 events from our website: rscday.info.
We are very grateful to Sage APAC for their continued support and sponsorship of our event, as well. as the many institutions that provide staff or in-kind support to ensure its continued success.