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Presenting your research!
This document provides guidance for graduate students on presenting research results. It discusses various outlets for presenting research, such as conferences, journals, and digital publications. Conference presentations can help circulate research, lead to career opportunities and publications. The document reviews tips for conference proposals, poster sessions, and oral presentations. It emphasizes keeping content concise and visually engaging. Students are encouraged to gain experience presenting and to find opportunities to share their unique and original research.
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Presenting your research!
- 1. Presenting Your Results:The Home Stretch of Research Dr. Melissa Villa-Nicholas LSC 557 GSLIS, URI
- 2. Your research matters! We began this semester discussing reading and writing for graduate school, and discussed how your proposals and papers are unique and original research that contributes to academic discourses All images from Google Image, Labeled for reuse
- 3. Why? Presenting yourresearch at a conference or network can: Circulate your research into larger circles Lead to substantial job opportunities Lead to further publications and presentations on your work Create a professional and social network of LIS professionals Connect you to contemporary conversations in LIS and generate new and innovated ideas for your own library!
- 4. In the researchprocess, paper, and scientific method, you are here
- 5. Outlets to reportyour results There are a number of ways to report your results for your research, consider and look through some of the following: Conferences: ALA, ALISE, ACRL, RILA, NELA Presentations, panels, workshops, lightning talks, posters Journals: Library Trends, First Monday, Interactions Digital Outlets: HASTAC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, ALA OpEds, blogs Podcasts: ALA’s Hearing Voices, Better Library Leaders
- 6. Conferences, some basics First, your going to find a conference that you want to attend. Note the deadline to submit your proposal for a panel, and the submission guidelines From ‘The Professor is In’, a strong abstract/proposal for a conference includes: 1) big picture problem or topic widely debated in your field. 2) gap in the literature on this topic. 3) your project filling the gap. 4) the specific material that you examine in the paper. 5) your original argument. 6) a strong concluding sentence.
- 7. Poster Sessions, somebasics Some general rules for posters (From NCBI): Define the purpose of the research Sell your work in the first 10 seconds Make the title short and comprehensible, short, sharp and compelling Identify your audience for the conference and present content accordingly Make the content succinct A good poster is about the presentation of the content, present your main findings in a visually interesting way Layout and format are critical: Guide the reader with visuals, never use less than 24 point font, do not saturate with words! Keep it concise Add your personality and style to a poster Work the crowd during the poster session, use handouts to direct the audience to your research on a website. Bring your business card with your contact information! - Each poster session will be different, so check out the guidelines for poster size, formatting, and material requirement. (Example: Size posters at ALA are 4x8 feet) - Check into printing shops on and off campus, to find a large format printer - See Hack Library Schools “Poster Sessions- A Beginner’s Guide”
- 8. Examples - No! - Toomany words - Too much visual activity - No congruency - Main point is not identified in the first 10 seconds - Yes! - Less language - More visually appealing - Points are summarized quickly Image From: http://colinpurrington. com/tips/poster- design
- 9. Presenting your workat a conference Before and after your presentation: Some tips Practice in front of friends and family Practice your presentation in different size rooms, you never know what the conference room will look like until you get there Find out what kinds of tech the conference will supply, and what you need to bring Find out what kind of dress attire is common for that conference Bring water, handouts, and business cards During your presentation Find your confidence pose or power stance (watch this Ted Talk) Use Powerpoint or Prezi slides that only have 10 words on them and use an image that compliments your point Speak to 2 people in the audience at different sides of the room Don’t memorize or read your speech, use prompts to tell your story
- 10. Get out there! Finda conference to submit to today! Or look for a journal that you want to submit for and start preparing your work!
- 11. Some more resources Forwriting style: Purdue Owl For all things academic culture: The Professor is In For LIS networking: The JESSE List serve For Library Students reflections: Check out Hack Library School For public speaking, check out Life Hacker
Editor's Notes
- #5 In the research process and scientific method, you have written your research questions, conducted a literature review of the existing sources, formulated a hypothesis (in quantitative methods), conducted your research and gathered your data, interpreted your results, and drawn conclusions. In the research process and scientific method, you are now ready to report the research findings!
