Toward Redefining Library Research Support Services in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: An Evidence-Based Practice Approach

Abstract An increasingly complex and demanding research landscape has seen university libraries rapidly evolve their services. While research data management, bibliometrics, and research impact services have predominantly featured in the literature to date, the full scope of support libraries are currently providing to their institutions is unknown. This paper aims to present an up-to-date view of the scope and extent of research support services by university libraries across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. A coding process analyzed content data from university library websites. Eleven research support areas were identified. Service delivery is split between synchronous and asynchronous modes. This paper describes a lived experience of an evidence-based library and information practice approach to improving research support services at two Australian university libraries, and while it highlights continued maturation of research support services, more research is needed to better understand influences on service development.


Introduction
For over a decade, university libraries have rapidly evolved their services in response to an increasingly complex and competitive research landscape.Research policy developments as well as national assessments such as ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) in Australia, have driven university libraries to expand and redefine services to support institutional research goals and strategic directions (Borchert & Callan, 2013;Corrall et al., 2013;Haddow & Mamtora, 2017).With increased research performance expectations and targets, university research communities have come to rely upon library expertise.Li et al. (2019) defines 'research support' as 'anything a library does to support the activity of scholarship and research at its parent institution' .With an evidence-based practice approach, two seemingly very different university library research support services collaborated to create a robust dataset and analysis of website content from across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.The aim of this activity was to generate an 'at a glance' view of what research support services currently look like in practice.
No study of this nature has been published since 2015.Within the constantly evolving higher education environment, an up-to-date view can provide evidence for the sector to review and enhance research support service offerings for their research communities and institutions.
Findings of this study are presented using a coding process that identifies research support areas, visualizes service 'coverage' by geographic location and university type, and outlines the methods used to deliver services.Discussion of these findings within the context of existing literature follows, and study limitations and suggestions for future research are outlined.It is the authors' hope that this research and demonstration of 'living evidence-based practice' will enable colleagues and other university libraries to evaluate and make informed decisions about research support services for the future.

Background
The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) was founded in 1996 and is a multi-campus, regional university in Queensland, Australia.UniSC Library operates with approximately 30 FTE staff members and serves a student population of 18 275 students and a staff population of approximately 450 academics (University of the Sunshine Coast, n.d.).Recent significant growth in research capacity, output and its higher degree by research (HDR) student cohort led to the library creating the role of Research Support Librarian with a focus on uplifting services for this cohort.
The Research Support Librarian role was created in 2021 with an initial focus on the HDR student experience that was achieved by coordination of the library's resources and initiatives, and collaboration with stakeholders across UniSC.An evidence-based practice approach was established to understand the current HDR student experience, both at a local level and more broadly, to develop a renewed value proposition and set of services designed to enable the university's growing research activities.In contrast to the emerging university and library structures of UniSC, The University of Melbourne (UoM) was founded in 1853, making it the second oldest Australian university.With a focus on research and ranked 'number 1' in Australia by Times Higher Education 2021 (The University of Melbourne, 2021), UoM has campuses across the state of Victoria; however, it is centrally focused on a metropolitan campus which is both physically and professionally linked to numerous hospitals, research centers, and research institutes.Working via a de-centralised model, The University of Melbourne Library has 11 branches across six physical locations.UoM Library serves a student population of over 54 000 (Equivalent Full Time Student Load) students-of which 48% are graduate researchers-and an academic staff population of approximately 4 900 (Full Time Equivalent) (The University of Melbourne, 2021).
At a similar time to the staffing changes at UniSC, the Scholarly Development (Research) team within the UoM Library-consisting of the Program Manager, Scholarly Development (Research) role and Scholarly Development Consultant (Research) role-was also undertaking a similar review and revitalization of research support that was offered by UoM Library.This was driven by a combination of internal and external factors: an upcoming regular service review period, the changing nature of services due to COViD-19 and online delivery, the continued development of the information management profession and work undertaken by librarians, and internal changes to staffing structures within UoM.

