Recent Library Practitioner Research: A Methodological Analysis and Critique

Every few years library and information science (LIS) scholars report on the state of research in librarianship in general and practitioner research in particular. These reviews, some more extensive in journal coverage than others, focus on topics addressed, methodologies used, and quality of the research. At the January 2003 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) conference, we presented the findings of our review of the 1998-2002 published librarianship research. We decided to update that analytical review for two reasons: to look at more recent literature (2003-2005), and to use refined methodological criteria to evaluate these studies. From a purposive sample of 23 LIS journals we have mined 401 research articles; 206 articles were randomly selected for this in-depth analysis. A checklist of 35 factors was applied in our analysis of these research articles. These project and report factors include authorship, topic, location and setting, type of research, data collection methods, type of data analysis, statistical techniques, and components and quality of the report itself. The data collected were statistically analyzed to produce summary data and to provide an opportunity to discover any significant associations among the many variables. Such analysis supports comparisons of practitioner and academic scholar research. The descriptive data has enabled us to document the status quo in recent practitioner research. These findings are used to explore recent patterns or trends in library practitioner research and they provide a basis for comparisons with earlier reported findings and assessments. Introduction Every few years library and information science (LIS) scholars report on the state of research in librarianship in general, and practitioner research in particular. These reviews, some more extensive in journal coverage than others, typically focus on topics addressed, methodologies used, and quality of the research. At the January 2003 ALISE meeting, we presented the findings of our review of the 1998-2002 published library research, with special focus on research conducted by library practitioners.1 We decided to update that analytical review for two reasons: to look at more recent literature (2003-2005), and to use refined methodological criteria to evaluate these studies. Consistent with the aims of most earlier reviews, we designed a study that would permit us to discover and document the status quo of recently published library research. In the review reported here we focus primarily on research methodology issues and the quality of the published reports of both practitioner and academic scholar research. By "academic scholar" we mean those individuals who are members of teaching and research faculties at colleges and universities, typically in graduate degree programs in library or information science. Topics of research were also included in this review and analysis. Topics found in the research literature were coded and documented using a concise taxonomy of broad categories. In a future study we plan to employ a more detailed, finely-grained classification of research topics that will more accurately represent the number and diversity of research topics we encountered in this review of the research literature. The data recorded for more than 30 characteristics of the 2003-2005 published research studies in our sample has enabled us to identify patterns and trends in research approaches, strategies, and use of a variety of methodologies. Our findings permit comparisons with earlier studies and assessments of the accuracy of past predictions regarding the direction of future library research. As the title of this article indicates, we were most interested in documenting and analyzing recent library practitioner research. For purposes of comparative analysis we also looked at a representative sample of research conducted and published by academic scholars during the same period, 2003-2005. …