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As any library strives to improve services and make them increasingly relevant, planning for change has become routine. During 2011, the University of Arizona's Libraries undertook extensive assessments in order to develop and improve services in support of research and grant services so that campus-wide achievements in research, scholarship, and creative works could improve. A project explored ways for the library to become more effective at increasing research and grant support to faculty, researchers, and graduate students in a scalable way, and to help the campus increase achievements in research, scholarship, and creative works. The project defined the library's role in research and grant activities and explored ways for the library to be involved at optimal points in these cycles. This chapter discusses the process developed for assessing what new research and grant support services the library might want to develop. This involved interviewing peer university libraries and surveying faculty and graduate students at the University of Arizona about their research and grant needs. The chapter also describes how results were analyzed to identify potential new library services. The project team recommended new services which were presented to the library for inclusion in its Strategic Plan. The methodology presented in this chapter can be used by any type of library for developing new services to include in their strategic plans.

Academic libraries are undergoing a paradigm shift of service, due to various changes in their environment and internally. The maker culture is one of these factors and implies challenges regarding space, infrastructures, and services organization. This situation extends to research support services, in which the users have a particular informative behavior. This chapter aims to analyze whether the academic library has created research support services adapted to the era of maker culture. It examines how research is a key factor in the higher education system to contextualize the importance of research support services in academic libraries. How the researcher accepts or not the role of academic libraries in the process of production and communication of research is studied. As critical elements of the process, we examine part of researcher information behavior in the era of maker culture and the relationship of these users with librarians.

Undergraduate information commons have become pervasive in the academic library landscape. In recent years, librarians and administrators have come to identify the need for comparable commons’ spaces and services for graduate students. This chapter serves as a review of recently developed models of graduate commons—in this discussion referred to as Scholars’ Commons—as defined by an integration of physical learning spaces, personnel, and a dynamic availability of research support services that support assist graduate students throughout their academic life cycle. These provisions serve as the foundation for the development of enhanced library-supported graduate student success.

Still a rare commodity, existing models from selected institutional web sites were examined using a framework for analysis consisting of several criteria: new use of space; segmented services; partnerships; and new organizational structures. Through a synthesis of the commonalities prevalent in these systems, this chapter aims to provide recommendations for prospective Scholars’ Commons models and proposals for their development. Library organizations contemplating the development of a Scholars’ Commons need to consider the needs of their target population, potential new or reallocated spaces, feasibility of providing support and research technologies, and possible staffing models. As well, the authors consider the importance of library-based graduate student support that bolsters cross-divisional collaborative partnerships across the academy.

This chapter presents a case study of how Baker Library Services, a department of Harvard Business School's Knowledge and Library Services, has refocused its distinctive capabilities in order to become better integrated with research and course development and increase the value of its human and material resources' contributions to research, teaching, and learning. As part of a multipronged strategy, this chapter has developed new individual and organizational capabilities, including Research Support Continuum, Research Services Delivery Model, the Project Management Office, and services to support collaborative research and course development environments. The chapter is presented as a journey with reference to an earlier report on the development of the Curriculum Services Group, an update on current initiatives, and an outline of future plans for continuing to review the priorities needed to achieve the group's strategic shifts.

The aim of this chapter is to describe a four-type model of organisational structures and to discuss two cases, Embrapa and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, as well as additional cases at SAM-Research and the centre for shared medical support services established at the University of Bologna.

These cases should help readers understand the importance of designing distinctive, tailored-made support services while keeping these structures flexible for further adaptation under unforeseen changes.

The chapter concludes by stressing the role of institutions to steadily invest in the design of these tailored support structures and in personalised training for their support staff.

Occupational injury in the health care sector in the United States rates among the highest of all industries. Specific to hospital support service workers (e.g., Food & Nutrition, Environmental Services), studies have shown that injury rates for support service workers tend to be among the highest of hospital personnel, and yet there is a shortage of research investigating the safety climate of these workers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine safety perceptions of support service workers. Surveys were used to measure safety climate leadership factors (per the AHRQ's Survey of Patient Safety Culture) to determine if they are related to individual safety perceptions, as well as ratings of work unit safety. Following established safety climate research, we examined the role of the work environment (e.g., supervisor support and work unit culture) on safety perceptions. We found that both supervisor and organizational safety leadership are positively related to individual safety perceptions and supervisor support. Organizational safety leadership and work unit culture were positively related to work unit safety rating. Our findings demonstrate that the antecedent factors and pathways that promote a positive safety climate among health care providers functions in a similar manner for support service workers. These findings contribute to a better understanding of occupational safety of this understudied work group and provide evidence to hospital administration that developing a strong safety climate among support service workers is not entirely different from what is required to promote a robust safety climate across an organization.

The chapter focused on quality assurance and marketing of library services and products at the Midlands State University (MSU). The chapter's main objective was to identify the quality assurance mechanisms at the MSU Library. The major findings of the research were; the MSU library was practising quality assurance, staff was trained on the latest trends in the profession, the collection was multidisciplinary and in different forms, and that there were Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in enhancing service provision. The researcher recommended that the library needed to continuously train librarians on issues to do with quality, improve the infrastructure, introduce Research Data Management to enhance the Research Support Services and improve on the Information Literacy Skills training programmes. The author identified some areas for further research and the major one was that there is need for clarification on the concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

This chapter describes challenges that academic libraries face in the era of data-intensive research.

A review of current literature about the topic was performed. The main features of the data-intensive paradigm of research are outlined and new tasks to be performed by academic libraries are explored.

To fulfil their mission in this environment, academic libraries have to be equipped with tools that can be epitomised as research data services and include research data-management and digital data curation. Issues of data quality, data citation and data literacy are also of prime importance for related academic library services that also need to employ ‘new’ librarians, that is professionals, armed with novel and adequate skills.

The chapter outlines both background and practice, associated with data-related opportunities and responsibilities.