Sustainable and collaborative development of research support services at the university library of Paris Nanterre (France)

The University Library of Paris Nanterre in France has developed a range of robust research support services, particularly in the disciplinary fields of the humanities, in a process characterised by a voluntary, collaborative approach.

This paper presents the strategic vision, collaborative approach, planning methodology, training, capacity building and organisational change management that have gone into building a portfolio of new research and forward-looking services in the university library.

After reviewing the statutory framework and the missions of an academic library in a French university, we show how the library has ensured the robustness of its research services by integrating them into a genuine service development strategy, built on and aligned with the local, national and European research strategy on the one hand, and with the institution's projects on the other. A holistic approach to research support issues has made it possible to reshape the existing portfolio of services, giving it major strengths and putting in place a range of services that offer high added value and complement other players and partners in the university.

The adoption of a systemic management method, appropriate for a small, agile team that is powerful, reactive, and highly flexible, has enabled the services to be tailored to the research communities, using a gradual, humanistic, and experimental approach. This has had the beneficial effect of creating a strong sense of solidarity and team spirit within the library and with other departments at the university, and more colleagues now feel the desire to discover and be trained in research services, and then to participate in them by strengthening the links between research support services, training in information skills and the development of critical thinking, and of course the exploitation and mediation of academic documentary resources.

The presentation addresses the dual issue of building staff capacity and the organisational and skills sustainability through two approaches: the commitment and involvement of teams to transform the organisation from a 'castle' to a 'network' (collaborative approach to the design, management and operation of research support services); the development and maintenance of real expertise by taking up challenges and holding regular and dynamic exchanges within national, European and international professional networks. The library ensures its own resilience and that of its research services network through the various challenges it faces, in order to guarantee its ability to offer a continuous, high-quality service, while increasing its capacity to host or manage new or larger-scale projects.

As a result, the Library has committed itself to a strong dynamic of continuous skills development. The presentation details certain methods and gives a concrete example of knowledge management through the creation of a network of players and relays, supported by a comprehensive training programme and a solid documentation of practices.

Building, passing on and sharing: the library, as part of a process of acquiring expertise and integrating it into an institutional project, in collaboration with other university teams and partners, has moved from project management to change management in just a few years.