University library research support services in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: the story so far
Early research and literature have considered whether university libraries were prepared for a shift in supporting research and research communities.In Australia, Borchert and Callan (2013) explored the skills, practices, and services needed by the research community with an online survey and focus groups, resulting in a library staff development plan and future service development plan.Mamtora (2011) also sought to understand a new library research support role at Charles Darwin University by engaging in ongoing conversation with key library stakeholders, as well as applying evidence-based approaches to continually improve research support.Taking a broader, sector approach, Richardson et al. (2012) surveyed 13 member libraries of the Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation (QULOC), initially as an 'environmental scan' to understand best practice and identify services and service models for supporting their universities' research agendas.Specialized roles and collaboration with Offices of Research had already started to emerge; nearly two thirds of libraries had dedicated research support roles and most libraries reported representation on research committees at their universities (Richardson et al., 2012).This early research suggests that university libraries not only were ready but anticipated this shift to a more coordinated and strategic approach to supporting universities' research agendas.
So far, literature highlights service development in areas such as bibliometrics and research impact, research data management, and research infrastructure.Bibliometrics and research impact advisory services were among the first, 'natural' extensions of university library expertise to support institutional research activity (Corrall et al., 2013).In an international study, Corrall et al. (2013) investigated current offerings as well as future plans, constraints, and staff training needs for delivering bibliometric and research data support services.A near 90% for Australia and 100% response rate for Aotearoa New Zealand to the online questionnaire showed that bibliometrics training, citation reports, and h-index calculations were services most offered at the time, with disciplinary trends being a planned service (Corrall et al., 2013).In Corrall et al. (2013) study, both Ireland and the UK differed from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in that research impact was among bibliometrics training and citation reports as services most offered at that time, although the UK reported less uptake of research services in comparison to other locations and across the service scope (Corrall et al., 2013).
In relation to research data management, technology infrastructure topped services most offered across all geographical locations-Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Ireland and UK (Corrall et al., 2013).While Australia planned for guiding research data management, all other locations were focusing on creating institutional policy (Corrall et al., 2013).Although support for research data management was reported across areas to be lower than bibliometrics and research impact measurements at the time, the study indicated several opportunities to come from being further engaged in institutional research activity, such as publishing strategies, grant writing, and trends analysis (Corrall et al., 2013).Along with Bradley (2013), who identified an imperative to better understand research data management support needs, this research showed these services in their infancy.Later, Mamtora and Haddow (2015) highlighted the growth of bibliometrics and the then-new term, altmetrics, across Australian university library resources and service delivery, particularly with regard to institutional repository integration.Shortly afterwards Cox et al. (2017) reported that university libraries internationally were providing institutional leadership in research data management, particularly in advocacy and policy development areas.Evidently, university libraries have responded rapidly to enhance their research support services in order to better align with needs and contribute to institutional goals.
In Australia, Excellent in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment introduced in 2010 drove growth in bibliometric and altmetric resources (Mamtora & Haddow, 2015), the alignment of publishing advice with recent open access publishing policies by the National Health and Medical Research Council (National Health & Medical Research Council, 2022) the Australian Research Council (Australian Research Council, 2022c), and in Aotearoa New Zealand the formation of the Kaupapahere Rangahau Tuwhera -Open Research policy (Ministry of Business & Innovation & Employment, 2023)-all of which have stated current or upcoming updates to when funded research be made openly available at no or low cost.Alongside this, the continued work by the Te Mana Raraunga regarding Māori Data Sovereignty which commenced in 2015, is ongoing (Te Mana Raraunga, n.d.).These achievements of expansion of the profession must be acknowledged.However, now is opportune for an updated look across the sector of the true scope of library research support services.
