Welcome to Research Methodology 101. Today we would like to cover some basics concepts related to library research and also touch on a few practical matters such as putting research into practice into your library, your job. I believe that we all can agree—no matter what type of library we work in or what type of position we hold within that library—that accountability and assessment are two governing themes of the day. We are being asked to assess and be accountable for—our services, our programs—especially our instruction programs—our collections. At the same time, ACRL IS has recently revised the Research Agenda for Library Instruction and Information Literacy. This research agenda can serve to help guide instruction librarians in assessing what they’re doing and how well they’re doing it, and how students are and are not learning. In any sort of assessment, one does research. And research need not be a scary thing. A research project can be a lot of fun.