Abstract
In 2015, the library launched Discover@Bolton a service that enables the user to search across the full text of our rich range of electronic resources. Use of Discover@Bolton has exceeded all expectations: between February 2015 when the very first link appeared on the library website and February 2016 there were 193,375 searches and 23,230 visits. There is also a direct correlation between subject-related enquiries to library staff and what we know about assignments from our liaison activities and recorded searches in Discover@Bolton. Furthermore, our students use information retrieval skills they already possess: they are less likely to use Boolean operators, truncation and other “library” search techniques. Such techniques are largely at odds with the information retrieval skills employed often unwittingly in a normality where information on any given subject can be found using minimal keystrokes on either a search engine, or a tool such as Discover@Bolton. We have a duty to our entire community to grasp the nettle of research. As a library service, we are increasingly proactive in how we support all levels of research. We foster confidence in information retrieval; our research support mechanisms are for all levels of research. For example, UBIR, the University of Bolton Institutional Repository, invites engagement in open access from researchers at every stage, such as depositing examples of excellent research proposals, student poetry published in an in-house publication, theses, journal articles, book chapters and conference papers: all levels of research are represented.
Ultimately, we can demonstrate that attitudes to finding academic material: complex research is not the preserve of the most advanced researcher. This paper will explore the ways in which the library can be an integral part of the research journey, from the early stages of an undergraduate research proposal to the production of a PhD and beyond.