Creating Postgraduate Collaborations › Forums › CPC Supervision Development Course › Module 2 › Module 2, Session 1: Library resources and support
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At my institution, the Library is active in supporting my activities as a postgraduate supervisor of students. Apart from there being a specific library staff assigned to postgraduate students for Education, students and staff also enjoy access to e-resources. Most publishers are accessible via the e-resources platform. To be honest I have never missed any of the e-resources, particularly the journal articles I have wanted to access for purposes of my own research as well as that of my students.
On the part of references management software, to be honest, though the library offers Zotero, I am yet to venture! The take home from this course, though, is very clear! I have to get Zotero so that my time on task especially for referencing will be reduced! In addition, I have also appreciated the role of the librarian and will activate his/her role in the triad of supervision so that what I have been ‘slaving’ over with my students, on our own will be reduced, if not shared!The PPT on Information Literacy is enlightening! A number of lessons have emerged!
First, the postgraduate enterprise needs to be treated/developed as a system! There are different tiers that must now, more than ever, before, be compelled to work interactively! Academic departments, the Graduate School and the Library, must be compelled to all pull in one direction for the sake of all stakeholders!
Second, supervision of postgraduate students should be treated as a shared responsibility! Supervisors, students, librarians and the Graduate school each contributes to the penultimate result – production of thesis report!
Third, it is time that a deliberate framework is developed to serve as a tool for guidance in the supervision journey – of course, with each of the relevant parties playing their part with due diligence!
Last but not least, any human endeavour requires re-vitalisation! In this particular case, continuous professional developemnt for supervisors, as here enacted, is commendable and should be sustained!My institution has both print and electronic resources such as e-journals and e-books which are easily accessible to staff and students. it provides institutional repository that gives access to archived scholarly publications created by the staff. The use of ICT services provide efficient digital materials and WIFI connectivity to both staff and students.
The library also offers information literacy to both students and staff to equip them with self sufficient skills in selecting, evaluating and using information.
The anti plagiarism policy guides in establishing the authentic production of post graduate materials by the students.The presentation addresses a number of issues I have been grappling with over the years. The most important one is getting the students to be immersed in the culture of reading. The tendency is on minimalist approaches that just gets one by. This may make one survive in the coursework but research stage is more demanding.
Data management is one area that I feel needs a lot of strengthening not only from the students side but also building the capacity of the supervisors; they get it wrong and so do the students.
Our Librarians are the most under-utilized human resource. We need to reposition them at the core of academics and not just a frontier post we send our students to when they need to begin their research. I know for a fact that at Maseno University the management pays a lot of money annually to allow access to hundreds of data bases which are hardly used. This is part a a National network of Public University Libraries that champions information literacy. Both staff and students do not know their existence.
I am inspired by this video to reflect on what next steps to take
My honest opinion is that I hardly involve the librarian in my supervision process. I am not even aware if at all we have a subject librarian in our institution. I have neither involved the librarian to help students to set up good alerts to make sure they get the latest studies related to their research nor to help me as a supervisor to create an alert. However, on occasions where I need some reference material that I cannot access from the website and from colleagues, I do consult the university librarian for assistance, though rarely. As a member of a professional association, we have created a whatsapp group that we use to share on the latest research areas and we rely mainly on open access journals that are free and unrestricted online access. However, i am aware that our institution’s library subscribe to several online databases such as Sage, Taylor & Francis, etc. The referencing software available are Zotero and Mandeley, the referencing and style guides available is the APA6/7. I now know that librarians play a key role in making learning happen for both the supervisor and the student.
In my institution, the library resources and support offered range from information resources in print and electronic format/ online access to e-resources and digital content (online catalogues, digital repository, off-campus access). They offer support through staff and student trainings on information literacy topics from finding literature, referencing, open access publishing etc. In addition, they provide assistance with research questions using the “ask a Librarian” chat, email, text or at a research help desk inside the library.
This session on Information literacy restates the importance of the information landscape for supervisors and students. A supervisor’s understanding of their student’s information literacy skills can lead to a better guided student. PG students should make use of available networking options to create their online profiles (ORCID ID) and make it part of publishing routine. Attention on alternate impact factor (Plum, Altimetric Explore), data management plan required from the onset of PG research.
