The Role of Research Librarians in Shaping the Future of Academic Librarianship

Fe Angela M. Verzosa

PLAI National Congress 2014 “Philippine Libraries: Future Possibilities” 26-28 November 2014 Century Park Hotel, Manila

“Discussions about professional librarians’ anxiety and apprehension related to scholarly and research activities recur throughout the LIS literature. Should scholarly research be expected of academic librarians? How should such work be supported? What supports are needed to facilitate research activities? How does scholarly research mesh with the profession of librarianship?”

Academic Librarians and Research: a study by Berg, Jacobs and Cornwall, 2013 

Where to start?

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•  Introduction •  Studies made on Filipino librarians as researchers •  What do we mean by Academic Librarians? •  ….by Research Librarians? •  What do we mean by research? •  Why research? •  What are the barriers to research? •  Overcoming the barriers •  Developing a research culture

“Research in librarianship, particularly within the context of the Philippine situation, is sad to say, very disappointing. Why, because there is really not much to talk about on research in Philippine Librarianship, outside of the realm of graduate work, or research pursued in connection with graduate studies. While our profession has an abundance of well-educated, well-trained professionals, it is sadly lacking in research-oriented librarians.”

“Research in Librarianship: Challenges, Competencies, and Strategies,” Keynote Address at PLAI‐STRLC Seminar‐Workshop on Research in Librarianship, 9‐10 October 2007   

h"p://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1471‐1842.2007.00759.x/asset/j.1471‐1842.2007.00759.x.pdf?v=1&t=hzs7e3ya&s=9526bae653387ba9c56d7cd33aad4c7b61d516c4 

Rhea Rowena U. Apolinario with Marian R. Eclevia, Carlos L. Eclevia, Jr., Eimee Rhea C. Lagrama and Karryl Kim A. Sagun presented a paper on "Librarian as Researcher and Knowledge Creator: Examining Librarian's Research Involvement, Perceived Capabilities and Confidence." It was presented in the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2014 held in France last August 16-22, 2014.

http://library.ifla.org/961/1/150-apolinario-en.pdf

Key Findings in Apolinario’s Majority of respondents are female academic librarians 

Academic librarians receive institutional support to conduct research (time off, financial incentives, promotion)  

The number of librarian‐researchers as well as the publication of research findings was quite insignificant (1.8%) 

Knowledge sharing among librarians is not a prevailing research activity (only 38.2% of respondents have published or presented their results to an external audience) 

Collaborative research among librarian‐researchers is low (70% of researches were single‐authored) 

Contributions of practitioner‐researchers are higher than academics‐researchers 

Research Outputs (Topic-wise)

Others

User Studies Information Technology

Information/Learning Society Foundations of Information Science

“Information Industry Economics and Management” (comparative intelligence, databases, digital libraries, information industry market, knowledge management,

information centers and libraries management, collection management, etc.)

Research Outputs (Topic-wise)

Keeping it an open book: exploring the knowledge sharing experience of librarians in the Philippines by Christine M. Abrigo (De La Salle University-Manila) and Vincent M. Abrigo (University of the Philippines Diliman) It was presented in the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2014 held in France last August 16-22, 2014.

http://library.ifla.org/967/1/109-abrigo-en.pdf

Key Findings in Abrigo’s study

Academic librarians account for a huge number of knowledge output generation 

institutional mandate is the primary reason for doing research 

Collaborative research activity is low  (65% are single‐authored) 

Only 48% of researches are published in conference proceedings, subscription‐based sources, and seminar websites. 

