University Libraries Services to Support Faculty Research and Scholarship

As we embark on the 2024-25 academic year, we would like to encourage you to explore and use the University Libraries’ many services designed to support you and your research and scholarly activities. Beyond traditional collections, University Libraries provides in-depth services that directly support faculty and their success in areas such as grant applications, research, and instruction.

Below are a few of the services and resources available to you throughout the academic year.

• Research Data Services - University Libraries offers data services that help faculty increase knowledge and skill in finding, generating, processing, analyzing, visualizing data, and data computation. The Libraries’ team of experts helps faculty in their creation of research and scholarship as well as help them manage and publish data as required by funding agencies. 
• Publishing - Virginia Tech Publishing, housed in the University Libraries, is known for its commitment to increasing the visibility, reach, and impact of research produced at Virginia Tech. Everything it publishes is open access, which means it’s freely available online, or a print edition is available at cost through a third-party vendor. In addition to faculty projects, Virginia Tech Publishing offers students a taste of what it’s like to be a published author through class-based book projects. This service will continue and enhance scholarship review to ensure that published works meet the quality and scholarly impact expectations of our Virginia Tech Global Distinction goal. 
• Scholarly Repository Services - University Libraries manages Virginia Tech’s open scholarship repository VTechWorks. VTechWorks provides global access to Virginia Tech scholarship, including journal articles, books, conference papers, slide presentations, technical reports, and working papers by Virginia Tech authors. Under the university’s open access policy, faculty can deposit accepted versions of their scholarly articles into VTechWorks, regardless of what the copyright transfer agreement says. The policy follows U.S. copyright law and was vetted by Virginia Tech's Office of Legal Counsel. 
• Evidence Synthesis Services - The Libraries’ evidence synthesis services meet a growing need to produce systematic reviews that must be included in many grant proposals. Library evidence synthesis experts write or co-write systematic reviews and provide in-depth training workshops and specialized support for researchers and scholars. 
• Research Impact and Intelligence Services - Research Impact and Intelligence services support individuals and groups in exploring research trends and strengths for research and funding. It also helps faculty and researchers use tools to explore opportunities, identify collaborators, and discover and share the impact of their work. 
• University Libraries Studio Network - University Libraries has created a series of studios all focused on facilitating innovation. The 3D scanning studio, media recording studio, prototyping studio, virtual environments studio, and the studios’ technology lending desk, provide free access to and training on advanced hardware and software to encourage an atmosphere of discovery.

Our modern academic research library is here to support the Virginia Tech community in all areas of research and scholarship. With its full calendar of workshops for teaching and research to expertise in data management and publishing, University Libraries is an important partner in and advocate for your success.

To stay up to date regarding upcoming events and library services, subscribe to the new University Libraries research services newsletter. Every month you will receive notice of upcoming programming and news you can use as you continue your scholarly activities.

We encourage you to take advantage of these services and resources to help support you, your students, and your colleagues throughout this academic year. Also, please do not hesitate to let the Library know which of the services are valuable to you, including those that need to be expanded as well as the possibility of whether a service is no longer vital to our academic programs.

Sincerely,

Cyril Clarke, Executive Vice President and Provost
Tyler Walters, University Libraries Dean