Turkish Library Director talks about working in partnership with Cambridge to support education in Turkey, and the value of libraries and librarians in driving forward academic institutions

As the world shakes off COVID-19, supporting education institutions around the world remains a priority for Cambridge. In this interview, Tuba Akbayturk, Library Director at Koç University in Turkey and a member of the Cambridge Global Advisory board shares her role in supporting students and institutions and what the Cambridge partnership with Turkey looks like.

Please tell us how long you have been on the Librarian Advisory Board and what your role/contribution entails

I received the invitation email from Linda Bennet to join the Global Library Advisory Board back in the summer of 2019. Since then, I took part in 2 Autumn and 2 Spring rounds. Spring rounds had been accompanied by GLAB webinars as well. The pandemic and the travel restrictions have held me back from knowing the Board members and Cambridge staff in person and developing further communication. Despite the unprecedented effects of the pandemic, I believe that the Board maintained its effectiveness due to the diligent effort of Cambridge colleagues. The exchange between Cambridge and the Board members has been assured.  

What Cambridge products do you currently have in your institution?

At Koç University, we have been subscribed to the Cambridge Journal package for many years. In 2021, the Turkish University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) signed a “Read and Publish” agreement with Cambridge. This development made me particularly happy since I am one of the supporters of transformative agreement models in Turkey. As we observe closely the use of the model in Turkey and its effect on the number of the Open Access articles published in its first year, I am proud to say that the authors from my institution benefited from it the most among other Turkish Universities subscribing.

Our library Sales team works very closely with librarians but for us in Marketing, we don’t always get that direct interaction with you. To know you better, please talk us through what a busy day at work looks like/involves?

A typical myth about librarianship as a profession is about librarians who sit all day in their office surrounded by books and enjoy themselves reading. This depiction always brings a smile, not a bitter one though, to my face. My depiction is much different as a library director responsible for 5 libraries in 3 different cities. Our operations are 24/7 and we are known as a library that never closes.

To me, a university librarian is a bit of a lawyer when dealing with agreements or copyright issues, a bit of an architect when repurposing the library space, a bit of a marketing manager when promoting resources and services, a bit of an instructional designer when transforming current courses and training into hybrid, a bit of a finance manager when doing budget. I can make this list much longer but, my point is that a university librarian wears many hats and his/her day involves all. The academic calendar and the life cycle on campus have a direct impact on the daily agenda. For instance, the semester opening may require one to turn his/her attention to the physical readiness of the library premises. This year, re-opening after the covid-19 closure kept me extremely busy and we had to review our plans several times. Another example is about the end of the calendar as well as the fiscal year which means renewals of the electronic resources and performance review time for staff.    

Koç University has 7 colleges and the spectrum of disciplines covered is quite broad. From Law, Medicine, and Engineering to Social Sciences, each has its specialties and the library addresses its differences and their research and teaching need individually. We have graduate vs undergraduate students, we have Turkish vs International students, and this variety in the user body also needs to be addressed diligently. User experience and user satisfaction are primarily important. So is demand for innovation. Advancement in technology pushes library directors to be agile in decision making and project management.

Budgetary restrictions put an extra burden on the shoulders of the library directors. Tough collection maintenance decisions are always on the table. Alignment with e-only or e-first collection development policies is an important policy change that we focus on.

A significant percentage of my effort is spent on our digital collections and our in-house digitization work. We have a fast-growing platform. A recent donation is the largest postcard collection available in Turkey. Once classified and digitized, this collection will allow us to do a time travel to the past in most cities of Turkey.

What is the education system in Turkey like and how does Cambridge support that?

Turkish higher education system is huge in numbers and complex in substance. There are 207 universities spread around the country. Nearly half of them are state and the other half are foundation universities. The medium of education also varies from university to university. At Koç University for instance the medium of education is in English. From the library’s viewpoint, this assures higher usage of the resources we offer, a higher number of publications, more citations, better scores with international accreditations and ranking systems. The library is involved in every one of these either by maintaining the institutional repository or by preparing periodical reports.

Cambridge journals are already in use in Turkey and it is highly demanded as much as I know. Also, for this year, ANKOS announced an e-book deal with Cambridge. However, Cambridge e-textbooks are less known and less used and have potential since print course reserve collections are cumbersome to maintain (and not reachable in case of a lockdown). The products geared at English Language Learning can also be considered.

 How can Cambridge better support the needs of Turkish institutions and librarians?

The free access to e-textbooks during the early phase of the pandemic was very well appreciated. Maybe this can be reconsidered for Turkish institutions.

As a recent development, the Turkish Council of Higher Education classified 23 universities as Research Universities. These institutions can be identified by Cambridge and a special support mechanism to increase and improve their academic output can be designed. Author workshops and editorial support are some ways that come to my mind.

The economical crisis has unfortunately deepened in Turkey in the last few months. The best support will be to try to understand this new situation Turkey is going through.   

Would it be beneficial to you if some of our Cambridge collateral/web pages are translated to Turkish? If yes, what impact will this have?

At the moment, Ebsco is the distributor in charge in Turkey and they have a local office in Ankara with Turkish-speaking staff. They offer some services in Turkish which is an add-on for librarians who may have a language barrier. Although I don’t feel a need, I can still see a point for my colleagues not just as a remedy to the barrier but also as a representation of Cambridge caring about local needs.

What has been the highlight of being on the Advisory board?

I especially like the diversity on the Board. This reflects what you hear and what you discuss. The differences in the educational systems, in the value of libraries on university campuses, in the budget allocations, and many more areas bring multiple perspectives to the discussions which I enjoy a lot.

British punctuality and Linda’s successful moderation are also worth mentioning from the webinars I attended.

 By Haddy Ndure, Academic Marketing Executive for Southern Europe, Middle East, and Africa