Librarians as Researchers

1. Librarians as Researchers Some North American Perspectives Librarian as research seminar, 8 May 2014 Sharon L. Bostick, PhD

2. Active culture of research • Librarians must have an accredited masters degree to practice • Librarian research roughly falls into three categories which may overlap: • Required research • Research by choice: • Research by led by library or institution Overview

3. Several different reasons for required research • Degrees—Masters or doctoral theses and projects • Promotion and tenure Required Research

4. It is not uncommon for librarians to get a PhD or other doctorate but certainly not required unless they teach in a library science program • I am talking about librarians with an MLS getting a PhD, not the other way around • Has been controversy over hiring non-MLS PhDs • Also, it is fairly common for academic libraries to require a second masters in a subject area, or significant progress towards one, to be hired Theses and Projects

5. Some universities use this, details and requirements vary • Some are on full tenure track with 8-9 month contracts • Some are on full tenure track but on 12 month contract (most common of the tenure track group) and this is difficult • Some quasi, with promotion but no tenure Promotion and tenure

6. Many guidelines require second masters or PhD • Most have a publishing component and this is where the research comes in. • May be research or descriptive articles or blogs, whichever the guidelines accept • Common to have external reviewer for articles Promotion and tenure 2

7. Challenge is creating the time for research with all the other job responsibilities • This is an issue for all research of course but for tenure and promotion it is particularly important. • Some libraries allow sabbaticals Promotion and tenure 3

8. Some driven by a passion to “figure out the answer” rather than job demand • Often form a community of practice, which gives the opportunity to share conversation. • In tenure track libraries, it may be more difficult to find support after tenure—in some places but scarce resources to support tenure track librarians. Again, sabbaticals can be helpful Research by choice

9. Many often have a practical library research project, often called practice research • Can drive rapid decisions: “the next time I will make X decision based on this research” • Or broader (for example, my PhD research on library anxiety) • Or non-library subject based For both required and by choice research

10. A very good way to encourage librarian research • Increasingly collaborative with other units on campus, ex. ACRL’s grant for Assessment in Action, or CARLI’s Research Subsidy Award in Illinois • Faculty partnerships; sense of being knowledge creators and well as curators • Knowledge creation is showing up in library mission statements • Very popular topic—assessment and leads to many research studies Institution or library-led research

11. Grants • Collaborative or team research • Library schools • Sometimes public libraries or corporate libraries • Sometimes with projects with non-library professional associations • American Educational Research Association (AERA) is a place to present research and potentially partner. Other research opportunities and partnerships

12. Library as publisher • A library publishing forum was held this past March • Libraries are starting their own journals • Open access is fueling this • Ex. U Pittsburgh has 14 Topics and actions

13. Developing competencies • Assessment is huge • ACRL’s Assessment in Action as part of their Value of Academic Libraries project • Has an online database of projects Topics and actions

14. Conferences are discussing data collection • Ex—at the last CNI conference, many meetings focused on data and on assessment in many forms, also gave some training • Various studies relating to technology, including: • Usability studies • Use studies Topics and actions

15. Librarian research is alive and well in the US • Librarian as knowledge producer is a theme • Some is required by a degree or by tenure and or promotion • Active research is popular and is heavily covered at conferences, webinars and the like • Why do we do what we do and what does it mean is a popular question as is: • How do our users think/work? Conclusion

16. American Library Association (ALA) www.ala.org International membership is 60 Euros • Association of College and Research libraries (ACRL) www.ala.org/acrl. I recommend looking at their Value of Academic Libraries page at www.acrl.ala.org/value. Also www.ala.org/acrl/AiA • Library Research Roundtable (LRRT) www.ala.org/lrrt • Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) www.cni.org • Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) www.ala.org/rusa. They sponsor the annual Reference Forum, held at the ALA annual conference Selected resources

17. Many groups on the previous slide have calls for writers or speakers • For more information please feel free to contact me Writing and presenting in the US

18. Sharon L. Bostick, PhD Dean of Libraries Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, USA sbostick@iit.edu Thank you!