2025/12/16 by Alissa Link Cilfone, Jen Ferguson · 1 voice
Decision Sciences · Health Professions · Medicine · #Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions #Health and Medical Research Impacts #Research, Science, and Academia
paper · doi:10.7191/jeslib.1122
openalex created_date 2025/12/16 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Our academic library, like many others, has primarily focused its outreach and engagement efforts on faculty and students. We had less insight into the needs of a harder-to-reach population: the staff researchers — postdocs, research scientists, lab managers, technicians, and study coordinators — who are on the front lines of campus research activity. We identified a target population of nearly 500 staff members in these roles in several STEM colleges at our institution and invited them to respond to a survey about the library resources, support, and services they would find most valuable for their work. We found higher-than-expected building usage among this population, identified their most requested service and support needs, and learned that repeated promotion of key library resources would be beneficial to increase awareness. In this paper, we share what we have learned from them and the steps we’re taking to address their needs. Our hope is that others may be able to apply what we have learned to investigate and meet the needs of research support staff at their own institutions.