Research Outputs

Others Books

17%Monographs

29%Feasibility/project studies 34% Reports

42% Programs for the library 46% Learning modules

52 % Papers/articles (published or publishable)

53% Lectures (for seminar/forum presentation 57% Documentation of institutional processes

Service role of Librarians

Service Role of Librarians

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•  Service to the academic community is the goal of every academic librarian

•  Research is essential to good service •  Conducting evidence-based research is a mechanism to

•  explore new approaches to improve library services •  enhance research support provided to students and faculty •  advance use of technology in support of learning •  Address critical needs for archiving and preserving access to

information

What is an Academic librarian? •  “An individual possessing a master’s degree

in library science and working in a college or university library” ~ John-Bauer Graham, 2004

•  Supports the educational and research requirements of the faculties and students and engage in both education (i.e. teaching, either indirectly or directly) and original research

~Edward G. Holley, “Defining the Academic Librarian,” College and Research Libraries 46, no. 6 (1985): 462–77.

What do Academic Librarians do?

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•  engage in intellectual work •  engage in applied research •  collaborate in scholarship •  cooperate in developing disciplinary standards •  actively practice a profession (that is, librarianship as equivalent to teaching) •  administer their domain (the library) ~Janet Swan Hill, “Wearing Our Own Clothes: Librarians as Faculty,” The Journal of Academic

Librarianship 20, no. 2 (1994): 71–76.

What is a Research Librarian? •  A specialist librarian engaged in providing

research support for the community of users

•  Adept in the use of technology to meet the specific research needs of the users

•  May serve as liaison to many different academic or scientific, professional groups

•  Trained in the various aspects of technical and reference librarianship both from a traditional and technological perspective

•  Involved in research (mostly collaborative)

What do we mean by ‘research’?

‘ACADEMIC’ RESEARCH ‘PRACTITIONER’ RESEARCH

•  Problem solving or curiosity driven - purpose is to create new knowledge (or confirm existing knowledge)

•  Grounded in disciplinary context (literature, theory, methodology, interpretation)

•  Produce outputs of publishable quality

•  Audience: other scholars, policy makers, practitioners

•  Make an ‘impact’

•  Focused on current problem or need identified by library or institution

•  Pragmatic approach to theory and methodology – often investigative or evaluative

•  Research is applied to practice •  Results inform practice –

support decision-making for immediate benefit

•  Dissemination often a secondary consideration

Source: Librarians As Researchers by Miggie Pickton, CILIP University College & Research Group, June 2010

Why research?

What are the benefits: • To the librarian? • To the institution? • To the profession?

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Benefits to the Librarian

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• Research is interesting – an opportunity to explore something in more depth, to learn something new, to satisfy curiosity • It’s challenging – to develop new skills • Adds variety to the job – a change from routine, opportunity to do something different, work with new people • Increases job satisfaction – do the job better • Supports professional development – librarians become critical consumers of the research literature • Enhances personal reputation – building image • Improves career prospects – tenure, promotion… • Financial? extras...

Benefits to the Institution

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• Provides evidence of value / demonstrates impact • Supports decision‐making • Improves service / solves problems • Leads to greater engagement with users by: 

• Understanding their perspecSve • Showing interest in their needs • Doing what they do (i.e. doing research like them) 

• Achieves recogniSon (within and beyond the       insStuSon) • May also bring financial benefits – by generaSng       income or reducing costs 

Benefits to the Profession

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• Research provokes conversaSon and debate • Creates new knowledge • Provides an evidence base for best pracSces • Provides posiSve change • Builds image and enhances reputaSon • Develops an engaged and vibrant professional community • Impacts on the future/direcSon of the profession • Contributes to the growth of LIS as a discipline... CILIP (n.d.) A CILIP policy for informa3on and library research 

Barriers to research?... • Lack of research‐mindedness – simply no interest in research • inadequate education/training in research methods • Heavy workload/not part of work responsibility • Lack of time • Lack of funding/financial incentives • Lack of institutional support • Lack of motivation/inspiration 

Competencies

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•  Intellectual curiosity •  Research-mindedness •  Diligence and persistence •  Ability to be resourceful •  Communication skills •  committed to life-long learning and career development •  Research training skills

Research Training

•  Research training, whether formal or informal, must be re-introduced as part of our growth and development.

