Altmetric opportunities for Libraries

W. Gerritsma

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    Abstract

    Just over five years ago the concept of altmetrics was minted. For libraries and librarians this has brought a new plethora of opportunities. In the first place there is the traditional extension role. Outreach opportunities on the subject of altmetrics are manyfold, and librarians could seize the opportunity to become the general information source on altmetrics within their institution. The second area of involvement is the collection and aggregation of altmetric indicators, from single publication to collections of papers on subjects or scientists, departments, faculties or the university as whole. It goes without saying that collecting the indicators is coupled to interpretation and explanation as well. The third component of the altmetric opportunities for libraries are what I call the groundwork. Preparation of the institution's output in such a way that altmetric indicators are easily collected.
    This means that we should assist researches wherever possible with obtaining their ORCiD and making sure that all output in electronic form has persistent identifiers, this is especially true for the grey literature of the university. Think of all the e-theses, working documents, report series and data sets. Collaboration with printing offices et cetera to organize the issue of DOI's are therefore essential. Having permanent identifiers for these publication will improve their dissemination, increase the citability of those publications, and make it more easy to demonstrate their impact. We should avoid the trap of collecting altmetric indicators of only peer reviewed journal articles since they come easy to use. The ultimate challenge for libraries is to collect altmetric indicators for all output of the university, as managers of the institutional bibliography, libraries are well places to play a pivotal role in the altmetric landscape.
    Original languageEnglish
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Event2:AM Altmetrics Conference - Amsterdam
    Duration: 1 Jan 20151 Jan 2015

    Conference

    Conference2:AM Altmetrics Conference
    Period1/01/151/01/15

    Bibliographical note

    Proceedings title: 2:AM Altmetrics Conference
    Place of publication: Amsterdam

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