By Neil Grimes, Education & Curriculum Materials Librarian, William Paterson University

History of Research Sprints

Academic librarians have struggled to find ways to partner with course faculty in their research and instruction due to a shortage of time or other resources which may prevent a partnership.  Sometimes, it is the failure to communicate specific librarian skill sets to course faculty.  In May of 2016, the University of Kansas (KU), a Research Level I institution, came up with the concept of Research Sprints as a possible solution to both of these problems (University of Kansas and University of Minnesota, 2022).  Dr. Pamella R. Lach, then Head of the Center for Faculty and Staff Initiatives and Engagement at KU Libraries, now the Digital Humanities Librarian at San Diego State University and Brian Rosenblum, co-director of the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities created this innovative concept (University of Kansas and University of Minnesota, 2022). Research Sprints are structured to foster creativity and provide intensely focused work during one-week partnerships between academic librarians and faculty members who work together on the same project in the same space.  The goal of a Research Sprint is to produce a tangible product, but also align into the course faculty members’ larger research and instruction project goals. 

The initial Research Sprints program hosted three projects in the areas of journalism, geology, and communications (University of Kansas and University of Minnesota, 2022).  In 2017, the University of Minnesota (UMN), also a Research I institution adapted the Research Sprints concept to fit the needs of their faculty and librarians (University of Kansas and University of Minnesota, 2022).  Both KU and UMN have found that Research Sprints successfully strengthen their ties with faculty and raise the profile of the libraries at their university.

Research Sprints at both universities have covered a wide range of subject matter from “developing a smartphone app that highlights information related to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till; creating scientific research models for a geology course; collecting historical sources for a stage play that focuses on denim and the mythology of the 1848 California gold rush; and creating a supply management research tool” (Inklebarger, 2019, paragraph 3).  The sprints aren’t just producing real-world results; they are also serving as a form of outreach toward faculty so they can better understand the potential for libraries to assist with research (Inklebarger, 2019).

At the University of Minnesota, Research Sprints have included as many as 40 librarians, roughly one-third of the university’s library staff and a dozen faculty members (Inklebarger, 2019).  The sprints will last for several days and will generally have everyone working together in the same room, working on the same project in an effort to make the experience cohesive and coherent as the team works towards producing something quickly.  The proximity cuts out the back-and-forth emails, voicemails, and waiting that can delay projects for months and years.  Sprints are usually shorter at the University of Kansas; yet still manage to yield successful results.

Research Sprints at the University of Virginia (UVA)

In 2019, Research Sprints were hosted by the University of Virginia (UVA) Library for the first time. Individuals or teams of faculty worked intensively with librarians for four and a half working days. The intention of UVA’s team of faculty and library staff was to work without distractions to produce a tangible product or outcome. The UVA program supports projects at any phase of the scholarly lifecycle.  Here is a link to examples of previously supported Research Sprint projects at UVA: https://www.library.virginia.edu/services/faculty/funded-projects. 

Research Sprints provide faculty with an excellent opportunity to get started on a new project or overcome an obstacle on an existing project.  “Startup projects might benefit from literature reviews or facilitated brainstorming, or from the design of a roadmap toward the application of technology to a research or a teaching problem; in-progress projects might require help on information or data organization or curation” (University of Virginia, 2022, paragraph 2).  Projects that are near completion might benefit “from assistance in managing scholarly communications or designing programs, or identifying and evaluating intellectual property or copyright issues” (University of Virginia, 2022, paragraph 2).  

Potential project areas include:

• Archival research

• Data and metadata creation, management, analysis, and preservation

• Literature reviews

• Intellectual property/copyright

• Application of technology to a research or teaching problem

• Grant proposals

• Program planning

• Collaborative or interdisciplinary team start-up

• Open educational resource adoption or creation (open textbooks, teaching videos, etc.)

• Pedagogy and instructional design (course assignment redesign, creation of learning objects, etc.)

• Preservation of scholarly work

• Publication proposal or journal creation

(University of Virginia, 2022, paragraph 3)

Implications for New Jersey Academic Libraries

In the state of New Jersey, there are 51 two- and four-year academic libraries that make up membership to the Virtual Academic Library Environment (VALE) whose mission is to further excellence in learning and research through innovative and collaborative approaches to information resources and services (VALE NJ-Edge, 2022).  Imagine, if each of our New Jersey institutions implemented the Research Sprint structure to support faculty research and scholarship.  The end result could be more national and state grant submissions, more innovative research projects being pursued, more scholarly publications for faculty, the creation of more OER resources that benefit students, unique archival research, and data/metadata creation, management, analysis, and preservation.  Research Sprints advocate for the important role that academic librarians play in supporting faculty scholarship and institutional success.  The possibilities are endless for New Jersey institutions if higher education administrators, library administrators, and individual academic librarians collectively embrace this innovative approach to support faculty in an intentional and focused way.  Having recently worked with two academic faculty members in the College of Education at William Paterson University on an Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) grant proposal, I can see the benefit that a Research Sprint can have in supporting a grant proposal in meeting a submission deadline.  

For a toolkit and more information on how you can run your own Research Sprints at your academic institution with your library team, go to http://researchsprints.org. For the benefit of our New Jersey institutions, the academic libraries where we work, and our students, let’s consider implementing Research Sprints at our institutions as a means of providing a library team-based approach to supporting the scholarly work and unique needs of our higher education faculty now and into the future.  

References

Inklebarger, T. (2018, December 20). Academic speed trials. American Libraries Magazine. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/01/02/research-sprints-academic-speed-trials/

University of Kansas and University of Minnesota. (2022). History. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/research-sprints/about-us/history?authuser=0

University of Virginia. (2022). University of Virginia Library. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.library.virginia.edu/services/faculty/research-sprints/ 

VALE NJ-Edge. (2022). Member directory. VALE. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://vale.njedge.net/member-directory/?wpbdp_view=all_listing

Neil D. Grimes is the Education & Curriculum Materials Librarian at William Paterson University.  He can be reached at grimesn@wpunj.edu.