•  Training should involve concepts and procedures for preparing, designing, conducting, and evaluating research.

•  Any training should provide a survey of social science research methodologies and a review of their applications

•  learn to think like researchers – critically, analytically, methodically

•  educate ourselves on research methods

•  read other librarians’ researches, and try to evaluate their work, critiquing on their shortcomings or limitations

How to become competent…

Overcoming the barriers – skills •  Attend research seminars,

workshops (provided internally or externally; either generic or specific to LIS research)

•  Collaborate with partners (e.g. faculty, colleagues from other support departments, professional colleagues from other institutions) to •  form a group or build a

research team with complementary skills

•  take advantage of others’ expertise

•  Mentoring / buddying – share experience, learn together

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Overcoming the barriers – resources

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Time: Make Sme; make work adjustments  Choose a topic that complements / supports your  job   Choose a project that leads to service efficiencies Combine a research project with other professional development, or Share the workload with a research partner 

Funding: Search for research grants (internal/external) Seek travel grants to parScipate in internaSonal conferences 

Overcoming the barriers – generating ideas

•  Evaluate service performance for current services

•  Identify gaps in service provision and recommend measures to fill these gaps

•  Measure impact/effectiveness of a new approach to information literacy teaching

•  Investigate potential new services e.g. use of mobile technologies for alerting or accessing resources

•  Identify best/good practice elsewhere and introduce it to your own workplace

•  Look into improvement of database management and curation activities

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Look into the Research Domains for EBL

"Evidence-based librarianship (EBL) is a means to improve the profession of librarianship by asking questions, finding, critically appraising and incorporating research evidence from library science (and other disciplines) into daily practice. It also involves encouraging librarians to conduct research". ~Andrew Booth

https://www.academia.edu/225730/Evidence_Based_Practice_for_Information_Professionals_A_Handbook

Overcoming the barriers – generating ideas

Research Domains of EBL:

Reference/Enquiries –providing service and access to Education –finding teaching methods and strategies to educate users Collections –building a high-quality collection of print and electronic materials that is useful, cost-effective and meets user needs Management –managing people and resources within an organization Information Access & Retrieval –creating better systems and methods for information retrieval and access Marketing/Promotion –promoting the profession, the library and its services

The Researching Librarian

The Researching Librarian

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•  created for librarians‐‐new or experienced—who need to perform research for purposes of publicaSon, promoSon, tenure, or other reasons 

•  list of web resources  •  useful for research •  freely searchable citaSon  •  and full‐text databases •   funding informaSon, relevant journals, staSsScs and staSsScal methods, useful research tools, current awareness sources, and conference papers and proceedings 

•  just click here: hcp://www.researchinglibrarian.com/journals.html 

What to write?

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•  Conference papers/reports •  Book Reviews/Literature Reviews •  Case studies •  Learning Modules •  Other papers •  State-of-the-art reviews •  Surveys of current practices

Where to publish?

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• Professional newslecers and magazines • Professional journals – refereed/non‐refereed • Academic (refereed, peer‐reviewed) journals • Open Access journals • Conference proceedings • Seminar websites • Professional AssociaSons websites • Other online sites – Slideshare,          Googledocs, Scribd 

Developing a research culture

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•  Professional associations have an obligation to prepare practitioners to conduct and critically consume research.

•  Support and encouragement can come in the form of research

grants and other incentives.

•  Fostering a research environment within the institution may come in the form of cross departmental and collaborative projects

•  Embedded librarianship in research~ this model encourages faculty-librarian research partnerships (project-based)

What can the profession do to improve the situation?...

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Conclusion

If research has an important role in understanding the needs to which libraries should be responsive, and if librarians need to conduct research in order to better assess the effectiveness of their approaches to delivering library services, then librarians and other LIS professionals, including the agencies responsible for educating them, and their employing institutions, should be more attentive to such a critical activity as library research.

famverzosa@yahoo.com

Questions ?

Thank you for listening!