Participant-driven photo-elicitation in library settings: A methodological discussion

With the current attention in libraries on user-focused services and spaces, there is an increased interest in qualitative research methods that can provide insight into users’ experiences. In this paper, we advance photo-elicitation—a research method that employs photographs in interviews—as one such method. Although widely used in the social sciences, photo-elicitation has seen comparatively little uptake in Library and Information Studies (LIS). Here, we provide an overview of the method, consider epistemological and theoretical approaches, discuss cases of its application in library contexts and examine the benefits of using photo-elicitation for LIS research. We draw on our own research experiences and argue that photo-elicitation is a productive method for learning about the lived experiences of our users and for creating a collaborative approach to library research.

Threshold concepts and core competences in the library and information science (LIS) domain: Methodologies for discovery

Researchers have used a variety of methodologies for investigating threshold concepts, and this paper considers these approaches for library and information science (LIS) domains. The focus is on specific benefits of constructivist grounded theory for eliciting evidence of core knowledge, and elements of research design for this purpose are discussed, including the importance of collecting experiences from the learners themselves as well as effective protocols for data gathering and analysis through the use of active tasks and semi-structured interviews. The discussion extends to implications of the research design for how it may be applied to thematic analysis more broadly and to discovering critical knowledge that does not have the characteristics of threshold concepts but which may indicate attributes of core competences in the LIS discipline.

Institutional ethnography: A sociology for librarianship

Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnography (IE) is an ontology of the social that conceptualises ‘life as usual’ as the ongoing coordination of people’s actions across diverse sites. Popular in the health sciences and human service professions as a research strategy for understanding and explicating problematics of everyday life, it is slowly gaining traction as a critical research approach for library and information science (LIS). This article introduces IE and provides an overview of its central tenets. It outlines ways in which institutional ethnographers identify research problematics and collect and analyse data. The article concludes with three illustrations of how institutional ethnography has been used to map the linkages among activities and institutional processes, ultimately revealing how it can contribute to a critical understanding of library and information science practices and scholarship.

Making sense of methods – a conversation about qualitative research in library and information studies

Currently there is an embarrassment of riches with regards to research in areas such as library and information studies [LIS] – a range of possibilities, both qualitative and quantitative – added to which we now have the potential for ‘mixed methods’ and the lure of ‘Big Data’ as a resourced that appears to offer a readily available and potentially fruitful basis for investigative studies. All of this provides a rich body of resources for researchers, but this abundance also has a downside leading to confusion and perplexity. Contributions such as this special issue are intended to resolve and ameliorate this, and so we seek to address some of these issues in the form of an interchange between two researchers with interests that include, but are not limited to, research in LIS. The aim of this is to seek some clarification of key issues involved; although we realize that this is unlikely to provide any definitive outcome, it may assist those seeking some guidance on these matters.

Meta-Ethnography and its Potential for Theory Building in Library and Information Science

Meta-ethnography is an interpretive method that provides a way to synthesize the findings of two or more qualitative studies concerning a similar research question or topic. Going beyond the traditional literature review, which looks at individual studies, meta-ethnography facilitates generalizations through extracting concepts, metaphors, and themes. This paper provides a thorough description of the seven steps of meta-ethnography as defined by Noblit and Hare (1988). Implications for this method and the field of Library and Information Science (LIS), especially in the area of theory building, are discussed. Appropriate examples of actual and potential applications within LIS and related disciplines are given to illustrate the potential for the meta-ethnographic method.

Brown, N.E., Bussert, K., Hattwig, D. & Medaille, A. (2016). Visual literacy for libraries: a practical, standards-based guide. London: Facet Publishing.

Koehler, W. (2015) Ethics and values in librarianship: a history. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

An evaluation of phenomenography

This article briefly evaluates phenomenography as a research approach. Drawing on findings from a recently-completed research project, it explains the phenomenographic approach, outlines how it was used in the research project, and presents the advantages and disadvantages of phenomenography. It identifies three issues with using phenomenography that do not seem to have been raised elsewhere. Two issues apply generally to all such research: the nature of phenomenographic data, and an inconsistency in phenomenography itself. The third is around mental models and phenomenographic conceptions and applicable to this research project, but has wider implications for the concept of mental models in the cognitive viewpoint of library and information studies (LIS) research.

Editorial: Research methodology in library and information studies (LIS) 2018

Needham, G. & Ally, M. (EDS.). (2015). M-Libraries 5: from devices to people. London: Facet Publishing.

Ridge, M. (Ed.). (2014). Crowdsourcing our cultural heritage. Farnham: Ashgate.

Worley, L., & Spells, S. (2014). BIALL handbook of legal information management (2nd ed.). Farnham: Ashgate.

Editorial

Broughton, V. (2015). Essential classification (2nd ed.). London: Facet Publishing.

Research support for academics: Case studies of two Vietnamese Universities

With the introduction of quality assurance and accreditation requirements for Vietnamese universities, academics are under increasing pressure with regard to teaching workloads and improved research outcomes, for example, in the number and quality of research publications produced (Ninh, 2013; MoET, 2017a). Using two prominent Vietnamese universities as case studies, this paper explores the ways in which the libraries in the two universities currently provide support for research, the gaps in service provision, and the issues that impact on the ability of libraries to provide a high standard of service. The findings provided some insights into the type of strategies that could be adopted in the future, emphasising the need to involve collaboration with other university services, improvements in library staff research skills and knowledge, and ways of overcoming the barriers of organisational, cultural and social attitudes.

