This 76-page report presents data from a sample of 325 faculty from research universities in the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia about their use of library resources in navigating bibliometrics and altmetrics tools. The study reports on the extent of use of library classes, videos, tutorials, brown bag lunch presentations and other sources of assistance to faculty on the growing use of bibliometric and altmetric tools. In addition, the study reports on the percentage of faculty seeking help of any kind in this area, their evaluation of the quality of the help offered, and their needs in this area currently and in the future. Data in the report is broken down by many useful criteria including age, gender, academic title, field of subject specialization, teaching load and other personal variables, as well as institutional variables such as world university ranking, public/private status, host country, and other institutional variables.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
· Of those surveyed, 31% have sought help from a librarian in using a bibliometrics or altmetrics tool while 67% have not. Help-seeking is most pronounced for those in Australia/New Zealand (42.5%) and least pronounced for those in the USA and UK/Ireland (29%).
· Ease of finding library help with bibliometric or altmetric tools increased with age: 54% of those 31-39, 62% of those 40-49, 71% of those 50-59, and 75% of those 60 and over reported it very easy or easy to find help in this area at their academic libraries.
· Only 8% of those sampled overall had taken a class at their library that covered the use of bibliometric or altmetric tools.