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
• What is 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
• Evaluated the 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
• Content Analysis
– 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. Began with original research
subject & strategy categories
from Buttlar, 1991.
2. Re-categorized as needed.
3. Categorized researchers’
professional titles.
8. Authors
• 14 public librarians, 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.
11. Research Topics
Information
Cataloging Metadata
Organization
Information
OPACS
Organization
Information
Users
Behavior
Bibliographic Information
Instruction Instruction
12. knowledge information all other
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
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 a responsibility
of every professional and a
part of the meaning of the
word professional.”
(Powell, Baker, and Mika 2002, 50)
16. We need PPR research
• 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 PPR research, and not
nearly enough is being published.
Notas do Editor
182 JASIST articles not yet examined
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.
(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.
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.
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)
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.)
Didpublic librarians use less rigorous research strategies, such as case studies or simple surveys?
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%
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
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?