In June 2007 the Library and IT departments at the University of Northampton converged into a single Department of Information Services (INS). During the restructuring a new role was created, that of Research Support Specialist (RSS). The University was then fairly new (having won research degree awarding powers in 2005) and keen to become “a leading regional, national and international centre for research and knowledge transfer” (from the University’s Strategic Vision, 2005). The creation of the new RSS role therefore provided an opportunity to develop services for researchers that both supported this vision and met individuals’ needs.
This paper describes how these services were developed and, in particular, how it was ensured that they were useful to and valued by the research community