Background
Several members of the LTR team are working on the Social Sciences & Humanities Research (SSHR) Project. The SSHR Project is based on a University of Minnesota Libraries (2006) study into the research behaviours of academic staff and postgraduate students in the social sciences and humanities. For us this translates to our College of Arts. The findings from the study will be used to develop our academic support for academics and postgraduate students.

The first project milestones have been met: we have completed a literature review, received ethics approval, and conducted a focus group of arts subject librarians and specialist librarians.

The team is now ready to launch into the data collection phase of the project. This involves interviews with academic staff and focus groups with postgraduate students, along with a survey or all College of Arts researchers.

What we’ve learnt
The processes involved in a research project are providing real learning opportunities for the team:

• The Ethics Application threw up a number of questions and issues that the team had to think and research its way through
• The focus group with Library staff was very helpful, both practically and theoretically, before we go into the focus groups with postgraduate students

We’d like to share some of what we’ve done, some of our findings, and some lessons, with you, so we’re organising a PD session for Library staff. Stay tuned for details!