Connections through service

Abstract

One major stakeholder of university libraries is researchers of every level. Services for this group of library users need to be smooth, direct, and beneficial to succeed. Interviews with professors, post-docs, and Ph.D. students at the medical department of Leipzig university, revealed several desiderata in the publication process. One of them is being supported by experts in graphic design, typesetting, and handling of data formats. Media designers can provide such support. The medical and sciences branch restructured the staff and implemented a media designer as a service provider in the publication process. Researchers now hand over manuscripts for typesetting or raw graphical data for polished graphics to the media design service and receive the final product. The service was first established with selected working groups and will be available for the whole faculty after evaluation. The services enabled a deep collaboration between the subject librarian, media designer, and researchers, resulting in several workshops and consultations on publication-related topics (e.g., research data, open access, literature research).