Research Contexts and MethodologyMethodologyThe theoretical framework that informs how a researcher approaches their work and what methods are used to collect data.
So far, we’ve treated the choice of research methodology as a matter of individual choice. While you, the researcher, are empowered to design your own research process, your choices are always informed by your interaction with the communities in which you conduct and share your work. In this section, we’ll consider how different communities to which we are tied influence our understanding of how knowledge is created and, ultimately, the methodologies we choose to deploy.
Figure 1 illustrates this process. The researcher, at the center of the image, is connected to participant communities, disciplinary and professional communities, and the resources available at their institution.
Figure 1, Created by Jessica Hagman for LibParlor Online Learning, 2023.
Disciplinary and Professional Communities
What professional communities are you a part of? These connections may be formalized, as when you join a professional association, or more informal, as in those members of the profession you consider to be peers regardless of whether you share formal affiliations. When we design research, it is usually with the intention that we will share our work with our professional or disciplinary communities, through publication or presentations. While it may not be explicitly stated, disciplinary communities have norms about what knowledge creation practices and, by extension, which methodological approaches are valued.
When we tune into the ongoing conversation around a research topic over time, or through a literature reviewLiterature ReviewThe process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article. process, we can see which methods tend to be used. We may also find that some methodologies are overlooked, thus offering a space for our own work to take the conversation in a new direction. You may find, however, that work outside of disciplinary norms may receive pushback from reviewers or audiences (Roh 2018). Engaging with a disciplinary community can mean you’ll observe tension between following norms and pushing the boundaries of what is considered rigorous research.
Participants and Implicated Communities
Research in LISLibrary and Information ScienceAn interdisciplinary field that examines how physical and digital information is organized, accessed, collected, managed, disseminated and used, particularly in library settings. often involves collecting data through interaction with participants. This interaction raises challenging questions of ethics and imbalances of power between the researcher and those who are being researched (Limes-Taylor Henderson and Esposito 2019). While research is frequently intended to change structures that exclude or oppress, researchers rely on individuals to share their experiences with limited (or no) compensation. In order to avoid potentially dehumanizing and harmful practices of extractive research, scholars may choose participatory methods that invite community members to engage in the process of data collection and analysis. Researchers may also want to engage with community leaders to establish expectations about how research will be conducted and shared, rather than relying solely on university institutional review boards for developing research protocols and plans for data managementData managementThe ways a researcher collects, organizes, stores, and accesses data they collect for research. Creating a data management plan allows a researcher to know what data they will be collecting and how they will store and organize it during the research project. and the protection of participant confidentiality.
Institutional resources
How you decide to conduct research will be shaped by the resources available to you and the organizational settings in which you work. Library roles vary greatly in the expectations for research and the resources provided by organizations for LIS researchers (Babb 2021; Kennedy and Brancolini 2018).
Certain factors that influence methodological choice could include time, funding, and organizational expectations for researchers.
Time to conduct research is a particular challenge for many library-based researchers, even when their positions require scholarship for promotion. Qualitative projects that involve extensive data collection and analysis may be less feasible for those whose positions do not allow much paid time for conducting research. Time on a tenure clock or deadlines for promotion decisions may also influence the type of work that researchers conduct.
Research funding is not always available for LIS researchers or may take significant time to acquire. Access to funding allows researchers more latitude in compensating participants fairly, purchasing access to existing data, acquiring tools for data analysis, accessing paid training opportunities around research methods, or paying for research assistants.
Some library workers hold positions that require that they conduct research, with explicit or implicit expectations for what type of products “count” as research. Some types of publications may hold greater value as evidence of research productivity and impact, particularly for those who work in tenure-track positions.
None of these factors will provide a direct path to a chosen research methodResearch MethodThe approach taken by the researcher to collect data. Examples include in-depth interviews, focus groups, surveys, experiments, etc., but they are part of the decision-making process. Depending on your organization, you may receive direct guidance about volumes and types of research expected or you may need to seek out guidance from peers and mentors.
Activity
Complete the following activity in your LPOL Workbook. This activity will help you work toward a final curriculum deliverable, and it will help you develop your overall research plan.
Thinking over what you’ve learned over this lesson, use the 2.4.3: Methodology Exploration worksheet in your LPOL Workbook and a topic that you are interested in researching. Start to note potential methodological approaches you could use to gather the data that will help answer your potential research questions. If this will be a new area of research for you, it may help to begin by identifying or reviewing related research on the topic area and noting which methodologies have been used (or not!) by those in LIS or related disciplines.
Topic 3 References
Limes-Taylor Henderson, Kelly, and Jennifer Esposito “Using Others in the Nicest Way Possible: On Colonial and Academic Practice(s), and an Ethic of Humility.” Qualitative Inquiry 25, 9-10 (2019): 876–89. doi.org/10.1177/1077800417743528.
