EXPLORING RESEARCH SUPPORT BY ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS TO FACULTY MEMBERS.

This article explores the availability and relevance of research support offered by academic librarians to faculty members within the Colleges of Health Sciences and Basic and Applied Sciences at the University of Ghana, with the background that current technological changes in librarianship have made research support a critical function of academic libraries. Mixed methods research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected from faculty members and academic librarians through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews respectively. The study concluded that research support activities by academic librarians exist and are seen as very relevant to faculty members. However, as there is an increase in technological advancement in academic library services, only the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) was heavily utilized for research support whereas Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) by academic librarians to faculty, news alerts, and lists of new arrivals were the least utilized services. The study observed that academic librarians had not utilized social media in communicating research support to faculty members although they had a positive mindset about its use. The identified ways of communicating research support to faculty members were through emails, the "ask the librarian" system on university websites, presentations by academic librarians at workshops for faculty members, notices on bulletin boards and one-on-one interactions. This study recommends that academic librarians regularly update their knowledge on current trends of research support tools and services to support faculty in the conduct of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]