Collaboration and partnerships both within the library and with external stakeholders, such as the Office of Research, have enabled successful integration of library expertise to universities' research agendas.Looking to build a deeper understanding about research support services in Australian academic libraries, Haddow and Mamtora (2017) found 'relationships' to be a key theme.Findings from Haddow and Mamtora (2017) indicated that the university's research environment, culture, and strength of its research strategy or agenda were defining factors that influenced the relationships the library had with other areas (Haddow & Mamtora, 2017).Interview respondents considered stakeholder relationships and engaging with the research community to be important, if not critical (Haddow & Mamtora, 2017).Numerous case studies evidence the important role collaborations, partnerships, and relationships have played in libraries' rapid evolution of research support services.Mamtora (2013) highlights the need to view researchers as partners in keeping up to date with the changing research landscape.Norman and Stanton (2014) at the University of Sydney describe how library involvement in an institution-wide project paved the way for the library to transition from partner to leader.And McRostie (2016) at The University of Melbourne highlights the importance of collaboration for service sustainability.Partnerships and collaborations have proven to be vital strategies for ensuring the library's expertise is integrated into whole of institution approaches for advancing research activity, agendas, and capacity.
Of course, expanding, and redefining library services to better support and align with university research activities has not been without challenges.Staffing numbers and the need to invest in the skills and knowledge required are key themes arising from the literature.Corrall et al. (2013) found that skills, knowledge gaps, and confidence levels of library staff were significant constraints in supporting university research activities, specifically the emerging support fields of bibliometrics and research data management.Haddow and Mamtora (2017) found the constant upskilling required to keep up with the rapid pace of changes, particularly with the research impact tools available, remains a challenge for library staff in Australia.Looking across both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, Kingsley et al. (2022) investigated confidence levels of librarians working in scholarly communication and found a need for structured training and professional development that is recognized by professional associations.
Although not within scope of the present study, constraints on library research support services merit acknowledgement in the process toward understanding the scope of the research support needed by universities and redefining this support going forward.
Interestingly, university libraries are now reviewing service models and finding ways to make services more sustainable and agile to meet future research support needs.A case study of The University of Queensland (UQ) library's research support services by Brown et al. (2018) reflects upon the evolution of these services.UQ Library deploy specialist, functional research support teams which work with, and support, discipline liaison librarians to upskill and deliver services (Brown et al., 2018).This service model enables UQ Library to generate the depth of knowledge needed in research support areas, as well as being agile enough to monitor trends in specific discipline domains (Brown et al., 2018).More recently, Weaver and Richardson (2021) at Griffith University library describe a 'reinvention' of research support services that involved a similar approach to UQ in having specialist research support roles provide leadership and expertise while working with discipline librarians.Weaver and Richardson (2021) outline a 'tier' service model that indicates the level support that can be provided from self-help resources (Tier 0), through to expert (Tier 3).A 'service catalogue' was also developed as part of the reinvention process that includes six services: working with data, researcher metrics, researcher profiles, scholarly publishing, open scholarship and working with literature (Weaver & Richardson, 2021).In Aotearoa New Zealand, Howie and Kara (2020) built upon definitions used to date and explore university library research support services across four areas: research impact, research data management, scholarly communication, and Kaupapa Māori Research.Research support services were found to have matured considerably across all areas over time (Howie & Kara, 2020).So, have we as a sector, now come full circle?Recent research would indicate an opportunity for reflecting, taking stock and considering the evidence for informing research support services into the future.

