Transforming the library into a research support hub

This post is part of a growing series on the Library Beyond the Library. 

Libraries are increasingly engaged in partnerships with other units across campus to contribute to institutional needs in research support. In many cases, this means the establishment of new operational structures that extend beyond internal library hierarchies and allow libraries—and their partners—to synergistically support institutional priorities.

The Montana State University Research Alliance centralizes multiple research support units within the library, fostering collaboration and streamlining research support for the entire campus. Launched in 2023, this initiative eliminates the need for researchers to navigate a complex network of disparate resources. The shared space encourages deeper collaboration between units, enhances referral processes, and creates new connections.

The Research Alliance has increased awareness of library services and solidified the library’s role as a central hub for research support at MSU.

On 2 October 2024, the OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) hosted a webinar featuring Research Alliance partners. In this webinar, the partners offered candid reflections on the challenges and rewards of this innovative model after one year. The webinar recording offers details about the five stakeholder units’ perspectives on the creation of the Research Alliance. Their shared experiences may be of value to institutions considering a similar effort.

The Research Alliance 

The MSU Research Alliance unites five campus units under a single roof to streamline and enhance research support: 

• Office of Research Development
• Center for Faculty Excellence
• Undergraduate Research
• Research Cyberinfrastructure
• Research Optimization, Analytics, and Data Services (ROADS) within the MSU Library

These units collectively support faculty, researchers, and students through the full research life cycle. Services include proposal development, data management and visualization, publication assistance, data sharing, and research analytics.

Professional staff from each unit are now co-located on the third floor of the MSU Library in a flexible space designed for consultations, workshops, and events. This co-location and unified branding increase visibility and create a seamless, integrated support system, reducing the need for users to navigate previously dispersed services.

The recent webinar featured perspectives from each of the Alliance’s stakeholder groups, with presentations by: 

• Jason Clark, Head of ROADS, MSU Library
• Coltran Hophan-Nichols, Director of Systems and Research Computing
• Nicole Motzer, Director, Office of Research Development
• Chatanika “Nika” Stoop, Assistant Director, Center for Faculty Excellence
• Anna Tuttle, Director, Undergraduate Scholars Program

Origin story 

The idea for the Research Alliance originated nearly a decade ago with former University Librarian Kenning Arlitsch, who envisioned the library as a central hub for research support.

Realizing this vision required years of patient effort—socializing the idea, identifying partners, building relationships, securing buy-in from those partners, and eventually gaining institutional support and funding from the provost. This effort exemplifies what we call “social interoperability,” the building and maintaining of collaborative relationships across units to enable project success and user adoption. 

OCLC Research Library Partnership affiliates have, as a benefit of membership, the opportunity to consult directly with RLP program officers, and I met with Jason Clark and others several times in 2023 to provide an external perspective on their effort. Jason noted in an earlier blog post, that “Conversations with Rebecca crystallized our thinking about the Research Alliance partnership and helped us clearly define the MSU Library’s role. Moreover, her [social interoperability] workshop with the Alliance partners helped ground our work together, got us thinking about shared services and projects, and set us on our current path to a successful opening of the Research Alliance. . . .”

To make space for the Research Alliance, the library reallocated a student study area, appointing library faculty and staff as organizational leads to establish the Research Alliance’s home. This move raised valid concerns about potential impacts on library space and autonomy. However, the library’s leadership saw it as a bold step to cement its role as the physical and strategic center of research support.

Why the creation of a research hub matters  

At most research institutions, research support services are scattered across campus, making it harder for students and researchers to find and use what they need. The Research Alliance addresses this by centralizing support.

MSU’s initiative also aligns with its strategic priorities as an R1 (very high research activity) institution. The university aims to strengthen its scholarly reputation and increase research impact. It also seeks to deliver high-impact teaching and is committed to providing undergraduates with early research opportunities.

Benefits, challenges, and lessons learned 

The webinar presenters openly reflected back on their first year of operations, offering insights that other institutions may leverage.  

