Dissemination and Impact Core Preparing to Launch NNLM Beacon

Posted by randerson on November 22nd, 2021 Posted in: Blog

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The Dissemination and Impact Core works on several key projects within the NNLM Evaluation Center. The core is directed by Karen Gutzman, head of research assessment and communications at Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center where she develops, supports, and implements programs that increase awareness about digital scholarship and issues in the digital environment among faculty, researchers, and students at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

In collaboration with the NEC Administrative Core, the Dissemination and Impact Core is currently preparing for the launch of the NNLM Beacon, a turnkey, born-interoperable open source repository. NNLM Beacon will house NEC resources and make them discoverable, shareable, reusable, and citable. An “NNLM Beacon Community” will be established for each ROC to share annual reports, data visualizations, and reports from funded projects and programs from their region. In addition, the Dissemination and Impact Core will provide training on impactful dissemination practices, such as tracking online use and mentions, setting priorities for promotion on social media, using online sharing platforms and writing lay summaries, creating reasonable dissemination workflows, and evaluating dissemination plans. The NEC is building a comprehensive Dissemination in Action guide, which includes lessons learned and best practices for engagement locally by the RMLs or with their member libraries. We will promote open dissemination of all NEC outputs, as well as the efforts of the evaluators throughout NNLM through the NNLM Beacon repository and other means.

Meet Our Core Team

Mao Soulakis is the research impact specialist in the Research Assessment and Communications Department at Galter. She works on collecting publication metrics data, generating reports, and creating data visualizations. She also utilizes her programming background to generate interactive collaboration network graphs for different units in the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine.

Annette Mendoza is the research impact librarian at Galter. As a member of the Research Assessment and Communication Department she assists in the creation and delivery of training sessions, guides, and consultations on the topics related to understanding and communicating research impact.