Investigation of research support services (RSS) in academic libraries of India

Abstract

Research is crucial not only for the growth of a country but also for society as a whole, especially in a knowledge-based society. At each stage of research, scientists and researchers require support from various research stakeholders in the form of information resources and pertinent assistance. Consequently, academic libraries, as one of the most important stakeholders in research and the backbone of knowledge acquisition, storage, and dissemination processes, offer a variety of services to support research endeavors in their parent institutions. The current study classifies these services into eight major categories, viz. “Research Guides, Research Consultancy, Research Impact Measurement, Open Access, Research Tools Recommendation, Research Data Management (RDM), Scholarly Publishing, and Archiving and Preservation of Research Output (Article, Data, etc.).” The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation status of these Research Support Services (RSS) in academic libraries of India (which include a total of 212 institutions, counting all of India’s “Central Universities (CUs)” (56) and “Institutes of National Importance (INIs)” (156) by referring to the related information provided on their respective library websites. The findings show that Indian academic libraries lack significant adoption and cognizance of research support services, and their implementation is in its infancy. The study reveals that very few academic libraries offer RDM services, whereas the vast majority of academic libraries provide recommendations for research tools. Indian academic libraries need to actively explore various RSS and make them a part of their core offerings. Additionally, they should look into novel ways to support researchers at different phases of their studies.