Purpose and aims: an unlikely collaboration
Considering how library research support services in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have evolved so far, it is of little surprise that research support colleagues from vastly different university libraries came together with very similar questions.Questions such as, what is the scope of a research support service?What services should it offer, and how?
Initially a benchmarking, or exploratory exercise as part of an evidence-based practice approach to service development and improvement, an environmental scan, aimed to provide an 'at a glance' view to better understand what current university library research support services look like in practice.The evidence was to inform internal stakeholder conversations and renewed service value propositions to better align with current research practice challenges, as well as institutional strategic goals.However, after initial discussions and information sharing, the authors decided to collaborate to generate a more robust dataset with an agreed upon data analysis approach and, ultimately, share this evidence to help enable evidence-based practice approaches by other university libraries also seeking to make informed decisions about their research support services.
The purpose of this research was to create an up-to-date view of the scope and extent of research support services across Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries.This paper specifically aims to answer two questions: 1. What areas of research (practice) do Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries support? 2. How are Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries supporting these areas?
This study aims to build upon previous studies, including the numerous case studies which describe individual university library research support service trajectories, by offering a whole-of-sector glance using data from university library websites.The authors hope this 'at a glance' view of research support services will ignite and inspire further conversation about how university libraries continue to meet the needs of our research communities.

Method
Evidence-based library and information practice was the framework within which this research was conducted.Evidence-based practice is an approach to continuously improving professional practice that involves a structured process of articulating questions, collecting, interpreting, and applying valid, reliable, and relevant evidence to support decision-making (Howlett & Thorpe, 2018).The evidence-based library and information practice process (arguably) has five steps-articulate, assemble, appraise, apply, assess (Koufogiannakis & Brettle, 2016).However, Thorpe (2021) recently added 'communicate' as a necessary addition to the well-established '5 A's process' .Specifically, this paper addresses the first four steps of asking questions, assembling and appraising evidence, and then reflecting upon how this evidence has been applied to our respective research support services, namely the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Melbourne.
Assembly of this evidence took the form of collating data from websites of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand universities and conducting a content analysis.Two previous studies have used a content analysis method to explore and describe research support services by university libraries.Mamtora and Haddow (2015) gathered data from library websites of Australian universities to determine the extent and types of tools and supports being provided.Looking more broadly, Li et al. (2019) selected 76 libraries from universities listed in the QS World University Rankings, six of which were Australian universities (including the University of Melbourne) and conducted a website analysis of library research support.Coding and grouping processes enabled Li et al. (2019) to identify seven kinds of research support services: research data management, open access, scholarly publishing, research impact measurement, research guides, research consultation, and research tools recommendation, and they concluded that recognized research support has become a significant library service (Li et al., 2019).A similar, more complete overview of what research support services look like across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand has not yet been captured, including any differences between type of university and geographical location.

Source
Library websites of publicly funded universities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand were the data source for this research.Australia has 36 publicly funded universities and Aotearoa New Zealand has eight, totaling 44 data sources.

Collection
Data from university library websites were collected throughout 2022 and in a comparable way to Mamtora and Haddow (2015) whereby quantitative data were collected into an Excel spreadsheet for coding.The library websites selected were central (i.e., not specific to a discipline) and, where possible, the 'landing page' of research support services was used.This decision was made as these pages give the most holistic overview of research support services offered by a university library.The focus of the data collection was on qualitative information provided on library research support websites that presented information on the research-focused support activities the university library delivered to the research community.The authors noted (and later quantified) mentions of research support areas, defined as any occurrence of an information and/or digital literacy service, resource, overview, explanation, etc. Content was tallied by giving a value of '1′ for a mention of a research support area, and if not mentioned, a value of '0′.
Ethics approval was not sought for this study as data collected were information from publicly available university library websites, and apart from the authors' institutions, no other individual university or university library is specifically mentioned or compared within the data nor data analysis hereafter, therefore respecting a level of anonymity without hindering evidence quality needed to answer the research questions.

Analysis
To assess the nature and scope of research support services by university libraries in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, data analysis was conducted in three parts: 1.A coding process involving three phases identified the research (practice) areas supported by university libraries, 2. Mentions of research areas were counted by type of university and geographical location and then calculated into percentage values to reveal the relative extent of support services provided by university libraries, and 3. A coding process and counts of the methods used by university libraries to deliver research support.
The coding process resembled a thematic analysis, a way of identifying, analyzing, and reporting themes found in qualitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006).This 'theoretical' approach took existing labels and definitions for research support in the literature.In addition the research questions, guided but not dictated, the initial and later higher level research areas (or themes) found in the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006).Therefore, labels for research areas represent a continuation of an evolving language used in the library research support service literature.Specifically, this study builds upon the language used in Mamtora and Haddow (2015;Haddow & Mamtora, 2017) and Howie and Kara (2020), reflecting an ongoing maturation of professional practice and services in library research support over the last decade.Methods or service activities of university libraries in delivering research support were analyzed in two ways: format of information delivered to the research community (synchronous and asynchronous), and integration of the service, or the extent of co-presentation of library services with other areas of the university.
Analysis by geographic location-Australia and Aotearoa New Zealandwas conducted, as well as by type of university-Group of Eight (Go8), the Regional Universities Network (RUN) and neither Go8 nor RUN.
Within the Australian public university system, the 'Group of Eight' consortia were formed in 1999 which 'comprises Australia's leading research-intensive universities' and 'is focused on, and is a leader in, influencing the development and delivery of long-term sustainable national higher education and research policy, and in developing elite international alliances and research partnerships' (Group of Eight Australia, 2022).Go8 universities are the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, the University of Adelaide, Monash University and UNSW Sydney.
The Regional Universities Network (RUN) is 'a collaborative group of seven member universities, which are internationally recognized and are regionally headquartered institutions that deliver local and global impact.Our universities have campuses across Australia, creating regional strength and national success' (Regional Universities Network, 2022).RUN universities are Charles Sturt University, Central Queensland University, Federation University, Southern Cross University, the University of New England, the University of Southern Queensland, and the University of the Sunshine Coast.It is established practice to compare these types of universities for further nation-wide analysis.

