Measuring Impact at NCAR: Bibliometrics and Beyond

For many researchers and institutions looking to show their scholarly impact to traditional audiences such as administrators or funding agencies, bibliometrics are an inevitable part of the conversation. The library community is well acquainted with bibliometrics, but in today's new and evolving libraries, bibliometrics are seen as only part of a broader landscape of metrics, especially as the social context for scholarly research increases in importance. This panel will seek to examine how bibliometric analysis and assessment are being used at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Taking a brief look at the history of bibliometrics, and discussing their use in “individual author” metrics at NCAR, the panel will then seek to broaden the discussion to new approaches being offered at the NCAR Library. New methods of data aggregation have offered the opportunity to gather bibliometrics on groups, facilities, models and more. This panel will discuss (1) our work producing bibliometric data and analysis, with groups such as the NCAR scientific computing division as part of an NSF funded EAGER Grant, (2) our work with a group building and maintaining the widely used WRF atmospheric model, and (3) the development of new software solutions the NCAR Library is building to process and share the data so that it is open and accessible to the NCAR community. We hope to share the lessons we have learned and stimulate a discussion of the place of libraries in the production, analysis, and dissemination of bibliometric data.