The document outlines qualitative research methods in library settings, focusing on coding results to analyze data effectively. It covers various research goals such as assessment, description, and concept-building, along with coding techniques including hand-coding and the use of qualitative analysis software like Atlas.ti. The document emphasizes the importance of ethical data collection and the systematic organization of information to derive meaningful insights.

1. Coding Your Results
QUALITATIVE METHODS IN THE LIBRARY, PART 3
JANUARY 2017
CELIA EMMELHAINZ – ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARIAN – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY

2. Image: contextualresearch.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-ethnographic-research-cycle.png

3. Stages of qualitative research:
Develop an anthropological question
Lit review and conversations for focus
Choose a method
Choose a sampling strategy
Collect data ethically
Analyze data by coding for themes
Share results and apply in your communities
Isaacs (2014) “An Overview of Qualitative Research Methodology for Public Health Researchers,” p. 318-21

4. Outline:
1. Assess the purpose you’re coding towards
2. Options for coding
3. Practice hand-coding
4. Preview of computerized coding

5. Think of your goal: Assessment
If your goal is assessment, you want to be able to report on the
outcomes and impact of your work processes:
Students get 25% better at searching after flipped instruction;
Donors are more engaged when we feature student stories;
Readers can’t find the VPN in drop-down menus.

6. Think of your goal: Description
Most library research results fall at the level of describing a
group or perception of a situation:
Users avoid the maps library because of narrow rooms;
Patrons feel sense of community at Ethnic Studies events;
Librarians use nonverbal negotiation to avoid unbalanced task-
loads on committees.
We usually stop here.

7. Research goal: Uncover relationships
Use textual data to explore how connected two factors are:
The size and rarity of library collections is linked to
administrative perception of library value.
Personable emails from library leadership increase library
engagement, if related to librarians’ core motivations.
Uncover relations between factors in context

8. Research goal: Type or concept-building
Extend or challenge existing theories, develop new typologies,
connect concepts, or build a whole new framework:
Surface acting leads to higher burnout among front-line staff,
due to less recovery time ‘off-stage.’
Students perceive the library as a) a focused study space, b) a
site of suffering, and c) a social space.

9. What’s Your Goal?
Note whether your goal is assessment,
description, relationship, or concept building,
and what you hope to uncover.
(three minutes)

10. Coding is a:
“Systematic way
to condense extensive data
into smaller analyzable units
through the creation of categories & concepts
derived from the data.”
– Lockyer 2004
“
“

11. Two broad approaches:
Deductive: test a clear hypothesis or question
◦“Which factors build student confidence in accessing
archives?
Inductive: generate ideas from exploring data
◦ Exploratory survey of Kazakh librarians – themes emerged of
“falling into librarianship” and “librarianship as calling”

12. In the grounded theory approach, code for:
■ Relevant text
■ Repeating ideas
■ Themes you notice
■ Theoretical constructs you’ve seen in literature
■ Your research concerns
Auerbach and Silverstein (2003, p. 35)

13. Options for Coding

14. #1. Coding on paper
Image: from Summer Starling – QDA with MaxQDA presentation for the D-Lab, UC Berkeley

15. 2. #hashtags in a document

16. #3. excel columns
Image: Pappas, Seale, and Emmelhainz – forthcoming chapter on emotional labor in librarianship

17. #4. qualitative software

18. Try it! Hand-coding
Hand-code the interview or the survey for
themes or topics.
(five minutes)

19. Follow-up group discussion
Based on the survey or interview responses,
what additional questions would you ask of
these people?
(five minutes together)

20. Walkthrough of Atlas.ti Software

21. When to use CAQDAS software:
Reasons to use
•Build complex codes
•Test relationships
•Handle large data
•Good for teams
Reasons not to use
•Cost
•Learning curve
•Simple or few
interviews

22. Qualitative analysis software can:
Use text, PDF,
image, video
View codes in
margin
Import
demographics
Export coded
quotations
Add memos
Run searches
(X and Y, near)

23. Using the free Atlas.ti 8 trial
http://atlasti.com/free-trial-version/
No limits on time, limits on size
10 primary documents of any size
100 quotations
50 codes, 30 memos, 10 network views

24. Steps in analysis
a. Memos: Start with a close reading and note interesting
points or starter ideas.
b. Coding: Mark texts systemically with the topics you
observe, moving into specific concepts.
c. Explore: your codes in relation to each other or to
respondent demographics or situations.
d. Share: Use evocative quotations to illustrate your
findings
Kuckartz and McWhertor (2014) Qualitative Text Analysis, p.5, 9

25. 1. Reflect with memos
At the project level:
Capture changing thoughts
Note issues and your decisions
Memo ideas to follow up on
On documents, codes, quotes:
Reflect on an idea
Note connection to related ideas

26. Coding: tag recurring topics or concepts
Highlight and drag code over OR right-click to add a code

27. Grouping codes
into families

28. Exploring relationships with queries
Look at quotations in relation to multiple codes
◦ job market OR relocation (broadens)
◦ job market AND relocation (narrows)
◦ job market NOT relocation
◦ student debt WITHIN cost of MLS
◦ successful hire FOLLOWS experience (within a paragraph)
Use Scope to search only some documents
Save resulting quotations under a new Super Code

29. AND / OR / ONE OF (not both) / NOT

30. Part 3: Questions & Feedback