Learning about research funding in the Research Catalyst Cohort, participating in the ALIA LARK circle, research projects with others outside my own university, presenting at the #DARTS9 conference, have all given me a sense of place in academia, beyond my own institution #ResearchAdvent #Day15

Researcher Librarian Journey – to DARTS9 and beyond A academic librarian’s reflections on the lead up to presenting at a conference about a journey developing researcher skills and experience, including submitting a proposal, developing slides…

I got joy ( #ResearchAdvent #Day6 topic) this year from attending, preparing for and speaking at the #DARTS9 conference, learning from other people, sharing my journey as a researcher librarian, chatting with people new and old in a great environment and posting online here on BlueSky throughout.

Also, creating/compiling your own images, that you have a right to, is really useful for thinking about and developing your theme and what you want to say. I’m so glad now to have developed images for use in my #DARTS9 presentation earlier in the year. It added to my thoughts.

DARTS9 reflections: Part Three CILIP North East Regional Member Network were pleased to offer a bursary to Cheryl Francis from University of Sunderland to attend the DAR...

And nice to see mention of my #DARTS9 presentation in part 3 of the blog (including one of my slides :) )

DARTS9 reflections: Part One CILIP North East Regional Member Network were pleased to offer a bursary to Cheryl Francis from University of Sunderland to attend the DARTS...

Lovely to read Cheryl Francis’s @cilipne.bsky.social creative write up of the #DARTS9 conference, organising insights from presentations on librarians’ involvement in research into Strengths, Opportunities and Barriers.

Good write-up (just discovered when looking for something else!) of the #DARTS9 conference.

Research Catalyst Cohort train the trainer ethos – cascaded learning Creating and continuing a blog Writing for professional organisations Sharing research experience on social media Twitter, LinkedIn, BlueSky Advocating for shared online content from library conferences Explaining and demonstrating librarian research skills To academic staff To the world Advocating for systematic reviews to be done properly… Illustrated with a book, The Chalet School Revisited, by Rosemary Auchmuty and Juliet Gosling. Red cover, with a picture of several girls. One has her head stuck in the back of a chair.

My 14th #DARTS9 slide was about advocating for librarians' involvement in research, and specifically in systematic reviews. And sharing my research experiences. I wouldn't have talked about all of these - I do like to share my experiences rather a lot!

PowerPoint slide, titled Impact of experiences on future research opportunities. A flow diagram with pink ovals and green rectangles, and arrows between these. Text explaining various research activities and the links between these. Illustrated with a book, Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull. A red cover with Buzz Lightyear, in silhouette

My 13th #DARTS9 slide involved some work to establish how to display what I wanted to talk about: the impact that researching has had & might have on future research opportunities. There were so many links all over the place, I wanted to demo this with a flow chart, using MS Visio for the 1st time.

PowerPoint slide, titled Effects of research on support for students and researchers. Colourful smart art containing: Ability to teach about systematic review Examples for other teaching Examples in 1-1 Shared experience Practical experience with reference manager Advising colleagues who work with other disciplines Work with research assistants Practical systems and instructions Illustrated with a book,The Southern Counties Chess Union - a retrospective, by Anthony Fulton. A line drawn map of the southern counties of the UK, and several chess pieces

My 12th #DARTS9 slide was about the effects of research on other elements of my wider work as an Academic Liaison Librarian. The impact of #SystematicReview research on my teaching, guidance and systems has been significant.

PowerPoint slide, titled 'Learning experiences from research'. Colourful smart art containing: Reconsidering previous search ‘expertise’, and current ability The more you know… Re-evaluating priorities Staff management – letting go Part time work, hiring freeze and restructure Most important use of my time – for me and for my institution Value in starting, even if you don’t finish Unsuccessful applications Deciding to pause Changing priorities Value of feedback from people with experience Compliments are always nice, but constructive criticism helps Working on research instigated by someone else Insight into a new topic Illustrated with a book cover 'Aphantasia: Experiences, Perceptions and Insights', by Alan Kendle. A black book with a line picture of a brain.

