Creative Partnerships: Dynamic IT and Library Collaboration to Promote Faculty Research, Profiles, and Enhanced Workflow Presenter: Lisa A. Macklin Presenter: Mary Walters Presenter: Tim Morris

What we’ll cover About Us The Emory FIRST Project Overview Operational System Project Timelines and Milestons Results Lessons Learned Next Steps References We will highlight the successes and lessons learned during the Emory FIRST project, specifically the integration at Emory University of our open access repository with a new faculty profiling system.  Our goal is to promote faculty research and scholarship by providing full-text articles in the context of content-rich faculty profiles. In addition, the implementation provides an enhanced workflow for the faculty where submissions to the repository are integrated into the annual faculty activity reporting. We anticipate this change will improve overall faculty participation and submission rates to the repository.  The open access repository is also staged to allow for the integration of additional content types beyond articles to allow to encourage richer discovery of the intellectual output of Emory.

About Us

About Us Emory University Private school founded in 1836 with nine schools: Oxford College, Emory College, Graduate School, School of Business, School of Law, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, School of Theology Emory University was founded in 1836 and is composed of nine schools:  Emory College, Oxford College, School of Business, Graduate School, School of Law, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, and the School of Theology. While guided by central administration, the schools are able to exercise a good deal of autonomy in defining academic policies, managing budgets, and guiding their faculty, creating what is sometimes called a ‘multiversity.’ While guided by central administration, the schools are able to exercise a great deal of autonomy in defining academic policies, managing budgets, and guiding their faculty creating what is sometimes called a “multiversity.”

About Us Emory University Vision statement that expresses commitment to engagement and collaboration: A destination university internationally recognized as an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged, and diverse community, whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care, and social action.  

About Us Formation of LITS in 2013 Emory Libraries Information Technology Services LITS: Library and Information Technology Services Library & Information Technology Services (LITS) was formed in 2013 with the goal of better aligning various service functions across the Emory enterprise, including IT functions. The LITS organization is the merger of a service unit with an academic unit, providing the opportunity to evaluate the potential of IT becoming an enabler of strategic change.

Emory FIRST Project Emory FIRST (Faculty Information on Research, Service and Teaching) Capture faculty information in a central system Provide path for faculty to deposit in institutional repository (IR) Selected faculty information and IR content publicly available to promote faculty and their work Emory FIRST is a source for Faculty Information on Research, Service, and Teaching. The solution includes capturing faculty information within a central system, providing a path for faculty to deposit their scholarly content in a repository, and making selected faculty information and their deposited scholarly content publicly available to promote faculty and their work.

Emory FIRST Project Emory FIRST Strategic Goals Establish an authoritative source of faculty profile and activities data Promote researchers through information rich profiles and web pages Enhance discovery by creating links between profiles and content Create mechanisms to measure impact of research and scholarship Emory FIRST is the first place to discover more about the great work of faculty at Emory. It is designed to provide a platform to better manage and promote scholarly activities and profiles, as well as link to the institutional repository for faculty-authored content. Publications, grants, professional activities, teaching, and areas of research are all elements maintained within a single system and available for reuse to create CVs, biosketches, and web profiles. In addition, there are opportunities for extending this information to create enhanced networks for collaboration, impact reporting, and new ways of discovery.

Emory FIRST Project Emory FIRST consists of multiple systems Collect Research Objects and Linkages Repository Storing Faculty authored Content Faculty Profiles Share Knowledge, Display, and Impact The overall solution consists of implementing multiple systems, including Symplectic Elements as a central knowledge base integrated with the institution’s open access repository, OpenEmory, and with VIVO to promote the work of faculty. Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Research

Views of Emory FIRST

Emory FIRST Operational View Submission into OpenEmory is now part of the annual faculty reporting for self-deposit in addition to mediated deposit by the staff in Scholarly Communications.

Emory FIRST System View

Emory FIRST Timelines & Projects 1/2013 -- Symplectic Elements Implementation Begins 7/2014 -- VIVO Alpha Connector 10/2014 -- Symplectic Elements ready for general release for School of Medicine -- OpenEmory integration complete -- All Schools using publications element

Emory FIRST Results

Emory FIRST Results Lessons Learned Data Stewardship and Data Quality Issues Extend Time with New Development from Vendor Plan the Implementation in Phases Engagement of the Library Enhances Academic Credibility Manage Technical Debt 1. Data Stewardship and Data Quality Issues Develop and engage data stewards early in the planning of the project. As we began our implementation, we discovered significant challenges around our HR and grants information and realized it would have been helpful to begin with our data stewards. We continue to resolve data quality issues, which has benefits beyond this project. 2. Extend Time with New Development from Vendor While our vendor had existing repository connectors for DSpace and EPrints, we were one of the first clients for which they developed a general connector for a Fedora repository.  3. Plan the Implementation in Phases The initial commitment included a full system, including Publications, Grants, Professional Activities and the ability to generate a CV. An iterative implementation plan, beginning with only Publications, helps manage expectations and allows for discovery of faculty scholarship.  4. Engagement of the Library Enhances Academic Credibility While the library was engaged initially in the system configuration, their limited involvement in subsequent stages proved challenging. The full engagement of the library, in their role as representatives of the faculty, became a critical success factor As one dean described the nature of their involvement, “If the librarians aren’t happy, then the faculty aren’t happy.” 5. Manage Technical Debt During early stages of the implementation, Emory made a choice to implement new areas of the software that were later redesigned, requiring a series of extensive data re-mappings in order to align with delivered functionality.

Emory FIRST Results Next Steps Beta release of Vivo for public discovery of profiles of faculty information Connect Vivo profiles with content in OpenEmory Create a Data Advisory Group Now that Symplectic Elements is implemented, our next step is to evolve the VIVO alpha connector for a beta release which will enhance the integration and visibility of faculty and their scholarship in OpenEmory. As we look toward university-wide adoption, we plan to create a broader group of stakeholders to help manage the larger set of university interests and help prioritize features. Establishing a group of data stewards will help facilitate our understanding of the data and related issues.

Emory FIRST Results Next Steps Data Advisory Group to facilitate understanding of data and related issues Data Advisory Group Person Data Teaching Grants Professional Activities Publications Reporting and Analytics As we look toward university-wide adoption, we plan to create a broader group of stakeholders to help manage the larger set of university interests and help prioritize features. Establishing a group of data stewards will help facilitate our understanding of the data and related issues. In addition, a common set of activities and standards needs to be created by doing an analysis across the various schools.

References Spencer, Eugene L, Metz, Terrance J, and Ferguson, Chris D. “Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Integrated IT/Library Organization.” EDUCAUSE Review 1 Jan. 2004; 31 July 2014, http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/greater-sum-its-parts-integrated-itlibrary-organization

Contact Us Thanks for your interest in our poster Creative Partnerships. If you have questions, feel free to contact us at: Lisa Macklin at lisa.macklin@emory.edu or 404-727-1535 Mary Walters at mwalter@emory.edu or 404-727-0309 Tim Morris at ttmorri@emory.edu or 404-712-1635