Findings
Data analysis found all (44) Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries provide a research support service in some shape or form, at least by information provided via a central website.However, the extent of services appears to vary by geographic location as well as type of university (in Australia).The coding process identified 11 research support areas that form the services provided by university libraries to their research communities.The following provides further description and visual representations of the data.

Research areas supported by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries
Three rounds of the coding process found 11 research areas mentioned on university library websites.These areas are described in the table below (Table 1).Where a sub-topic appears the same as the research area is where a university library mentions this area generally.Other sub-topics, including variations, are mentioned specifically on a university library website.

Research support services by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries
Comparatively, Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries provide a similar support service by research area.In both geographic locations, Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries individually mention most, but not all research areas.On average, an Australian or Aotearoa New Zealand university library website will mention eight out of the 11 identified research areas.Notable variances between Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries include such research support areas as repository, copyright, reference management and online engagement, as shown in the below 'spider' or 'radar' diagram (Figure 1).
For raw count of mentions on each research support areas across all 44 universities, see Table 2, and for mentions of research support areas by geographic location is provided in Table 3.

Research support services by type of Australian university
The 'spider' diagram below (Figure 2) shows differences in the research support areas covered by university library services between types of Australian university-Group of Eight (Go8), Regional University Network (7 RUN members) and neither Go8 nor RUN universities ( 21).
The central library websites of RUN member universities appear to mention (or provide information, advice, or services for) reference management, finding information, copyright, and complementary services more than other types of Australian university libraries.But the central library websites of RUN member universities mention research profiles the least out of the three types of Australian university library websites.Another notable difference is that the repository is mentioned the least across the Go8 university libraries compared to RUN members and those neither Go8 nor RUN.Those university libraries not Go8 nor RUN members appear to mention their repository and bibliometrics, engagement and impact information more than Go8 and RUN members.

Prevalence of research support areas
The top three most mentioned research support areas across Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites were: Publishing, Bibliometrics, Engagement and Impact, and Advanced Data Skills.Looking more closely and breaking these down into sub-areas, mentions of research support areas appear mostly in broad, general terms and not in depth, except for mentioning or having information about open access publishing, a sub-area of 'Publishing' on a university library website.The bar graph below (Figure 3) shows the percentage or prevalence of research support areas by university type, including Aotearoa New Zealand.
The depth of information about most mentioned research support areas also varied by university type.The below images indicate this depth by sub-area and university type for the top three mentioned research support

Service activities for university library research support
A variety of formats are used by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries to deliver research support services.However, based on the data captured from university library websites, there appears to be little integration between the library's research support service and other areas of the university.

Format of information
Across all 44 university libraries, 176 information delivery points were mentioned across 13 different formats of delivery.These were divided almost evenly into two delivery types: synchronous (87, or 49% of information delivery points) and asynchronous (89, or 51% of information delivery points).The table (Figure 7) below provides a breakdown of service or information format.

Integration of service
Across the 44 universities, most libraries provide research support services via stand-alone library services, focusing on holistic library services.In the same way that institutional repositories are mentioned, some university library websites were found to have distinct names for research support such as 'Researcher Toolkit' and 'REDI' whilst others present their research support information via pages labeled 'support researchers' and 'I am a researcher' .The table below (Figure 8) outlines the delivery formats, how these were defined and the number of university libraries.
Looking at the universities geographically, the majority of both Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian university libraries have stand-alone library services (Figure 9).No discernible differences were found between the three Australian university types.focus, age of the institution and staff and student populations.What is interesting however, is how the 11 research areas can be further divided into four different service maturation trajectories-established, emerging, traditional, and peripheral.These areas are so labeled because of the varying approaches taken and the extent by which Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries present information about them on their websites.The table (Figure 10) below summarizes this categorization.