The lessons I have learnt from watching the PowerPoint presentation is not to assume my students are able to determine the information they want, find it and use it for their research. It is important to assess the Information Literacy abilities of my students so that I determine the kind of support they need. I have learnt that their are courses available online for my students on Information Literacy which I can include in my course instruction. Usually students use google to search for information yet I realize I can make it easier for them by helping them create a “search alert”. I need to find out what my Library has to offer to support my students during their studies, especially the relevant scholarly databases available.
This session has opened my eyes to the fact that the role of the Librarian is often undermined in the research support triangle.I am not even aware if we have subject librarians at my institution. As soon as Postgraduate students register for studies, they should be made aware of the important roles that ought to be played by each component of the triangle & how this will aid in developing their information literacy skills.
Deliberate actions must be taken by the supervisor to aid the students in developing Information literacy skills. These actions should not be blanket but specific based on the skills & needs of each and every student as highlighted in the ppt presentation.
Maseno university, Kenya has various Library sources and support system available to students. once the student is registered, they have a wide access to a world of information at their fingertips virtually and in the physical library. The virtual library services includes but not limited to:
1.Electronic data base materials such as
Annual Reviews publications, BioMed Central, BioOne provides access to resources in the biological, ecological and environmental sciences. Areas of coverage include: Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science, Agronomy, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Biodiversity Conservation, Biology, Biophysics2. EResources such as Access to Global Online Research (AGORA), Acoustical Society of America, Africa Journals Online (AJOL), American Institute of Physics
3. Institutional repository which includes Books,journal Articles, Masters and PhD Theses and Dissertations, Policies/Reports, Public Lectures and Speeches, Research Papers and University Projects
The University School of Graduate Studies normally hold sessions where they induct the students on the effective use of the library resources. They encourage the students to call out on the materials they cannot access for the management to possibly source for them.The key lesson is the importance of knowing what information one wants and being able to identify where it could be relevantly found. The fact that there are all sorts of information out there requires that the student and supervisor be quite careful not to embrace fake or incorrect information as genuine or true. The information landscape is quite wide and students should not be limited to the traditional sources of information only. Another significant aspect is the background of our postgraduate students. Where they went to school in the earlier academic engagements is key. Access to library resources means a lot of literature to be accessed and arranged coherently in the study of choice. We learn that information literacy requires thorough collection, understanding and management of collected information and dissemination of knowledge.
The questions on information literacy are very helpful for reflecting on one’s practices, the experience of being supervised and the support provided by the library. The library and the Centre for Postgraduate Support offer seminars/workshops regularly on information literacy and the support needed to access resources during the postgraduate journey. For example, postgraduate students are trained on how to use the EndNote library (I am more familiar with my previous institution on this), access major databases, avoid plagiarism and predatory journals, write papers for publication etc. Other student-specific needs are also addressed. As per staying in touch with latest research in my field, ‘google alert’ and the periodicals/bulletins of the professional associations I belong to have been very helpful.
The PP was helpful in reflecting on the assumption that ‘postgraduate students (especially PhD scholars) are expected to be abreast of the ‘nitty gritty’ of academic research.’ It will be interesting to gain in-depth understanding into the factors which influence this assumption.
This section made me realise how much we presume the library to be linked to postgraduate studeis only through the initiative of the student to search for information. However, i have learnet that it is very important to always identify our students skills in relation to their ability in interacting with the information they access from the library and to always develope training needs for our students that will enable them to be more literate. In addition to develope peer reviewing groups which can help them in interacting and interprating information.
I have personally had very good experiences with the library at Rhodes University. The services available and the access to information is really good. The university also offers good training for students. My sense is that some academics are not well acquainted with the services and maybe we dont integrate more in the triangle…its almost seen as a ‘separate’ – so and ask the library for help, rather than working as a triad as explained here.
I like the way the PPT presentation portrays the library support not just as a once in a blue moon service but a partner in the research process. As has been pointed by others, at times we just assume students should have a particular skill set w.r.t information literacy thus in many cases we tend to under utilise the library services when it comes to postgrad work.
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