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Public practitioner researchers
- 1. Public Practitioner-Researchers How LIS research is informed by praxis
- 2. Background “Researchers do • Public libraries need research not disseminate • Public librarians their research need research well and • Public needs librarians do not research consume it.” • LIS field needs (Durrance 1991, 280) public library research
- 3. Research Questions • Whatis the current state of PPR research? • Do PPRs research different sorts of subjects from academics and other librarians? • Do they use different research strategies?
- 4. Literature Review • Evaluatedthe state of LIS research, including PPRs – Buttlar 1991 – Mularski 1991 • The State of PPR research activities – Powell, Baker & Mika 2002 – Chapman & Pike 1993 – Penta & McKenzie 2006 • Described the need for PPR research – Durrance 1991
- 5. Study Design • ContentAnalysis – 405 Articles from 11 LIS journals – Research topic – Research strategy – Researcher’s job title(s) • Compared PPR research to research conducted by others
- 6. LIS Journals • valued by LIS professionals • have significant impact • read by library practitioners • aimed specifically at public librarians • are easily accessible • focused on subjects most likely to be relevant to public librarians.
- 7. Content Analysis 1. Beganwith original research subject & strategy categories from Buttlar, 1991. 2. Re-categorized as needed. 3. Categorized researchers’ professional titles.
- 8. Authors • 14 publiclibrarians, 2 also university faculty, and 3 also LIS journal editors. • 3.2% public librarians. • 2% solely identified as public librarians. • 2.2%-3.7% in 1991 and 3% in 2006. ALL of the public librarians were published in the pages of Public Library Quarterly or RUSQ.
- 9. 200 178 180 160 140 122 120 100 80 63 60 40 28 15 14 11 20 6 5 4 3 5 0
- 10. Authors with multiplepapers 25 20 15 10 5 0
- 11. Research Topics Information Cataloging Metadata Organization Information OPACS Organization Information Users Behavior Bibliographic Information Instruction Instruction
- 12. knowledge information allother management access subjects management economics information source change/future collaboration information behavior public libraries youth services bibliometrics information organization academic libraries research digital libraries/archives reference collection management librarianship information instruction
- 13. Research Strategies 60 53 51 50 40 32 30 27 24 20 16 13 8 7 7 10 6 4 3 3 2 0
- 14. Public Practitioner-Researchers PPR Research Topics PPR Research Strategies academic libraries economics analysis 8% 8% librarianship 8% 8% survey 17% information 17% 33% 8% case study behavior public 17% 17% libraries 17% interview/ reference observation 25% 17% data research analysis youth services
- 15. Implications Research “is aresponsibility of every professional and a part of the meaning of the word professional.” (Powell, Baker, and Mika 2002, 50)
- 16. We need PPRresearch • Influence policymakers “The • Serve users direct, explicit, an • Discern output from d acknowledged outcome influence of • Create & understand non-published research on research, such as user decision making surveys in libraries is • Offer praxis-based almost information to other LIS nonexistent.” professionals (Hewitt 1991, 165)
- 17. Change Needed • Attitudes – Public librarians – LIS community – Funders – Administrators • Priorities – Financial – Time – Other resources & tools • Future research
- 18. We need PPRresearch, and not nearly enough is being published.
Editor's Notes
- #6 182 JASIST articles not yet examined
- #7 valued by those in the profession (Nisonger & Davis, 2005) have significant impact ("Journals ranked by impact," 2010)widely read by library practitioners (Powell, Baker, & Mika, 2002) Library TrendsCollection ManagementLibrary & Information Science ResearchLibrary QuarterlyPublic Library QuarterlyReference Services ReviewLibrary Resources & Technical ServicesAnnual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST)Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ)Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical ServicesJournal of American Society for Information Science (JASIST) These 182 articles aren’t yet examined.
- #9 (Penta and McKenzie, 2006) (Mularski 1991; Buttlar 1991) Total of 436 authors, 9 were only public librarians. 7 public librarians published in PLQ, 7 in RUSQ. In RUSQ, 3 of the 7 public librarian authors were the same guy: a guest columnist named Barry Trott. Charles Martell was 2 of the 7 published in PLQ. So the total of 14 is reduced to 11 public librarians who published anything in these journals last year.
- #10 178faculty122academic librarian63researcher23doctoral student15public librarian15unknown11govt librarian6consultant5graduate student5 software engineer & programmer4editor3special librarian2administrator1economist1professional organization admin1institutional authorship
- #11 455 affiliations—quite a few authors listed more than one affiliation: graduate student/editor, for example. Some authored as many as 6 papers. Only 2 public librarian authors published more than once.
- #12 No CD-ROM articles in 2009!Bair (1999) qualitative research process combine the results from multiple research studies or from a large body of researchmeta-analysis quantitative methodology applied to quantitative research studies meta-ethnography qualitative methodology used with qualitative research studies,meta-synthesis is a qualitative methodology that uses both qualitative and quantitative studies as sources of dataAnalysis—my definition is that it is an article with an argument—it examines the literature and attempts to prove a point“CODING FOR SUBJECT OF ARTICLE1 Cataloging2 Automation3 Management/Personnel4 LIS Education5 Comparative Librarianship6 Collection Management7 Reference Service8 Networks/Networking9 Online Public Access Catalogs10 Professional Associations11 Users 12 Information Retrieval13 Serials Control14 Children's and Young Adult Services15 Escalating Costs (Serials, etc.)16 Research17 Change/Futures18 Bibliographic Instruction19 Special Collections20 History21 Reference Sources22 Indexing23 Buildings24 CD-ROMs25 Cooperation”(Buttlar, 1991)
- #13 The sole article on public librarianship was not written by a public librarian, but a public librarian co-authored an article on academic libraries!Most of the articles on public libraries were written by faculty (57%) (of articles on all subjects, 39% are written by faculty)1% by public librariansMy list of 20 subjects:information behaviorinformation organizationdigital libraries/archiveslibrarianshipinformation instructioncollection managementreferenceresearchacademic librariesbibliometricsyouth servicespublic librariescollaborationchange/futureinformation sourcemanagementeconomicsknowledge managementinformation accessall other subjects (including philosophy, special libraries, etc.)
- #14 Didpublic librarians use less rigorous research strategies, such as case studies or simple surveys?
- #15 33 are “analysis””Used “analysis” more than general LIS.999 std dv from mean in ppr, .989 in overall—identical T-test for strategies .004, stat. diff between strategiesAll of the researchers use analysis 10%Survey 21%Case study 20%Data analysis 11%All of the researchers:Information behavior 16%IO 13%Digital libraries/archives 9%Librarianship 9%
- #17 Using usage output to measure library services leads to a problem of relevance when fewer people are reading books, or when one is evaluating other social benefits of libraries
- #18 Some may argue that the practical knowledge that PPs have is not something they themselves should problematize and theorize about. I think that the relationship between practice and theory is important. Future research should be done to examine what happens in PPR research—is it different and how does it help the LIS profession?