My 11th #DARTS9 slide was on my learning from research activities, again wider than evidence synthesis. A key point from this slide, & one I'm sure I talked about, was the value I've gained in getting constructive feedback from people with experience in what I'm doing (importance of peer review)

PowerPoint slide, titled Challenges as a practitioner researcher. Colourful smart art containing: Lack of work time to spend on research Seeing myself as a researcher Finding opportunities Research ideas vs fully developed questions Work and personal challenges encroaching University funding, restructures and redundancies – lack of security Estimating time needed Funding rejection Owning up to mistakes Hard to do basic searching now! Illustrated with the book Among Others, by Jo Walton

My 10th #DARTS9 presentation slide was on challenges I've faced as a practitioner librarian researcher, more widely than the evidence synthesis projects I've been part of. One I think (hope) I spoke about was realising something I'd missed in my research & owning up to my team - hard but important!

Powerpoint slide, with brown yellow and green smart art. Titled Learning from evidence synthesis projects.Learning to use databases properly Keeping a research log Creating and adapting systems Working on my own, and as a team Reconsidering priorities Number of databases Perfection vs practicality Always expect to redo What I need to be involved with Software vs Excel A picture of a floral notebook

I have learnt so much from the two evidence synthesis projects I've been part of so far, and my 9th #DARTS9 slide was a summary of this learning. Lots of record keeping and repetition, and accepting what I should and shouldn't be focusing my time on.

Powerpoint slide titled 'Being paid for research! A second review'. Colourful circular smart art: Consultancy: Workaround, Self-perception, Training and policy, Working with research office, Cost and negotiation, Under-estimating time needed. Pictures of the front covers of two books: A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (a white cover with a child in the centre, at the top of a long thin pole) and You are Nota Fraud: A scientist's guide to the imposter phenomenon (replacing syndrome, which is crossed out), by Marc Reid.

Slide number 8 in my #DARTS9 presentation was about a second evidence synthesis project I've been part of. Not talking about the research topic so much with this slide, more about my development in confidence & experience, to seeing myself as someone who has research skills that should be paid for.

PowerPoint slide, titled 'A first systematic review – with other librarians'. Colourful smart art with boxes: How I got involved Topic - previous and developing knowledge How long it takes Protocol - proof of work What we’ve done What I’d do differently Developing systems Effect of peer review Reference: Montague-Hellen, B., Cann, A. and Hughes, K. (2024) A systematic review assessing citation advantages in Green and Gold Open Access journal articles in comparison to closed/subscription access articles. [protocol] 10.17605/OSF.IO/DV6M2. QR code linking to the [protocol. Front cover of a book, with strips of colour. 'Practical Tips for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries', by Beth Montague-Hellen

My 7th #DARTS9 presentation slide was core to my proposal: the #systematicreview I've been working on with @drbeth.bsky.social & @acraftylibrarian.bsky.social.

I may have focused on: working as a team, my input as search specialist, the records & systems I've created, & how long everything takes!

A PowerPoint slide, titled (Core tenets of a systematic review). Three purple speech bubbles with quotes in, pointing to extracted information and citations for these sources. 1. 'Evidence synthesis refers to the process of bringing together information from a range of sources and disciplines to inform debates and decisions on specific issues.' A type of evidence synthesis The Royal Society (2018) 2. 'Studies are systematically gathered, appraised, analysed and combined to assess the strength of available evidence relevant to a focused research question.'Based on a focused research question' Cochrane (Higgins et al, 2022) 3. 'Every Campbell review is required to have clear criteria for eligible research, an explicit and comprehensive search strategy, systematic and replicable coding and analysis of the key features and findings of the studies reviewed, and an integrative summary of those findings. Rigorous, transparent, and unbiased assessments of research evidence' Campbell Collaboration (2023) An image of a purple book, Systematic Searching, edited by Paul Levay and Jenny Craven.

For my sixth #DARTS9 presentation slide, I included a slide from the #systematicreview teaching I've delivered several times at my university. I was very aware that I was talking quite a bit about this topic, and shouldn't assume my audience knew about this research method in detail.

PowerPoint slide, titled Developing as an evidence synthesis librarian. Smart Art diagram: Long term interests Record-keeping/processes Literature searching Data collection Meeting a need Doctoral Researcher queries Graduate School investigations Business School staff guidance Planning for funded research project Reading seminal recommended articles Idea to explore researcher understanding and needs Training Self paced online learning resource Evidence Synthesis Institute ESI conference (USA) Experience Practically working on systematic reviews Learning from researchers’ questions Photo of a children's book, Molly on the Moon, by Mary Robinette Kowal and Diana Mayo. A picture of a little girl, on a blue background.

