Measuring and Responding to the Evolution of Science Researcher Needs at the Smithsonian

Abstract

The Natural & Physical Science (NPS) Libraries of the Smithsonian Libraries consist of several locations serving the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Much has been written about the dramatic shift in recent years to the changing face of university research environments, but there are few recent studies on the use of libraries by museum and research center staff. Together and with the members of the NPS Libraries Advisory Committee consisting of staff scientists and other departments, we developed surveys and other feedback mechanisms that investigated museum and research center staff's research and scholarly publishing practices. Questions included use of library print and digital collections for research, service and training priorities, methods employed to find scholarly journal articles, Open Access publishing funding and practices, and data management. The poster will provide the results of this and other research and our libraries' strategies in response to the findings.