Réseaux sociaux, recherche et BU

Social Media, Academic Research and the Role of University Libraries

(source: David Nicholasa, Anthony Watkinsona, Ian Rowlandsa, Michael Jubb in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28/07/2011, sur abonnement)

Cet article évoque certains des résultats d’une enquête menée par le CIBER research group (UK) sur l’utilisation des médias/réseaux sociaux par les académiques et les chercheurs.

Extraits:

[...] social media are beginning to have a significant impact on scholarly communication and, in particular, on many aspects of the research process. Of course, if it is impacting on the academic researcher then, logically, it must be impacting on university libraries too [...]. // Logiquement, en effet, les BU doivent se positionner sur ce terrain aussi

[...] while the group spent two hours talking about scholarly information, university libraries were not mentioned once [...]. // C’est bien triste, certes, mais nous sommes à 80% responsables de cette situation

First, libraries do not have a strong and visible presence in the existing digital scholarly space and therefore are not the natural home for social media. Libraries need to do more to connect and reach out, and especially be more proactive about promoting the resources they have [...]. // Rien à ajouter – si ce n’est qu’on lit et entend ça depuis des années et que la situation évolue avec une lenteur pathétique

Second, libraries occupy a confining space. A computer science researcher explained: “The library is a building. Google has world-wide reach”. So the whole basis of the library as a local collection of trusted content no longer washes with users since people feel they may be missing things that are outside a confined space rather than in borderless body of knowledge (Google). And, of course, the growth of social media was only likely to enhance the perception that the library was an increasingly confined space. [...] // Ici aussi, rien de neuf: nous savons pertinemment que notre (re)positionnement doit s’effectuer dans cette direction: la BU devenant un espace physico-virtuel – mission possible si nous adaptons notre discours, nos services, nos outils en conséquence

Third, social media are all about doing-it-yourself and collaborating directly and inevitably represent a further wave of disintermediation. This was even acknowledged at one university library where they said they were not convinced that collaborative tools were a ‘library thing’. There was a willingness on the part of some librarians to join in but it is really a question of whether the newly enfranchised (DIY) users are willing to ask for help in connection with social media tools, especially as many academics are much more technically aware than librarians. [...] // Pas étonnant, finalement, de constater que même dans les pays anglo-saxons, certains bibliothécaires ne comprennent toujours pas que le train des médias/réseaux sociaux est en marche (depuis des années) et que le voyage s’effectuera avec ou sans eux…

Academics, clearly trying to be up-beat, mentioned that there could be a role for the library in terms of “catalysing the exchange of knowledge” and that one of the ways this could be undertaken was by the library explaining how social media tools could help researchers and recommend and promote them. [...] // On l’a déjà lu ailleurs et relayé ici à maintes reprises: nous sommes des facilitateurs, des médiateurs, des échangeurs, des entremetteurs, des courroies [contenus <<-bibs->> utilisateurs].

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Lire aussi: Research and Scientific Edition in the Social Web: The Shared Science