Big Splashes & Ripple Effects: Research Impact Services Across University Libraries

Research impact metrics are an increasingly important topic at major research institutions. Administrations and funders want to know: What kind of scholarly impact are our faculty, departments, and research centers having? How can we develop more effective collaborations and connections? And how do we compare with other departments, centers, and schools around the country and world?

While this exciting area continues to grow, there is no standard yet on what research impact services should be offered at major research institutions. At the University of Minnesota, the libraries are in the beginning stages of developing research impact services for faculty, departments, and schools. In order to explore the possibilities and identify trends in research impact services, we will conduct an environmental scan of the 114 university members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). In this poster presentation, we will visualize and describe the extent to which research impact services are being offered, the staffing models that support these services, and the tools and platforms that are being made available.

Through this environmental scan, we will identify the directions that North American research libraries are taking with research impact services, and our findings will inform the development of a service model for our campus and help inform other institutions considering their own service models.