Kennedy, Marie R., and Kristine R. Brancolini. “Academic Librarian Research: An Update to a Survey of Attitudes, Involvement, and Perceived Capabilities.” College & Research Libraries 79, 6 (2018): 822–51. doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.6.822.
Roh, Charlotte. “Reflections on the Intersection of Publishing and Librarianship: The Experiences of Women of Color.” In Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, edited by Rose L. Chou and Annie Pho, 427–46. Series on Critical Race Studies and Multiculturalism in LIS. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2018.
Research Contexts and MethodologyMethodology The theoretical framework that informs how a researcher approaches their work and what methods are used to collect data.
So far, we’ve treated the choice of research methodology as a matter of individual choice. While you, the researcher, are empowered to design your own research process, your choices are always informed by your interaction with the communities in which you conduct and share your work. In this section, we’ll consider how different communities to which we are tied influence our understanding of how knowledge is created and, ultimately, the methodologies we choose to deploy.
Figure 1 illustrates this process. The researcher, at the center of the image, is connected to participant communities, disciplinary and professional communities, and the resources available at their institution.
Disciplinary and Professional Communities
What professional communities are you a part of? These connections may be formalized, as when you join a professional association, or more informal, as in those members of the profession you consider to be peers regardless of whether you share formal affiliations. When we design research, it is usually with the intention that we will share our work with our professional or disciplinary communities, through publication or presentations. While it may not be explicitly stated, disciplinary communities have norms about what knowledge creation practices and, by extension, which methodological approaches are valued.
When we tune into the ongoing conversation around a research topic over time, or through a literature reviewLiterature Review The process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article. process, we can see which methods tend to be used. We may also find that some methodologies are overlooked, thus offering a space for our own work to take the conversation in a new direction. You may find, however, that work outside of disciplinary norms may receive pushback from reviewers or audiences (Roh 2018). Engaging with a disciplinary community can mean you’ll observe tension between following norms and pushing the boundaries of what is considered rigorous research.
Participants and Implicated Communities
Research in LISLibrary and Information Science An interdisciplinary field that examines how physical and digital information is organized, accessed, collected, managed, disseminated and used, particularly in library settings. often involves collecting data through interaction with participants. This interaction raises challenging questions of ethics and imbalances of power between the researcher and those who are being researched (Limes-Taylor Henderson and Esposito 2019). While research is frequently intended to change structures that exclude or oppress, researchers rely on individuals to share their experiences with limited (or no) compensation. In order to avoid potentially dehumanizing and harmful practices of extractive research, scholars may choose participatory methods that invite community members to engage in the process of data collection and analysis. Researchers may also want to engage with community leaders to establish expectations about how research will be conducted and shared, rather than relying solely on university institutional review boards for developing research protocols and plans for data managementData management The ways a researcher collects, organizes, stores, and accesses data they collect for research. Creating a data management plan allows a researcher to know what data they will be collecting and how they will store and organize it during the research project. and the protection of participant confidentiality.
Institutional resources
How you decide to conduct research will be shaped by the resources available to you and the organizational settings in which you work. Library roles vary greatly in the expectations for research and the resources provided by organizations for LIS researchers (Babb 2021; Kennedy and Brancolini 2018).
Certain factors that influence methodological choice could include time, funding, and organizational expectations for researchers.
None of these factors will provide a direct path to a chosen research methodResearch Method The approach taken by the researcher to collect data. Examples include in-depth interviews, focus groups, surveys, experiments, etc., but they are part of the decision-making process. Depending on your organization, you may receive direct guidance about volumes and types of research expected or you may need to seek out guidance from peers and mentors.
Activity
Complete the following activity in your LPOL Workbook. This activity will help you work toward a final curriculum deliverable, and it will help you develop your overall research plan.
Thinking over what you’ve learned over this lesson, use the 2.4.3: Methodology Exploration worksheet in your LPOL Workbook and a topic that you are interested in researching. Start to note potential methodological approaches you could use to gather the data that will help answer your potential research questions. If this will be a new area of research for you, it may help to begin by identifying or reviewing related research on the topic area and noting which methodologies have been used (or not!) by those in LIS or related disciplines.
Topic 3 References
Limes-Taylor Henderson, Kelly, and Jennifer Esposito “Using Others in the Nicest Way Possible: On Colonial and Academic Practice(s), and an Ethic of Humility.” Qualitative Inquiry 25, 9-10 (2019): 876–89. doi.org/10.1177/1077800417743528.
Kennedy, Marie R., and Kristine R. Brancolini. “Academic Librarian Research: An Update to a Survey of Attitudes, Involvement, and Perceived Capabilities.” College & Research Libraries 79, 6 (2018): 822–51. doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.6.822.
Roh, Charlotte. “Reflections on the Intersection of Publishing and Librarianship: The Experiences of Women of Color.” In Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, edited by Rose L. Chou and Annie Pho, 427–46. Series on Critical Race Studies and Multiculturalism in LIS. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2018.