BOOK REVIEW / CRITIQUE DE LIVRE

Bent, MJ. **Practical tips for facilitating research.**

London: Facet Publishing; 2016. Softcover: 236p.
(Blanchett H, editor. Practical tips for library and
information professionals series). ISBN 978-1-78330-
017-4. Price CAD $128.27. Available from
http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=300174
#.WNxfAVXyt0w.

Starry eyes. That's what I had when I first read
over the table of contents of *Practical Tips for
Facilitating Research* by Moira Bent. I currently
oversee a small university-affiliated satellite library
within a hospital. Liaising with my researchers is no
simple task. They're busy people, often juggling
clinical and academic duties in addition to their
research work, so I was very excited by the variety of
topics in the book's contents list and the prospect of
numerous ideas on how to better connect with and
support my researchers. This book did not disappoint!

*Practical Tips* was written for librarians and library
staff, particularly those working in academic libraries,
who support researchers in any field. Health sciences
librarians however will recognize their work in
particular in all the topics and strategies covered in this
book. Before taking her retirement last summer, Moira
Bent was a longstanding Faculty Liaison Librarian at
Newcastle University in England and has done
extensive work in information literacy.

Bent covers a lot of territory in this book, starting
with an overview of the book's purpose (Section 1)
and contents (Section 2), theories and models around
researcher career stages, the research cycle, and
information literacy (Section 3), and moving quickly
into more applied chapters dedicated to the library's
role in organizational structures (Section 4), its use of
space and place (Section 5), staff roles (Section 6),
collections (Section 7), interventions by phase of the
research lifecycle (Section 8), teaching approaches
(Section 9), and workshop ideas (Section 10).
Interestingly, Bent makes a conscious choice to largely
skip over undergraduate students as a population of
interest, focusing more on support that can be
delivered to masters and doctoral students, as well as
early-career and established researchers.

A shining strength of this book is the number of
ideas and tips provided. Bent makes a point of
including real-world examples whenever possible,
with testimonials and lessons learned from librarians
all over the world who have implemented the proposed
ideas. Bent also accompanies examples with
thoughtful “To Think About” sections, prompting
readers to consider potential pitfalls and additional
considerations before committing themselves or their
staff to new projects.

I've already applied some *Practical Tips* in my
own work. I was inspired to approach my hospital's
organizing committee about an upcoming Research
Day after reading Section 5.5 "Get involved with local
research conferences and events". I pitched the idea of
a library display to the organizing committee, along
with several activities suggested in *Practical Tips* to
attract conference goers, such as an ORCID sign up
and information station and the provision of goodies
and a raffle (in my case, for 3D printed swag). My
proposal was instantly accepted, and will surely garner
good exposure for the library at my institution.

Bent's decision to focus more specifically on
services and delivery to researchers at the masters
level and onwards was another strength of this book.
This allowed for a focused, detailed, and practical
examination of what implementation of the ideas and
tips would look like by target audience group. For
example, teaching masters students—who may not yet
have published anything—how to calculate their h-
index may not be the best use of finite training time,
whereas established researchers would certainly get
more benefit from that type of activity.

In addition to the practical tips, and to the book's
approach to catering to various research groups, the
provision of further reading material for every section
of the book is another benefit, and enables readers to
discover additional material as their interests or needs
require.

To be honest, I cannot think of any true weaknesses
of this book. It is exactly what it promises to be, "an
attempt to bridge the gap between theory and practice,
grounding the very practical ideas garnered from
library and information staff around the world in
current research in the library and information science discipline in order to assist LIS staff in developing and managing their role in the research environment" (p. 3). While Bent does tend to prioritize the practical over published research, providing only a few key references for each subsection, this book is not intended to be an exhaustive resource of library and information science research, and is explicit in its design and purpose: to provide librarians and library staff with a wide range of ideas for how to help and connect with their researchers.

I would highly recommend this book to any librarian working with researchers in the health sciences, and to many of our colleagues working in other disciplines, for that matter. The book is short, realistic, practical, easy to read, and extremely useful for generating ideas. As for me, I am still starry eyed. I know I will be referring back to this book and my copious marginalia for the foreseeable future—that is of course until my colleagues start asking to borrow my copy!

**Statement of Competing Interests**

No competing interests declared.

**Sarah May Visintini**

Replacement Librarian, Berkman Library
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Ottawa ON
Email: svisinti@uottawa.ca