Implementing Koha at Regent University College, Ghana: A case study of options, opportunities and challenges

This paper shares the automation experience of Regent University College in relation to the selection and implementation of Koha library management system. It is a first time automation project which looked at the options available to Regent, a private university in Ghana. The background information and the literature review provide the context for the decision to choose the ‘independent’ route of a wholly in-house solution. Koha as an open source system meets the systems requirements and financial needs of Regent. In addition, it provided the Project team with the ‘sandbox’ in which to try its hands at offering the Koha solution to Regent. Examples from earlier adopters of Koha guided the selection and adoption and the ten-month account gives the detail of events leading to the selection and adoption. Lessons learnt include the development of staff expertise, working strengths of library and IT staff, and project management skills. The benefits are cost savings made for the parent institution and service improvement for the Regent Ghana Library. The major challenge was staff time and commitment to the full implementation of the project. Also, as the first reported case study on Koha in Ghana, it serves as guide to would be adopters of the library system

CILIPS Conference 2017 – Student Report

This article gathers the perceptions of three students attending the MSc in Information & Library Studies at the University of Strathclyde, after participating at the CILIPS Conference – Strategies for Success - held in Dundee on 6-7 June 2 017. The authors provide an informative overview of the presentations and workshops delivered on the second day of the event, enriched by personal viewpoints. Learning outcomes of a first experience as attendees of a professional conference are outlined, together with a reflection on current state and future developments of the information and library sector.

The development and use of a research self-efficacy scale to assess the effectiveness of a research training program for academic librarians

Research self-efficacy – or research confidence – has been shown to be a predictor of research productivity. There is also some evidence that it is a mediating factor between the research training environment and research productivity. To explore the connection between research training and research self-efficacy, the authors developed, validated, and later expanded a scale to measure research self-efficacy among academic librarians. They used the expanded 38-item scale to measure the research self-efficacy of participants from a three-year research training workshop for academic librarians, comparing results before and after the workshop. Participants experienced significant increases in research self-efficacy across all 38-questions, within the annual cohorts and across all three years. The question-level results were used to make changes to the summer workshops in Years 2 and 3, in order to improve the effectiveness of the summer workshop to increase research self-efficacy. This study confirms that a measurement of research self-efficacy can be a useful tool in assessing the effectiveness of research training and improving that training.

Where are the sleeping beauties and princes in educational technology journals?

Library Hi Tech, Ahead of Print.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce an affective computing-based method of identifying sleeping beauties and their princes in five educational technology journals. Design/methodology/approach This study develops an information technology-based methodology to analyze sleeping beauties in the field of educational technology. The authors seek to determine the characteristics of studies which trigger the awakening of sleeping beauties (called “princes”). The keywords and Hirsch index (H-index) are used as two essential analysis indicators. Findings Between 2000 and 2015, these five journals included 7,864 articles with a total of 77,700 citations and 24,312 keywords. This study identified articles as being in deep sleep (75.7 percent), less deep sleep (14.7 percent), and awakening (5.5 percent) states. According to the analytical results, 431 of 7,864 articles are qualified as “sleeping beauties.” Of the 431 sleeping beauties identified, 232 articles were awakened by trend princes, while 286 were awakened by H-index princes. A total of 128 sleeping beauties were awakened by both prince types. Besides, impact factors (IFs) of journals do not have a significant effect on the number of sleeping articles. Research limitations/implications There are two main research limitations in this study. The first one is the amount of target journals. Only five well-known educational technology journals are analyzed in this research. There may be more valuable sleeping publications in other journals not been found. The second limitation is that the authors merely pick up the lead author of citing papers as the indicator to determine the H-index prince. The contributions of the rest of authors are not taken are not taken into consideration. These limitations should be further studied. Originality/value To the knowledge, this study is the first one reporting the identification of sleeping beauty and princes in educational technology field. Furthermore, the authors devise an informational method to determine sleeping publications, sleeping beauty, and princes. A systematic analysis of five well-known journals in the field of educational technology field confirms the existence of “sleeping beauties.” It is reported that improvements to a journal’s IF are positively correlated to increased numbers of sleeping beauties being awakened. To reduce the number of such articles, or to reduce the overall sleeping duration, journal editors should not only seek to raise the journal’s IF, but also strategically select keywords for maximum visibility, and promote articles to high H-index authors.

Strategies for using ResearchGate to improve institutional research outcomes

Library Review, Volume 66, Issue 8/9, Page 726-739, November 2017.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to help improve a higher education institution’s research profile by using existing resources and existing research outputs. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on quantitative data extracted manually from QS University Rankings-Asia 2016, the 2015 Ranking of Pakistani higher education institutions (HEI) and ResearchGate (RG). Resultant data were loaded into Excel and analyzed in SPSS version 21. Findings The results of this study indicate that, while there is no direct correlation between an institution’s national/international ranking and its respective RG score, there is a tendency for lower-ranked institutions to have a lower RG score. Research limitations/implications This study was limited to data extracted from RG; however, it would be useful to apply the same methodology to other relevant academic scholarly network sites (ASNS). Practical implications This paper has suggested strategies which may be of relevance to those institutions in other countries which are aspiring to lift their national ranking through improved research profiles. Libraries are important contributors to the support of institutional research goals. Originality/value There have been no previous published research studies on either the potential for ASNS to contribute to enhancing research outcomes for Pakistani HEI or the role that libraries could play in supporting these outcomes.