Growth of established research support areas
The most reported on research support areas to date-research impact and research data management, have grown extensively over the years.In 2013, Corrall et al. (2013) reported bibliometrics training was offered by over 75% of Australian university libraries and 86% of Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries.By 2015, Mamtora and Haddow (2015) reported that over 90% of Australian university libraries had dedicated research impact webpages; although, of the six Go8 university libraries in Li et al. (2019), only three indicated support services in research impact.Research data management support services have arguably experienced the most growth in a very short amount of time.In Corrall et al. (2013), a quarter of both Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries offered guidance for research data management.Fast forward to 2022 and nearly 90% of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites have information about research data management and data skills.However, Howie and Kara (2020) note that the most widely offered research data management services were only offered by five out of the eight Aotearoa New Zealand, which reflects the lack of depth of information by university library websites in this study (see Figure 6).Both the existing literature and findings of this 'at a glance' research indicate maturation of bibliometrics and research impact services.
The most mentioned research area on Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites is publishing, and it appears also to be the most established.Of the six Go8 university libraries reported in Li et al. (2019), all were found to provide support services for open access publishing.In Aotearoa New Zealand, Howie and Kara (2020) found all university libraries offered publishing advice.And in this research, 43 out of 44 university libraries across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand mention publishing support on their websites.Therefore, publishing advice is likely to become 'traditional' as being part of the library's work in supporting university research.

Emerging research support areas
Research areas categorized as 'emerging' are among the least mentioned on Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites as well as least reported in the literature to date.Perhaps due to drivers in the research landscape related to funding requirements and institutional goals, these areas appear a case of 'practice leading theory' .University libraries have had to respond to drivers quickly with little evidence existing in the literature with which to refer about how to develop services in emerging research support areas.This research also found that emerging research support areas often appear in conjunction with an established support area.For example, 'researcher profiles' with 'publishing' and 'online engagement' with 'bibliometrics, engagement, and impact' .Given the prevalence of ORCiDs in the publishing and research system, it is unsurprising that ORCiD was the most common researcher profile listed.Only one other researcher profile was listed by name, and this was an institutional-specific researcher profile, combining more generalist researcher profiles such as ORCiD, their staff identity, and repository profile.Online engagement was found to have the least amount of information on Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites.A future question might be whether university libraries will continue to develop support and services in these areas apart from other university research support areas, integrate this support with others, or prompt other areas of the university to lead in providing support and guidance such as marketing and communications services.

Approaches to language use and 'traditional' library services for research
Although broad themes or research areas were able to be identified and defined within the data, how these research areas are presented and discussed by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries varied greatly.For example, the use of the term 'research impact' has changed greatly in a short period of time.A relatively new term within the university research support sector, Mamtora and Haddow (2015) referred to the work librarians were doing in the bibliometric and altmetric space as supporting the research impact work for the work being conducted by the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Excellence in Research for Australia.Within less than 10 years, this context no longer reflects the current use of 'research impact' with common understanding-as led by the ARC-to be the influence of academic work beyond academia (Australian Research Council, 2019) and not regarding the bibliometric support of 'academic impact' .Further developments in this space have also included the phrase 'research impact and engagement' , again led by the sector-wide ARC (Australian Research Council, 2019).However, given the growth and maturation of these services, 'research impact' and 'engagement and impact' are often undefined and used almost interchangeably on university library websites, likely dependent upon the language adopted at the institution.
Similarly with institutional repositories, these are often called a specific name (e.g., OPAL, RUNE, Tuwhera, ePrints) without further explanation or context.It is possible then that language differences between university libraries present experience issues where new researchers and staff who are not aware of the institution's research practice language or specific name for its repository, for example, cannot find information, support, or advice.The lack of information and advice relating to 'finding information' in the website content data in comparison to other research areas was also a surprise.An explanation for this may be that university libraries have more detailed information in discipline-specific parts of their resources and outreach or they are teaching these in the undergraduate space and not to researchers.If the latter, this may raise some concern, especially for researchers who change countries and/or institutions and may not know how to access and search certain databases, for researchers to be best kept up to date with changing search strategies and functions of databases, and for the overall visibility of what is seen by many as a core library function and service point.Therefore, in addition to better utilization of a central university library website for all research areas the library supports, a sector-wide, unified language for research practice and support areas is sorely needed to enable the continuation of building research capacity and capabilities, both within and outside the university library.

