Research and Creative Scholarship

In this section, we share findings related to library services provided to faculty and graduate students involved in research and creative scholarship work, which includes support for activities in the scholarship cycle as well as publishing, open access publishing, and copyright (content on these coming soon).

This section of the survey was quite long and, due to the focus areas, was only presented to graduate students and faculty members. 

64.4% of faculty respondents (and those in similar roles) reported that they have led research or creative scholarship (RCS) projects, and the same was true for 37.6% of graduate students. Because RCS work can be both similar and also quite different across disciplines, we attended to our respondents’ disciplinary areas when analyzing the data. 

>>> Learn more about the respondents who participate in research and creative work.

Use of Library Services for Research and Creative Work

The 1834 respondents who indicated they are conducting research or creative scholarship were asked about their use of the library to support different places on the scholarship cycle (e.g., reviewing literature, citation management, sharing data, etc.). 

Results appear in the 2 tables below. The first table shows the percentage of graduate student and faculty respondents, with the last column displaying the percentage of people using each service who rated it as adequate or more than adequate. The second table indicates the percentage of respondents in each discipline area.

These respondents were also asked about their use of additional library resources and spaces in their research and creative work. The last column shows the percentage of people using each service who rated it as adequate or more than adequate.

They were also asked about their use of other library services closely tied to RCS endeavors. Use varied widely by disciplinary area. Some key findings were:

• 56% of those doing creative work had consulted with a library expert, compared to a low of 22% in the natural sciences.

• 59% of scholars in the humanities had used the library’s online research guides, compared with a low of 26% in the natural sciences and engineering.

Additionally, some types of services were not known about and rarely used across all disciplines, such as help with data management and sharing, help with research impact, help with data visualization, and help with publishing; all disciplinary areas were <10% usage for these services. Most of those who did make use of these types of resources, however, rated them positively.

Results appear in the table below, with the last column displaying the percentage of those using each service who rated it as adequate or more than adequate.

Why People Don’t Use These Services

Faculty and graduate students who indicated that they didn’t use the previously-listed U-M library services in their research or creative work were asked to select reasons. Note that respondents could choose more than one reason. 

• 68% weren’t aware of some of those services.

• 41% don’t want library help with their scholarship.

• 10% said current library services don’t support their type of work.

• 6% said it’s not convenient for them to use those services.

• 1% have used library services and found it not helpful.

• 1% said these services are not accessible to them.