Presented at LILAC 2008

1. Researchers’ learning lives symposium
information literacy and researchers
Moira Bent
Jo Webb
Pat Gannon-Leary

2. Background
• RIN surveys and research
• Research
– De Montfort workshops
– Interviews
• Subsequent presentations, feedback
and research and reflection
– Emergent model of ‘7 ages of research’
(articles at press and conference papers)

3. What this session will cover
• Interactive discussion of how:
– we should/would define and describe ‘research’ and
‘researchers’
– what we might agree to be researchers’ learning needs
– how those learning needs change based on age / career
stage / experience and external influences
• Some ways of using educational theory to interpret
researchers’ learning needs
• Suggestions for practical application
Session will be interactive and participative

4. What we won’t tell you
• How to run a perfect workshop
• A blueprint for working with all researchers
• The solutions to the JSS / Roberts / REF
agenda/s
– You must define your own institutional framework

5. What do you think?
• What is research? What is a researcher?
• Who are the researchers with whom you work?
• What do you think are your researchers’ learning
needs?

6. What the researchers said 1
Research is
• Theory-led; Data-led; Scholarship
• Grounded in disciplines; multi / inter / trans disciplinary
• Investigation; interpretation; gathering evidence
• A holistic activity; a set of transferable skills
• Collaborative / solo activity
• Related to self
• Validated by peer group
• Made meaningful by an external audience
… concept is disputed at every level but meaning is often implicit
and not known outside CoP

7. What the researchers said 2
Researchers are:
• Usually recognised within organization and…
• people who find out new things, reflect and take action
• at different levels and career stages
• working in different disciplines
• obliged to share what they find – to put knowledge into the public
domain
• ready to be challenged
• making connections
• passionate
• ambitious

8. 7 ages of research
• Masters students
• Doctoral students
• Contract researchers
• Early career researchers
• Established academic staff
• Senior researchers
• Experts
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9. Life course analysis of IL
• Sociological approach to reviewing
sociostructural and institutional contexts
of life paths in contemporary societies
o Perspective on research/er careers and
hence information needs
• Individual through progress/process of
life and organization
• Stages / Link of learning / information
need and development

10. Early
• Apprenticeship - influenced by supervisors / tutors /
mentors
• Skills and competences are defined (also funded and
monitored)
• Different levels of control
• Transition from structured learning to self-organization
• Interaction between personal life / prior experiences
• Managing different roles e.g. other jobs, developing
teaching skills
• Information consumer, objective is production

11. Early
• I consider myself to be at the start of my research career,
although I have been doing research for about 4 years.
[Recent PhD graduate, South Africa]
• I don’t think I was a good researcher for my PhD. You
need to have a mentor to show you the ropes and the
pitfalls. You can train for some things. The best is to work
alongside someone successful and learn from them.
[Dean of Research, UK]
• I reckon I spent nearly all my first year reading journal
articles. [Computing Sciences Final year PhD]

12. Mid
• Moving field / moving role / learning a different landscape
• Balancing teaching and research
• support / info guiding work management in different circumstances
• situating yourself / making your name / establishing credentials
– locally (e.g. in department)
– wider research community
• Need to be adaptable / avoiding isolation
• Starting to supervise other researchers
• Starting role in management / administration
• Information production and consumption
• Shift from systematic to pragmatic information retrieval
– ‘Librarians love to search. Everyone else likes to find’

13. Mid
• I hardly ever use databases, probably because I’m not
usually starting from a position of knowing nothing. I tend
to start with a few key papers and then follow up their
references. [Senior lecturer in Biology]
• I used to be focused in my approach to finding mainstream
resources, now I’m less so, more explorative. I guess
looking for inspiration for my more mainstream ideas.
[Senior Research Fellow in creative technologies] p.158

14. Late / Senior
• Developing into/ having a significant role in research
leadership and administration
• Leading research teams / research centres / research
projects / mainstream management
• Supervising and examining theses
• Teaching research methods
• Plenary conference speaker
• Editorial board of journals etc.
• Refereeing / peer reviewer / specialist assessor
• Disseminating research practice or defining their field
• Different IL skillsets for range of activities

15. Late
• I have 5 years to retirement but research is becoming more
important in my career. I still have one, even though retirement is
looming [South African researcher]
• If I couldn’t find it myself on the Internet, then I’d ask my students
first, my RAs, then I’d come to the library. The RAs live and die
finding info. [Professor of Industrial Statistics, UK]
• These days all my papers are invited plenaries and similar
tertiary reviews. [Retired Professor of Chemistry, UK]
• As a researcher, the difference is that I know how to do research
and I am connected into all the networks. [Dean of Research,
Humanities, UK]

16. Researchers learning lives
• Andragogy or pedagogy?
– Recognise the need to know
– Researchers should be responsible for own decisions
and treated as capable of self-direction
– Role of previous and ongoing experience
– Readiness to learn
– Orientation to learning
• Overly-didactic approaches are not key to
effective IL development

17. Researchers’ learning lives - the
7 ages model
• Different conceptions of research and learning needs / IL
by age and/or career stage
• Interviews indicated:
– Earlier experiences (and emotions) influenced present behaviours
– Needs and priorities varied at discrete career stages
– Attitudes and values change at each stage
• Threshold concepts and life course analysis
• IL is more than skills and training and must include attitude
and values based in the wider concept of a life course

18. IL and Researchers
• Recognise differences
• Skills and information behaviours
• Focus on management and information need
rather than finding
• Change agency / advocacy role
Engagement
Enabling
Empowerment