Collaboration, integration, and 'peripheral' research support
Despite existing literature indicating the importance of collaborating with other university areas and creating partnerships in delivering research support services, this research found little evidence of integration with other services on Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites.However, some university libraries had distinct library programmes demarcated in various ways such as a programme title or alignment with a contextualized framework.Anecdotal and professional evidence, that is what is known or experienced by the authors and perhaps other library practitioners in the sector, suggests that university libraries who teach into established institution-wide programmes targeting researchers are not mentioned on the library website.This lack of cross-communication implies a more siloed service on university library websites than is actually the case.Further research as to why would provide more explanation about the effectiveness of integration with other research support areas and its influence on the library's service.
When other support services are mentioned, these often pertain to complimentary services such as academic skills, study skills, software and coding training, graduate research centers, and an overall more holistic student experience.Complimentary research support services cover a variety of services from writing skills, classes on software and coding, research design, and setting up database alerts.Much research-specific resources related to reference management and copyright provided a summary and then linked out to more established library resources on other websites.Notably as well, fewer workshops are run explicitly in these areas with both being regular points of consultation and reference management having numerous self-help resources.

Applying the evidence to research support services
Stemming from this research, the authors from the University of Melbourne have undertaken steps to look further into and address some of the points raised.This has largely been regarding language used on websites.In reviewing the central information page on research support, this research highlighted the need for clear hierarchical structures and language.This focus has been on listing services on the research support library website in a broader language that provides some context (e.g., 'bibliometrics' instead of 'RILAS' which is the name of the Library's bibliometrics service), as well as using more contextualized terms in workshops and outreach (e.g., replacing 'green OA' with 'open via the institutional repository').Alongside this, work is being undertaken to outline a tiered service model of this support more fully, like the work discussed in Weaver and Richardson (2021), itself a continuation of Brown et al. (2018).Further, the University of Melbourne is having continued conversations around 'research impact' in which the Library is an identified stakeholder.UoM has taken a broader definition than the ARC and other institutions, stating 'The University defines research impact as "the effect on, change or benefit to scholarly knowledge and the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life"' (The University of Melbourne, 2022).This inclusion of 'scholarly knowledge' allows for bibliometrics on academic outputs within academic spaces to be used in these conversations.Unlike other tertiary institutions analyzed, this broader definition has led UoM Library to use the language of 'bibliometrics' over 'research impact' as this demarcates the specific service UoM Library offers as distinct, yet complimentary, to the broader research impact services offered throughout the broader institution.
At the University of the Sunshine Coast, this research was an opportunity to learn more about the story so far, and the current 'state of play' of research support services by university libraries in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.Evidence from this research confirmed that the Library's research support service is in a growth phase overall and is evolving its services to better position research expertise more broadly across the university, as well as to serve current and future university research needs.This benchmarking exercise identified research support areas that are common, established, and emerging to other university libraries in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, from which to further establish a scope for its research support service.Additionally, the evidence has informed conversations with university stakeholders in enhancing coordination and quality of HDR student research training, including the development of a coordinated library research training program.Evaluation of the pilot library research training program alongside evidence of the improved HDR student experience will help inform future iterative enhancements, including staffing models and service offerings.
The authors recommend colleagues in other institutions undertake a review of their own services to assess where their central library websites have resources and services under each of the four defined categories.This initial assessment may not only highlight strength and opportunity areas for growth-breadth or depth in accordance with institutional goals and directions, but also where language and resources can be updated to improve communication, navigation and accessibility to services by using language more aligned with what is used and recognized by researchers and other non-library professional staff.For example, if an institutional repository is only being referred to by a specific title without context as to what it is or when it should be used, a perhaps more generic, or plain language terms may be used.This is particularly important for when academics move between institutions.

