Towards digital scholarship services in China’s university libraries. Establishing a guiding framework from literature
| Date | 04 February 2019 |
| Pages | 108-126 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2018-0074 |
| Published date | 04 February 2019 |
| Author | Lihong Zhou,Ruhua Huang,Tim Zijlstra |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Towards digital scholarship
services in China’s
university libraries
Establishing a guiding framework
from literature
Lihong Zhou and Ruhua Huang
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, and
Tim Zijlstra
University of Derby, Derby, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to reporton a literature reviewthat aimed to establish a guiding framework for
the developmentof digital scholarship services in China’s university libraries.
Design/methodology/approach –The framework was developed through systematically searching,
screening, assessing,coding and aggregating digital scholarship services as reported in the existing body of
literature.Three types of literature were included in the analysis:international academic literature as reported
in English;academic literature in Chinese; and relevant professionalreports.
Findings –The literature analysispointed to 25 different digital scholarship services,which emerged in six
themes: supporting services, formulating research ideas, locating research partners, writing proposals,
conductingresearch and publishing results.
Originality/value –Although this literaturereview focused on university libraries in China, theresearch
findings and the guiding framework developed provide useful insights and indications that can be shared
across internationalborders.
Keywords University libraries, Digital scholarship, Digital scholarship services,
Guiding framework
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
University libraries have always played an important role in supporting research and
knowledge creation in all subjects and disciplines (Zhao, 2009). As we are increasingly
accelerating towards a networked world, where academic resources are expected to be
online, interactive, curatedand publicly available, libraries as informationservice providers
have to deliver greater in number and more varied information services to researchers
through digital and networked channels (Goh, 2001;McRostie, 2016;Russell et al.,1999).
Thus, university libraries have become even more important players in the creation,
preservation and dissemination of information, as well as in providing collaborative
research embedded services that encourage, facilitate and catalyse knowledge and practice
innovations (Tzocand Millard, 2017).
This work was supported by The National Social Science Fund of China (17CTQ042).
EL
37,1
108
Received12 April 2018
Revised2 September 2018
Accepted22 September 2018
TheElectronic Library
Vol.37 No. 1, 2019
pp. 108-126
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-04-2018-0074
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
In China’s professional library and research communities, there is a general perception
that digital scholarship is an emerging and effective service model, not only for the
reform of traditional library management and service infrastructure but also to bring
university libraries closer to their users through the provision of user-centric research
support services.
Nevertheless, and interestingly, there is a lack of widely accepted definition for digital
scholarship as an emerging field (Mulligan, 2016). Some researchers, for instance Lynch
(2014, p. 10), even claim that digital scholarship is “an incredibly awkward term that
people have come up with to describe a complex group of developments”.Mulligan (2016)
asserts that some researchers resist adopting a rigid definition of digital scholarship
fearing that it can constrain experimentation or adoption by fellow researchers, who may
get bogged down in what is or is not within the bounds. The most widely adopted
definition by far has been coined by Rumsey (2011, p. 2), a former director of the
Scholarly Communication Institute at the University of Virginia: “digital scholarship is
the use of digital evidence and method, digital authoring, digital publishing, digital
curation and preservation, and digital use and reuse of scholarship”. By synthesizing
existing definitions, Tzoc and Millard (2017) maintain that digital scholarship transcends
traditional methods and techniques of research by applying new technologies to advance
the processes of research and innovation.
Actually, the provision of digital scholarship services (DSSs) is not completely different
from traditional library services.They can be seen as a natural extension to better facilitate
the generationand sharing of knowledge, ranging from providingvirtual and physical spaces
for learning and research to supporting interdisciplinary research activities on big data,
digital application development,and longitudinal investigations (Sinclair, 2014). DSS brings
together researchers,students, technologists and librarians in universitylibraries to develop
digital projects by providing a varietyof scholarly support and research services (Tzoc and
Millard,2017).
Many Chinese library professionals and researchers (E, 2017;Shao, 2017;Xie and Liu,
2017;Zhou, 2015) believe that developing DSS is an unavoidable and important step for
the growth and advancement of China’s university libraries. However, and in truth, the
DSS development in China’s university libraries is merely at an early, exploring stage
(Xiong et al., 2016). There is a lack of effective and practically applicable approach, which
can clearly demonstrate and drive the processes of DSS development through
remodelling and restructuring the existing library service model and management
structure.
This article reports on a research project, which aims to develop a comprehensive
guiding framework for the development of DSS in China’s university libraries. Specifically,
this article presentsthe research findings drawn from a literature review as the first stage of
research. The literature review focuses on developing a framework by identifying DSS as
reported in the existing body of literature.The DSS framework is expected to be of practical
value to Chinese university libraries. It can also serve as a theoretical base for empirical
studies to be carried outat later stages.
2. Review methods and process
2.1 Review objectives and questions
As stated above, this review aims to establish a comprehensive and integrated DSS
framework, which can be used for guiding the development of DSS in China’s university
libraries. Hence, the following review questions were formulated to orient the practice of
literature selectionand analysis:
Digital
scholarship
services
109
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