In a recent survey conducted by Ithaka S+R, JISC and Research Libraries UK (RLUK), the attitudes and (research) behaviours of UK academics with regard to digital technologies, the internet, and open access have been examined. The aim of the survey is to provide academics at higher education institutions across the UK with “timely findings and analysis that help them for the future” (according to the Ithaka S+R website). This blog summarizes some of the findings that shed light on how academics search for/gain access to research materials and on how digital materials change the role of the academic library.
How academics search for relevant or new materials
An important theme within the survey is discovery. Earlier research has shown that the way in which academics find materials for research “has evolved substantially as an increasing share are made available digitally” (p. 21). What the researchers found is that when starting a research project, the largest share of the 3,498 respondents – about 40% – starts by searching at a ‘general purpose’ search engine on the Web (p.21). Very few – only 2% – starts their research with a visit to the library building. To further explore how academics use sources in different types of research activities, the respondents were also asked to consider where they begin their research in two different scenarios; the first scenario being when they are trying to locate academic material that they already know but do not have in hand, and the second scenario being when they explore research literature to find new materials relevant to their interests. The respondents indicate that in the first scenario the majority of them would either search on a specific academic database/search engine, or visit their college or university library’s website or online catalog (p. 24). However, in the second scenario the majority – about 58% – from all disciplinary groupings (arts & humanities, social sciences, sciences and medical/veterinary) indicate that they would search on a specific academic database or search engine. About 21% would make use of a general purpose search engine and only 17% would use their college/university library’s website or online catalog. In both scenarios, virtually no one would ask a colleague or a librarian as a starting point.
Digital materials versus print materials
Another relevant theme in the survey is the role of both printed and digital materials. A large part of the respondents agreed that it would be fine with them if their library would stop collecting issues of journals in print form. However, it should be noted that this statement seemed less controversial amongst the medical/veterinary sciences group than amongst the humanities group. In the latter group only 3 out of 5 strongly agreed with the statement, compared to 4 out of 5 in the former group (p. 28). Similarly, about two thirds of scientists and medical/veterinary agreed with the statement that they would be fine with the journals they use ceasing print publication, while only 40% of the humanists indicated that they strongly agreed. It is interesting to see that this picture is somewhat different for the use of (electronic monographs). Although the academics cited some advantages of using electronic monographs (the ability to search across them, and the ability to read them anywhere at any time), the survey also identified some key challenges related to their use. For reading cover to cover, reading a section in depth or for comparing treatment of ideas between monographs, all of the groups agreed that the print version was preferable (p. 34).
How academics gain access to materials
Finally, the UK Survey of Academics 2012 shows that although journals and monographs are increasingly becoming digital, academics are still for a large part dependent on libraries to access materials. Nearly 90% of all respondents indicate that “that their own college or university library is a very important source of journal articles and academic monographs for research and teaching” (p. 37). That said, the survey also reveals that academics tend to use a variety of approaches and sources to gain access to materials they need (p. 37). For example, when seeking access to a journal or monograph that they have no immediate access to through their library (print or online collection), the respondents indicated that the most common approach is to look for a freely available version online; 90% of the respondents do this often or occasionally (p. 39). The second most popular alternative is to give up and look for a different resource to access. Furthermore, it is interesting to see that only a small share indicate that they would purchase materials directly from the publisher or the vendor and that this approach of building one’s own ‘library’ is significantly more common amongst humanists than among the academics from the other groups.
What does it mean?
What the UK Survey of Academics 2012 shows is that as materials are increasingly becoming available online, the role of the library has shifted from being the primary gateway to content to being a ‘buyer’ and ‘owner’ of content. Since academics are likely to look for this content online via specific databases /search engines, or via general purpose search engines it is important that libraries make all their content ‘discoverable’ online (as Rachel Bruce and Mike Mertens also argue in The Higher Education blog from The Guardian). On the role of search engines, lastly, it can be concluded that academics view specific databases and search engines as tools to seek material they already know with, and that the ‘general purpose’ search engines are mainly associated with access to free content.
The full version of the UK Survey of Academics can be downloaded from the Ithaka S+R website. For more discussion on the UK Survey of Academics 2012 also read this article on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences Blog.