Library and Information Science Research in the 21st Century: A Guide for Practising Librarians and Students

Citation

Johan Lor, P. (2010), "Library and Information Science Research in the 21st Century: A Guide for Practising Librarians and Students", Library Management, Vol. 31 No. 8/9, pp. 717-719. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121011093478

Teachers of research methods for librarians and information professionals usually have to choose between prescribing one of the numerous research methods texts written for the social sciences or education, or a text intended specifically for library and information science (LIS). The latter offers the advantages of putting research in the LIS context and using relevant examples from our field, but may come across as occasionally uncertain and lacking in authority, particularly when dealing with statistics. Until a few years ago those opting for a LIS‐orientated text had little choice but to adopt the widely used book by Powell and Connaway (2004), now in its fourth edition. Since 2008 this has changed, as three new books have come onto the market: Beck and Manuel (2008), Wildemuth (2009) and the work reviewed here, that of Lawal.

Writers of research methods books for LIS face a number of decisions too. They need to choose:

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  at which level to pitch their work – for (post)graduate students (Powell and Connaway, Wildemuth), for coal‐face professionals (Beck and Manuel), or for both. Given the relatively small market for these books all these authors (or their publishers) try to hedge their bets by professing to serve the full spectrum, albeit with the emphasis on one end or the other;

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  between an approach which takes the reader step‐by‐step through the research process (Powell) or which is organized into chapters, each presenting a research method or technique (Beck and Manuel, Wildemuth); and

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  whether or not to include coverage of statistics and if so, to what extent. Given the small size of the market none of the texts takes the risk of leaving statistics to those better qualified, who can provide fuller and more authoritative coverage (e.g. Vaughan, 2001).

Lawal's book is intended as a “research primer” for both “library practitioners and students” (p. xv), an ambitious undertaking considering that at just over 180 pages of substantive text, it is by a clear margin the slimmest of the four offerings. The inclusion of two chapters dealing with the history of librarianship and library education in the USA (Chapter 1) and the significance of research in the library profession (Chapter 2) further reduces the amount of relevant text. Chapter 1 deals mainly with the history of education for librarianship, the place of research in the curriculum and problems experienced by American library schools. This chapter is superfluous in a “research primer”. The tone for Chapter 2 is set by the statement that “Librarianship as we know it today originated in 1876 when the American Library Association (ALA) was founded … ” (p.23). (This is not an accident. It is restated more pithily in the conclusion, p. 179: “Librarianship started in the USA in 1876“.) Chapter 2 includes a discussion on what research is but returns to the theme of why a research methods course should be included in the LIS curriculum. This too is largely superfluous in a book intended to be a research primer. It leaves a mere 140 pages to cover the field.

The remaining chapters provide step‐by‐step coverage of research methods, following a research process approach. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the research process and deals with such issues as finding research topics, formulating hypotheses and reviewing the literature. It is generally a useful and practical chapter. Chapters follow on research designs, data collection, data analysis and reporting. Unsurprisingly, treatment of this material tends to be superficial if not downright simplistic. For example, interviews are blandly referred to as a “qualitative method” (p. 83). (They can also be used in quantitative studies.) Sampling is dealt with in just over two pages (pp. 93‐5) and the eight lines devoted to sample size (p. 95) end with a “general rule of thumb”: 100 subjects for descriptive study, 50 for correlational studies and 30 per group for experimental and related studies. This advice could be seriously misleading if the novice researchers were to rely on it alone. The author should have referred to further sources of information or advised novice researchers to consult a statistician. On p. 97 no distinction is made between questionnaires (data collection instruments) and surveys (a research method in which data collection techniques and instruments other than questionnaires may be used). In teaching research methods it is important to distinguish between methods and techniques. Not surprisingly an attempt to cover all aspects of statistics (descriptive, inferential and predictive as well as the use of software) in 23 pages (Chapter 6) is a gamble that does not quite come off. Coverage here is uneven. A brief section on statistical significance (p.116) coming at the beginning of the chapter, well before inferential statistics is broached, may leave novice researchers mystified since it is not explicitly related to hypothesis testing, while the section on SPSS on the following page appears excessively detailed. Some of the examples (e.g. pp. 119‐120) do not appear clearly to illustrate anything and no explanation is given of the normal curve superimposed upon the histograms on pages 121 and 122. To her credit, however, the author does discuss qualitative data analysis (pp. 132‐7).

In line with the book's subtitle the author claims that “[t]he uniqueness of the book lies in its emphasis on the power of the digital medium and the advantages that it could bring to the research process” (p. xvi). Accordingly, attention is paid to aspects such as searching in online databases (pp. 54‐5), digital data sources (p.76), focus groups in an online environment (p.88), online surveys (pp. 96‐7, 106‐112) and usability testing (pp. 136‐7). This adds value, even if it does not quite measure up to the promise implied by the subtitle. Value is also added by a chapter on collaboration (Chapter 7). This deals with collaboration generally and with research collaboration in the various stages of the research process, and describes a number of web‐based research tools. Although the latter section may well be out of date soon this chapter raises awareness of research collaboration and this makes for a useful and relevant component of this text.

An extensive list of references and additional readings is provided on pages 183‐203. It contains many recent sources but might have been more useful had the items been listed under topical headings. It is followed by a glossary on pages 205‐207 which is largely limited to statistical terms, including “heteroscedasticity” and “homoscedasticity”. The index (pp. 209‐213) is of little use as all but a handful of entries are for cited authors.

This reviewer was naively under the impression that reputable publishers employed editors to assist and advise authors, to help them create focused and balanced texts, to weed out inconsistencies and the most egregious errors, or at least to elicit the opinion of an external reviewer before proceeding to publication. This does not seem to have been the case here. In addition to the problems of oversimplification and unevenness alluded to above, the text contains too many instances of obvious word‐processing errors, for example “pouring over documents” (p.77), “the researcher has to collect data […] under a variety of conditions for which the researcher has no control over” (p.78), and the repetition on page 113 of a block of 12 lines of text from page 88. Lawal clearly has much to offer, but she has been badly let down by her publisher.

As an instructor in an introductory research methods course, this reviewer would not prescribe this text. Powell and Connaway (2004), although a bit long in the tooth, remains a better choice if supplemented by additional readings, for example from research articles and from Wildemuth (2009), who provides very useful material for more advanced courses. For practitioner‐researchers, Beck and Manuel (2008) would be preferred even though, in arranging their text largely by methods and techniques, they tend to put the cart before the horses. They compensate for this by following a standard sequence of topics within each chapter. That leaves Lawal. It is brief and its large typeface and simplicity may make it less intimidating and more accessible to practitioners with little or no background in research. However, at an advertised price of £45 it is not cheap, and it cannot be recommended without a note of caution. Novice researchers can use it to get the gist of the research process and to obtain leads for further reading, but before embarking on serious research they would need to obtain more authoritative guidance.