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- Academic Librarianship:
- Developing a Research Program
- For Tenure and Beyond
- Deborah V. Dolan, M.A., M.L.S.
- Assistant Professor, Social Sciences Librarian
- Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library
- Hofstra University
- Hempstead, NY 11549
- Deborah.V.Dolan@Hofstra.edu
- November 16, 2006
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- Love conducting research
- Hate conducting research
- Fear conducting research
- Conducting WHAT?
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- Study of Librarianship is study of human behavior
- Overt behavior (users, library faculty, other faculty, administrators)
- Thought Processes and Concepts (classification, organization, and
presentation of materials)
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- What is research?
- Planned, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data
- Goals of research
- Go beyond experience and common sense (i.e., opinion)
- Test myths, rules-of-thumb, and convention
- Move from experience to empirical evidence (observable and measurable
by all)
- Ultimately, to predict behavior
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- BASIC
- 1. Descriptive
- 2. Goal is understanding
- 3. Often, but not always qualitative
- APPLIED (aka ‘action research’)
- 1. Prescriptive
- 2. Goal is prediction and control
- 3. Quantitative; if qualitative data collected, converted into
quantitative scheme
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- Standardization of tests and methods (e.g., reliability, validity)
- Lack of standardized tests and methods (what exactly are we measuring?
How do we know?)
- Application of scientific method to problems in and the relationships of
components of the discipline
- Lack of application of scientific method (e.g., development and testing
of hypotheses)
- Basic research to understand phenomena as basis of theoretical
foundation
- Lack of basic research inhibits understanding of phenomena as basis of
theoretical foundation
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- Development of theoretical foundation to
- Allow generalizability
- solve professional problems
- c. Develop standardized and
accepted instruments and
methods for the analysis and prediction of
- organizational and
service behavior
- Failure to develop theoretical foundation
- a. Idiosyncratic research,
(e.g.,“how I done it good”)
- b. Non-generalizable research does not solve
- professional
problems
- c. Does not allow development
of standardized …
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- 5. Body of knowledge in discipline is built incrementally, through
interrelationships of concepts, methods, and measures
- Concepts and research are fragmented and non-cumulative, body of
knowledge is limited
- Our discipline’s weaknesses are
- YOUR
- Opportunities!
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- Signs of Profession
- Service ideal
- Theoretical and empirical foundation
- Universities value and revere scientific method
- Understood by most ordinary administrator (support)
- Increasing demands for accountability require research to inform
decisions and provide service
- Well-done research generates excitement, interest, enthusiasm,
commitment
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- What is activity in the absence
- of a research-based theoretical basis
- and empirically-based evidence?
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- Educational background
- of academic library faculty
- does not prepare them
- to be competent researchers
- Conducting research requires methodological competence
- Evaluating others’ research (and shortcomings of such) requires
methodological competence
- How do we become
- competent researchers?
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- Learn to think like a researcher – critically
- Educate yourself in research methods
- Consider reading and critiquing
- library research literature as part of your faculty responsibilities
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- Tenacity – Truth is true because I hold firmly to it (nothing will
dislodge belief)
- Authority – Truth is true because authority says so (physicist, bible,
tradition, public sanction)
- A priori – based on reason (logic, math proofs)
- Scientific method – independent of our thoughts or opinions. Constructs, behaviors, or objects can
be measured and observed by all.
Alternate hypotheses are proposed and tested. Theories are not ‘proven’ or
‘dis-proven’; they are ‘supported’ or ‘not supported’ by data.
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- Ideas are constructs created by humans (defined)
- Ideas are ‘real’ (e.g., sin, aggression)
- Theories must be testable (refutable)
- Acceptance of ideas not testable (not refutable)
- Empirically/objectively collects data to support or refute theory
- Collects confirming evidence, dismisses contradictory evidence
- Systematically investigates nature of relationships
- Accepts surface relationships as cause and effect
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- Goal of Science
- Establish general theory of empirical events
- which allows us to relate separate events and
- explain and predict events and processes
- not yet known
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- Have an idea that construct A is related to construct B
- Form a testable hypothesis (refutable)
- Operationalize (how and what will be measured)
- Observe/measure
- Test (statistical analysis)
- Conclusion
- Propose alternate explanations of results (for later testing)
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- No, really,
- the lack of
- good
- measures in librarianship
- Is your good fortune
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- Test-retest – are test results consistent over time when ‘reality’ is
consistent
- Inter-rater – do raters rate the same item, observation, etc. in the
same way
- Internal consistency – items which are measuring the same component of
construct should correlate more highly with each other than with items
that are measuring different areas of construct
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- Content – measure reflects full content of what one is measuring
- Criterion – scores relate to external criteria (e.g., outcome –
predictive)
- Construct – the “what” that the instrument is measuring (formalized
concept)
- Convergent – “all roads lead to Rome” or “if it walks like a duck…”
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- Research Strategy #1
- Conduct research on a form of reliability or validity for an existing
research instrument
- This is a major contribution to the field in terms of improving
instrumentation
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- Research Strategy #2
- Replicate an existing study
- Replicate an existing study modifying a single variable (e.g.,
population, database)
- These strategies address the ‘fragmented’ and ‘non-cumulative’ issues in
library research
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- Research Strategy #3
- Conduct a ‘secondary analysis’ of data already collected as part of a
large scale government or agency study
- (see Rice, 1997 in Suggested Reading Materials for information)
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- Research Strategy #4
- If there is something that really turns you on, but doesn’t fit into
Research Strategies 1, 2, or 3,
- GO FOR IT!!! GET EXCITED!!!
- But, do your homework – develop a theoretical framework based on the
literature, formulate a testable hypothesis – you know….
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- Research Strategy #5
- If you have an absolutely irresistible compulsion to write a “how we
done it good” paper
- (which is NOT research)
- Turn it into research by
- Comparing what your institution did to what other institutions have done
- Relating different approaches to problem to another variable of interest
(either descriptive or predictive)
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- Information-seeking behavior examples
- Optimal foraging behavior
- Stopping behavior
- Resource rankings
- Search strategies
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- Scholarly Communication Examples
- Citation analysis
- Co-citation analysis
- Journal Citation Report (JCR)
- Content Analysis
- Technology and …
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- Professional Issues Examples
- Academic status
- Workload
- Research time
- Tests and measures
- Position advertisements comparison
- Media portrayal of profession
- University portrayal of profession
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- Collection Development Examples
- Core List comparisons
- Circulation policies
- Interlibrary loan
- User satisfaction
- Electronic and print collections
- Journal collections
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- The above are just a few examples,
- for illustrative purposes,
- in just a few areas of librarianship.
- Their inclusion and the omission of others
- in no way reflects any value judgment
- on what is important
- in research in academic librarianship
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- Thank you for attending
- and for your
- contributions to this workshop
- Best Wishes and Have Some Fun
- (REALLY!)
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Notes