- #6 There are multiple types of outlets in academia and the Library and Information Studies (LIS) network, where you can present your research and results. Conferences: The first choice is often conferences. Academic and professional conferences are great places to present your research, get to know current discussions in the field, network with other librarians and LIS professionals, and connect with various professional organizations within the field. - Presentations and panels: You can submit your research to present as an individual or with a panel on like minded research. Presenting your research is a great way to get feedback on your research, and put your research out into the general conversation in the LIS field. Presenting your research in a conference can also lead to publishing through conference proceedings, a special journal edition from that conference. - Workshops: Often you have the opportunity to submit for a workshop. This is usually a 60-90 minute, half day, or all day event where you train conference attendees on one particular topic. Want to teach your audience how to plan out a young adult program in a public library? Or how to create apps for children and tweens? This is the place to do it! - Lightning Talks: Are quick 5-10 minute presentations where you give a brief run down on your research - Posters: A poster session usually happens during a particular time slot and room at a conference. This is an opportunity for you to present results on a large printed out poster. Attendees will walk around and speak with you about your work for about 1-2 hours. - Some relevant conferences in LIS are: - ALA: The American Library Association, which hosts a midwinter (Jan/Feb) event and an annual event (June). This conference is aimed at LIS professionals - ALISE: The Association for Library and Information Science Education, annual conference - ACRL: The Association for College and Research Libraries, annual conference - RILA: Rhode Island Library Association, annual conference in May - NELA: The New England Library Association, annual conference in October Journals: There are a number of journals specifically targeted to the field of LIS. If you are on tenured track, you want to make sure that you are submitting to a peer reviewed journal. - A few relevant journals for graduate students and academics first publishing are… - Library Trends: Library Trends is an essential tool for professional librarians and educators alike. Every issue explores critical trends in professional librarianship, and includes practical applications, thorough analyses, and literature reviews. - First Monday: First Monday is one of the first openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals solely devoted to research about the Internet. - Interactions: is a graduate student journal based at the UCLA Library School Professional Networks: You can also circulate your research in more informal networks. An outlet such as a WordPress or blog is a way for people to become familiar with your research. - HASTAC: (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaborator) is an interdisciplinary community of humanists, artists, social scientists, scientists, and technologists that are changing the way we teach and learn. - The Chronicle of Higher Ed often features op-eds from academics that highlights their research - ALA Op Eds - Blogs: Some researchers, academics and librarians alike, take to their own personal blogs to keep their readers updated on their research and opinions in recent events in LIS. See MIT librarian Chris Bourg’s blog for a popular example. Podcasts: Podcasts are increasingly becoming a common form of communication for academics and librarians alike. A podcast is a great place to share your research and ideas with like minded professionals. Get to know some of the LIS podcasts and think about what kind of gap you can fill with your own investigations and opinions. Is there currently an LIS podcast for Rhode Island librarians? What about a podcast that explores the archives of New England?
- #7 The popular academic blog The Professor is In outlines the following elements for writing a great conference proposal for your presentation, panel, or workshop: “Each of these six elements is mostly likely contained in a single sentence: Sentence 1: Big picture topic that is being intensively debated in your field/fields, possibly with reference to scholars (“The question of xxx has been widely debated in xxx field, with scholars such as xxx and xx arguing xxx]”). Sentence 2: Gap in the literature on this topic. This GAP IN KNOWLEDGE is very, very bad, and detrimental to the welfare of all right thinking people. This is the key sentence of the abstract. (“However, these works/articles/arguments/perspectives have not adequately addressed the issue of xxxx.”). Sentence 3: Your project fills this gap (“My paper addresses the issue of xx with special attention to xxx”). Sentence 4+ (length here depends on your total word allowance, and more sentences may be possible): The specific material that you are examining–your data, your texts, etc. ( “Specifically, in my project, I will be looking at xxx and xxx, in order to show xxxx. I will discuss xx and xx, and juxtapose them against xx and xx, in order to reveal the previously misunderstood connections between xx and xx.”) Sentence 5: Your main argument and contribution, concisely and clearly stated. (“I argue that…”) Sentence 6: Strong Conclusion! (“In conclusion, this project, by closely examining xxxxx, sheds new light on the neglected/little recognized/rarely acknowledged issue of xxxxx. “).” (From The Professor is In, 2011)
- #8 See Hack Library School’s “Poster Sessions- A Beginnger’s Guide”