The fifth slide in my #DARTS9 presentation was another one where I had to be selective about what I said - there have been, & will continue to be, so many influences on my developments in evidence synthesis. I think I talked about the @blalib.org Systematic Reviews group here too. #systematicreview

PowerPoint slide, titled Research Catalyst Cohort – the real start of my researcher librarian journey. Colourful smart art with the words Confidence Knowledge Network Profile Experience – leading to research QR code and link to blog post Transformative effect of the Research Catalyst Cohort – Librarian AND/OR researcher A book, The Chalet School: Lavender Leigh at the Chalet School and Gay Lambert at the Scholl School, by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. A picture of two girls with a hockey stick

I hadn't intended to share my fourth #DARTS9 slide quite so quickly, but the focus makes this one time sensitive & topical! I tried not to spend too long on this slide, since lovely 2nd RCC people had talked about it already, but I had to mention it a bit since it was so instrumental in my journey.

PowerPoint slide, titled Before my researcher librarian identify. Smart art, in shades of red and pink: Research and skill development from intense personal interests Chalet School Working part time, treating early years parenting as a job Volunteer work as a parent Aphantasia Secondary data interest Bloomberg Systematic Review Student research Comparison: mine and those I support Focus on elements, never the full project Helping with a research bid Demonstrating what librarians can bring to a project Asked for daily rate Pictures of two books: The Voices Within, by Charles Fernyhough, with lots of little post-it papers sticking out the side, and Extreme Imagination: Inside the mind's eye

The third slide in my #DARTS9 presentation, about some of my research related activities before I thought of myself as a researcher librarian. I have no recollection now re which of these points I actually talked about!

PowerPoint slide titled 'Potted journey as a researcher librarian. Coloured smart art with arrows between each item: Researching as a student Interest in the research of students I support Live tweeting at conferences Interest in systematic review research method Research Catalyst Cohort Blogging about my experiences Business Librarians Association Systematic Reviews group Application for research fellowship Research Catalyst Cohort steering group Developing systematic review knowledge Finally working on a systematic review! With other librarians Teaching about Systematic Literature Review Library conferences on BlueSky Work as a research consultant 2nd evidence synthesis project – social work topic Hidden REF application Ideas for my own research Three book illustrations - Germinal by Emile Zola, The Eyre Affiar by Jasper Fforde and a bunch of Sweet Valley Twins books.

The 2nd slide of my #DARTS9 presentation was a potted history of my researcher librarian journey. I think I managed not to talk about everything on this slide-it'd've taken all the time I had! This was intended to be a bit of background. I also successfully avoided talking about the book pictures...

At the brilliant #DARTS9 conference last week, I got to learn from & talk with an amazing range of people, and had the wonderful opportunity to talk about my journey as a researcher librarian. I'm planning to periodically share my slides, & relevant books I love that I illustrated the slides with.

I’m so grateful that @archaetexts.bsky.social took a couple of photos of me presenting at #DARTS9 yesterday. I have a bit of a funny expression on my face here, but I’m in flow, and forgot about the anxiety!

It was great to have so many conversations afterward, about #systematicreview and more.

Hotel set in green grounds

Riverside view

Swans on the river surrounded by trees

Back to normal work today after 2 great days at #darts9. I intended to post more during, but I just can’t keep up with notes and social media!

In summary, it was a very inspirational conference that left me (and others!) feeling optimistic, supported, and empowered.

Plus, the venue was beautiful!

What are you doing now you’re back from #DARTS9 and the rest of the family have gone to bed Alice? Why, I’m writing notes on my reflections from the conference of course. (Maybe to write up. If I keep up the momentum. Which takes me to another reflection!)

Goodbye from #darts9! Thank you to all our amazing speakers and delegates - it’s been a superb conference!

A fascinating final talk at Darts9 conference from Frankie Marsh and Lucy Woolhouse about making research more inclusive to ensure research support is available for all #Darts9

Thanks @alicecann.bsky.social for liveblogging our workshop! We hope #DARTS9 enjoyed it 😊

It is the end of #DARTS9! An amazing two days. The committee are now at the front for a final wrap-up. It is 20 years since the start of the conference.

Completely agree - research support should be for everyone! @lucywoolhouse.bsky.social & #FrankieMarsh #Darts9

Prompt: what kind of research questions do you have that could help meet the aims of research support? #DARTS9

Lots of need for advocacy - demonstrate the importance of what they’ve been doing #DARTS9