Research in Action: Taking Classroom Learning to the Field

Over the past two decades, preparation of LIS professionals to conduct credible research has been both scrutinized and encouraged by a variety of scholars. The conclusion of these researchers has been that there is a paucity of courses and that opportunities for students to participate in authentic field research are few. There is a resulting need for improvements to the research methods education of LIS graduate students in general.Keywords: Teaching research methods, research courses, field researchLiterature ReviewO'Connor and Park (2001), echoed by Hernon and Schwartz (2003), have argued that the LIS field professionals who can be both producers and critical consumers of research if it is to continue to evolve. Stephenson (1990) stated that library practitioners need to take a more active role in research and participate at a level that more accurately represents their numbers in the In 1 990, at the time of Stephenson's writing, a disproportionately small number of practitioners produced research while library educators and doctoral students were greatly over-represented. Research, Stephenson argued, needs to be recognized as an integral part of a continuing process of exploration, analysis, planning, and growth that extends to all aspects and participants in the field. (1990, p. 15). In the face of looming budget cuts, this is especially important because collecting empirical data is one way that practitioners can demonstrate the efficacy of their programs and help protect them against cuts (Feldman, 2010, 201 1).In her survey of ALA-accredited MLIS programs across the US and Canada (1990), Stephenson found that only 14 of the 51 responding programs offered advanced courses in research methods, despite recognition in the field that advanced courses are necessary if MLIS students are to become competent researchers. Twenty-four of the responding programs also did not require students in their basic research methods course to carry out any research. Of those that did include a research project, the survey was the most common method of data collection. Stephenson concluded that MLIS graduates were not consistently prepared with the skills or the inclination to make research a part of their professional lives.Park (2003) showed that many of Stephenson's concerns were still valid over a decade later, and she recommended that ALA make research methods training necessary for program accreditation if MLIS programs continued to leave research methods out of the core curriculum. Park compared research methods courses across ALA-accredited MLIS programs and also across other professional disciplines at the same institutions (2003). In Stephenson's study, 35 (69%) of the responding programs required research methods (1990); this number had decreased by the time of Park's (2003) review, in which she found that 32 (59%) of the 54 programs examined required research methods. The accreditation standards for business and social work programs, on the other hand, required research methods in all programs. Where there was a core research methods class in MLIS programs, Park found the content to be inconsistent and that qualitative methods were often given short shrift in favor of more traditional quantitative methods. Even though Powell (1999) noted the growing popularity of qualitative methods and multi-disciplinary research efforts in LIS research, Park's (2003) research showed that these changes in the field did not appear to be reflected in the training of future LIS professionals.In 2010, the status of research methods in MLIS curricula remained relatively unchanged: 61% of ALA-accredited MLIS programs required research methods (Luo, 2011). As part of the same study, Luo surveyed librarians about their involvement in research. The majority (84.3%) of Luo's respondents were involved in or made use of research at work, although more were consumers than producers. Of the respondents, 51. …

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