Limitations and further research
There are three key limitations to the data used in this research.Firstly, data collected were found on publicly facing university library websites.
Information located behind student or staff logins was excluded from the dataset.Therefore, it is possible this research did not capture services, approaches or other information used to support research communities.Secondly, only central university library websites were used to capture data about research support services, and not specific School/ Faculty/Department websites which may also host information about library research support services.This was due in-part to how different universities are structured, the fact that this information is often behind a log-in, and to establish a scope for the purposes of this research.Third, only information about university library research support services in English was captured for this research.Whilst English is the majority language in all universities included in this research, it is unknown what resources and support may be offered to researchers in languages other than English.Also, this study focused only on Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries, and its findings may only be indicative for other geographical contexts.The authors also note that they are not from or based in Aotearoa New Zealand.This may have inadvertently led to some missed nuances or undeadening of the local landscape, language, and politics that may influence this work.
Also, unlike previous studies such as Howie and Kara (2020) and Corrall et al. (2013), barriers, constraints, influences and staff skills and knowledge related to the library supporting research were excluded from this study.Other research methods such as in-depth interviews may be more suitable for this purpose, with the data potentially revealing more context and explanation for findings.Further research will enhance current understanding about how university libraries globally, support institutional research agendas and activities.Several opportunities and research questions arise from this 'at a glance' view including: • a follow up, replicated version of Corrall et al. (2013) study that examines current and future service offerings, using this study's findings of service scope as a guide, additional clarification, or testing, of 'traditional' and 'emerging' research support services, including how services go from 'emerging' to being 'traditional' , • an examination of any differences that may exist between research support services topics and formats offered by public and private institutions, both here in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, • an investigation of academic experiences and expectations of research support (libraries or perhaps generally) when moving between universities, • post-graduate research training experiences and expectations-where is the evidence for a mandatory library training program?• unifying language used to label and describe university library research support services across the sector, and • the effectiveness of library research training partnerships and integration-should university libraries further integrate into other areas of research support?And what impacts might this have for stakeholder relationships and the library's professional identity?
Answers to the above questions may help pave the path toward redefining university library research support services for the future, at least in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.Certainly, taking a client-centred perspective on the library's research support services and activities is now sorely needed.Evidence of their needs and expectations will help inform future professional practice of what and how library research training is delivered.This work may also align with the Australian Library and Information Association's (ALIA) current work in developing a framework of professional development for those working in the Library and Information Sector (ALIA, n.d.).

A final note
In mid-December 2022 it was announced that the planned 2024 Engagement and Impact Assessment exercise had been canceled (Australian Research Council, 2022b).This, coupled with the pausing of the planned 2023 Excellence in Research for Australia assessment exercise for a full review of the process (Australian Research Council, 2022a) and the November 2022 announcement of the Australian Universities Accord, the first broad review of the Australian higher education sector since 2008-and with the final report due in December 2023 (Ministers' Media Centre, 2022)-poses interesting questions for university libraries.With these two external factors being major drivers for the growth in services such as bibliometrics, engagement and impact in recent years will libraries, and indeed universities, continue to consolidate, grow, and advance services in this space?

Conclusion
University library research support and involvement have rapidly evolved and expanded over the last decade.More is being taught to university research communities and more of the research process and associated practices are being supported, often in collaboration with other university areas though this is not always apparent on university library websites.This research offers an up to date, 'at a glance' view of what research support services look like in practice across Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries, and a starting point for others to review, further establish their services, or engage stakeholders to better support research.A coding process, which analyzed content from 44 university library websites across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, found 11 research support areas that can be further broken down into four groups-established, emerging, traditional, and peripheral.All 44 Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites appear to promote a research support service, however the extent and nature of this service varies, as each institution varies with different drivers, culture, strategy etc. Research support services are delivered in 'mixed modes' , that is a relatively balanced mix of both synchronous and asynchronous methods.Evidence from this research has informed decisions and next steps for research support services at the University of Melbourne (a 'Group of Eight' university) and the University of the Sunshine Coast, a regional university network member.This study also provides evidence to decision makers in understanding a more complete picture of not only the scope of services the university library offers its research communities and institutions, but also the challenges and opportunities it faces in continuing to evolve service offerings in line with developments in technology, the research policy environment and institutional goals.There is no doubt the library makes a significant contribution to university research.But now that we've come 'full circle' , a deeper, more complete evaluation must take place toward redefining research support services for continued sustainability into the future.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Library support for research topics: Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Library support for research topics: Type of Australian university.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. most prevalent or supported research areas by university type.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. publishing by university type.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. bibliometrics, engagement and impact by university type.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Advanced data skills by university type.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. breakdown of service or information format.

Figure 8 .
Figure 8.The delivery formats, how these were defined and the number of university libraries.

Figure 9 .
Figure 9. integration of library services.

Figure 10 .
Figure 10.categarisation of types of library services and the research support topics within them.

Table 1 .
Research areas supported by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries.

Table 2 .
mention of each research support areas across all 44 universities.

Table 3 .
mention of each research support area by geographical location.
areas-Publishing, Bibliometrics, Engagement and Impact, and Advanced Data Skills.Research support areas least mentioned across Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university library websites were online engagement, reference management and introduction to library services.See Figures4-6.