Week 2 The lecture for this week is designed to provide students with a general overview of 1) quantitative/qualitative research strategies and 2) 21st century LIS research trends. The slides related to research strategies only provide beginning/intro statements. We will discuss each strategy in-dept during the course.

Research exists along two continuums –Basic research (also known as scientific and pure research) focuses on generating new knowledge that is generalizable. (quantitative) –Applied research focuses on solving particular problems within a real-world contexts. (qualitative) Definition of Research (Powell & Connaway, 2004) Basic Applied and Quantitative Qualitative

Research exists along two continuums –Quantitative research tests objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. –Qualitative research is a means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human phenomena. –Mixed methods research is situated between quantitative and qualitative approaches to inquiry. Definition of Research (Creswell, 2007) Basic Applied and Quantitative Qualitative

Quantitative strategies –discussed in greater depth later in the course –Survey research, which is a numeric description of trends, attitudes or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population. (quantitative survey(quantitative strategy) & qualitative survey exist) –Content analysis (could also be qualitative), which is a detailed and systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of material for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases within that material Definition of Research (Creswell, 2007)

Quantitative strategies (cont.) –discussed in greater depth later in the course –Correlational research, which is a statistical investigation of the relationship between two or more variables. It focuses on surface level relationships. –Descriptive quantitative research, which is a approach that involves either identifying the characteristics of an observed, pre-existing phenomenon or exploring possible correlations among two or more phenomena. –Developmental research, which is an observational- descriptive type of research that either compares people in different ages groups or follows a particular group over a lengthy period of time. Definition of Research

Quantitative strategies (cont.) –discussed in greater depth later in the course –Experimental research, which is a study that randomly assigns participants to groups that undergo different experimental treatments, followed by observations or measurements to assess the effects of treatments. –Quasi-experimental research, which is a method similar to experimental research but without random assignment to groups. Definition of Research

Qualitative strategies –discussed in greater depth later in the course –Case study, which is an attempt to understand one person or situation (or perhaps a very small number) in great depth. –Ethnography, which is an attempt to understand how behaviors reflect the culture of a group. –Phenomenological research, which is an attempt to understand an experience from the participants’ point of view. Definition of Research

Qualitative strategies –discussed in greater depth later in the course –Grounded theory research, which is an attempt to derive a theory from data collected in a natural setting. Definition of Research

Within our field of study, scientific research emerged after the foundation of the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago in –Several factors made research within our field of study possible: 1) the profession began to mature toward the end of the 19th century, 2) best practices began to emerge within the field, 3) professional associations were founded, 4) practice-oriented journal began to appear and 5) an increasing number of LIS faculty members obtain research degrees. Research and Librarianship (Wallace, 2007)

Within recent years, the field has seen improvements in the state and quality of its research. For example, current research studies have 1) research questions that are well constructed and 2) advanced statistical analysis techniques. Research and Librarianship (Wallace, 2007)

During the 21 st century, a few LIS research trends are noticeable. –LIS practitioners are conducting and publishing research together –LIS academic scholars are conducting and publishing research together –However, there is very little practitioner- scholar collaboration 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Research trends continued: –The research studies fall within particular topic genres (in ranked order with 1 indicating a majority) 1.Users (needs, preferences and behavior) 2.LIS Services 3.Information seeking and use 4.Collections 5.Administration and operations 6.Systems/IT 7.Catalogs and indexes 8.User Education and information literacy 9.Database searching and info retrieval 10.Publishing, Citation analysis 11.LIS education 12.Cooperation/Consortia 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Research trends continued: –Most LIS research studies are conducted in particular physical setting such as (in ranked order with 1 indicating a majority) 1.University settings 2.Public library settings 3.Other settings (e.g., Web) 4.School library media settings 5.Special library settings –Academic scholars conduct most of research that occurs in other (non-library) settings. Practitioners conduct most of the research that occurs within university environments. 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Research trends continued: –Most LIS research studies are of a particular type (in ranked order with 1 indicating a majority) 1.Descriptive 2.Explanatory 3.Exploratory 4.Evaluative –Practitioners conduct most of the descriptive research, and academics conduct most of the exploratory research. 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Descriptive research attempts to –portray an accurate profile of persons, events or situations –It requires extensive previous knowledge Explanatory research attempts to –explain a situation or problem –explain patterns relating to the phenomenon being researched –identify relationships between aspects of the phenomenon Exploratory research attempts to –find out what is happening, particularly in little-understood situations –seek new insights –ask new questions –assess phenomena in a new light –generate ideas and hypotheses for future research 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Research trends continued: –Most LIS research data are collected using the following methods (in ranked order with 1 indicating a majority) 1.Survey questionnaire 2.Content analysis 3.Semi-structured interviews 4.Survey interviews 5.Experiments 6.Computer log analysis 7.Observation 8.Bibliometric/Citation Analysis 9.Case study 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Practitioner researchers seem to prefer survey questionnaires, observational methods and content analysis. Academic scholar researchers seem to prefer survey questionnaires, content analysis, interviews and bibliometric methods. 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)

Research trends continued: –Most LIS research is (in ranked order with 1 indicating a majority) 1.Quantitative 2.Mixed methods 3.Qualitative 21 st Century LIS Research Trends (Hildreth & Aytac, 2007)