Benefits 

• Increased visibility and awareness of services: Co-location has increased awareness and use of campus services by researchers and students.
• Centralized research support: Researchers no longer have to navigate multiple units spread across campus to find the research support services they need. Staff can make real-time connections with experts nearby, helping researchers take advantage of all the resources available.
• Enhanced collaboration: Co-location has fostered informal relationship-building, helping staff gain deeper knowledge of each unit’s expertise. This leads to more informed referrals and improved service for faculty and students.
• Competitive advantage: Improved convenience and access to research support services supports MSU’s competitiveness in a global research landscape.
• Increased visibility for the library: The library is now physically and operationally positioned at the center of the research support activities at MSU.

Challenges 

• Space constraints: MSU’s expanding campus creates ongoing space challenges. While the multipurpose design of the Research Alliance space is inviting, events and meetings sometimes disrupt staff and users.
• Leadership churn: Key leaders left MSU during the implementation of the Research Alliance, creating a temporary leadership gap that resulted in uncertainty and slowed progress.
• Decision-making structure: While institutional hierarchies and reporting lines remain unchanged, the Alliance still lacks a formal decision-making framework for its confederated units. Work is underway to develop a rubric for equitable and effective decision-making.

Lessons learned 

• Articulating shared goals. While each unit has its own mission and goals, members of the Alliance have found that they need an apparatus for coordinating and asserting their shared vision and goals. They have facilitated this work through a strategic planning retreat and regular meetings.
• Intentionality: Intentional engagement is key to maximizing the Alliance’s benefits. Not all team members can be co-located due to limited library space, which means some individuals are separated from their main unit. Regardless of where their desk permanently resides, it’s important to stay connected with their home unit, in addition to connecting with others in the Alliance space. For example, while Coltran Hophan-Nichols’s principal office remains off-campus, he holds weekly office hours and workshops at the Alliance and remains in the space afterward to work. This practice strengthens cross-unit relationships and fosters collaboration. Fun and informal events, like a Great British Baking Show bakeoff, have further strengthened both professional and social ties.

Synergies  

Proximity has helped Research Alliance units collaborate in new ways that benefit each unit and the campus as a whole.  

• For instance, the Library’s ROADS unit and the Office of Research Development jointly created a partnership database to capture, track, and promote faculty engagement. This tool helps connect new faculty with potential collaborators across campus.
• The Office of Research Development and the Center for Faculty Excellence have also co-hosted two grant writing bootcamps. Their close proximity and deeper awareness of campus services now streamline referrals, helping researchers access the resources and expertise needed for competitive proposals.

Situating the library as a hub for research support 

By hosting the Research Alliance, the MSU Library has strategically positioned itself at the center of research support—both physically and in terms of its perceived role on campus.

By physically positioning the library as the hub of research support, the library powerfully asserts its central role in supporting institutional priorities.

Jason Clark highlighted this shift, noting, “The visibility, the interactions, the people moving into our space who haven’t really been a part of library visits–this is an understated benefit. The movement of administrators, new faculty, and established faculty into the library . . . is novel and important. These are stakeholders actually moving into our space.”

This shift is significant because many faculty may not have physically visited the library for years, particularly if they no longer use physical collections. As a result, they may not have perceived the library as a valuable contributor and stakeholder in research. Today, faculty come to the library not just for collections, but for research support—physically embodying the evolving, largely virtual role libraries play in research.

The Research Alliance exemplifies what we call “the library beyond the library,” a concept describing how library expertise and capacities are being combined with those from other campus units, often through transformative new collaborative structures. These partnerships extend the library’s role beyond traditional collections management, communicating a more complex value proposition to stakeholders who may be unfamiliar with how library skills align with institutional priorities. The Research Alliance visibly demonstrates and embodies the continued value and central role of the library in supporting institutional research.

Looking ahead 

This initiative has improved research support at Montana State, breaking down silos and helping researchers connect with services that can boost their productivity. The team’s optimism is truly inspiring. As one member said, “I love us”—a powerful affirmation of the success of this cross-unit partnership.

What’s most exciting to me is how this effort has demonstrated the library’s value proposition to a host of campus stakeholders. By physically positioning the library as the hub of research support, the library powerfully asserts its central role in supporting institutional priorities. This has enhanced the library’s visibility among campus stakeholders, aligning its value proposition more closely with institutional priorities.