Librarians as partners in research at the University of Pretoria

Abstract

In the OCLC report of 2015 it was shown that library strategies are linked to university strategies in order to contribute to the institutions’ success. At the University of Pretoria priority is given to teaching and learning and research excellence. This paper will share experiences of the University of Pretoria Library in collaborating with faculty, Department of Research and Innovation and other partners to achieve these strategies. A project team approach was developed to align with the university’s priority areas. Some of these include Digital literacy, Research literacy and Research visibility. In order to reach these goals, progressive librarians have to rethink their skills and services. They have to develop new expertise in fields previously unknown to them. These fields include lecturing and an adoption of a blended learning approach, open scholarship, bibliometrics, data management and patent searching. Bibliometric expertise at the University of Pretoria resides with the Library. As such it is expected of the library to provide bibliometric data at an institutional level, but also at faculty and departmental level. These new skills and fields of expertise contributed to the Department of Library Services, Department of Research and Innovation and Faculties partnering closely towards the greater good of the University.