Alternative metrics at Dutch university libraries

Alternative metrics at Dutch university libraries

Princic, A.

Delft University of Technology

TU Delft Library

2015-10-07

The role of a librarian at many universities and research institutions has changed and is still changing. For most libraries a common thread is the knowledge flow and technological innovations in order to support the researchers in augmenting their academic output, academic visibility and impact. A challenge for the Library however, is how to contribute to the increased visibility of the researchers beyond the obvious publication strategy and how to make it measurable. Alternative metrics makes part of these endeavours. When it comes to altmetrics an obvious role of a library is analysis of the market, comparison of the different tools and advice to the end users; to a lesser extent the implementation of altmetrics at an institutional level. Similarly as several Dutch libraries, the TU Delft Library is currently conducting a comparative analysis of the major tools on the market. The Delft library, however, will make a step further by experimenting with the use of different tools on a pilot scale in order to be able to implement alternative metrics at an institutional level and embed it in the research lifecycle. These plans will be presented at the conference. The situation in the rest of the Netherlands may be somewhat different. Other universities in the Netherlands may approach alternative metrics in a different way and have different visions. Up to now no concrete initiatives have been taken to approach alternative metrics centrally - on a national level. TU Delft is conducting a survey to collect the data from the Dutch university libraries on their approach to altmetrics. In the questionnaire the university libraries are asked about their vision with regard to altmetrics, their goals, barriers, implementation plans, and if already set in place - about their workflows and usage statistics. The results of this survey will be presented as well as some thoughts on future steps at the Dutch university libraries.

altmetrics
alternative metrics
research evaluation
research impact

https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:7df4bb18-e978-4a0e-8e1d-8d570e732ce6

2nd Altmetrics Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 7-8 October 2015

Institutional Repository

lecture notes

(c) 2015 Princic, A.