Conference review, thanks and resources

July 2, 2010

Thank you to everyone for their participation in the LIS Research Coalition conference on Monday.

Conference review

The analysis of the conference evaluation forms (49 returned from 81 participants) shows that the event was very well received as a valuable, stimulating and enjoyable day, particularly for making contact with other LIS researchers, learning about on-going projects, and inspiring individuals’ commitment to pursuing their own research objectives. From the LIS Research Coalition’s perspective, the event provided a great opportunity to address its aims related to bringing together information about LIS research in the UK and encouraging dialogue across the members of the LIS research community. Added to this, discussions during the day – particularly in the breakout sessions – have helped identify priority areas for investment of Coalition resources in the coming months.

The majority of delegates who completed the conference evaluation forms rated the conference as a whole as “excellent” or “very good”. The most popular sessions were Andrew Dillon’s opening keynote speech and the set of one minute madness presentations, both of which were rated “excellent” by the majority. Andrew’s presentation attracted comments such as “great keynote” and “excellent – really interesting and fascinating speaker”. There was much enthusiasm in the comments on the one minute madness session which, in a way, reflected the gusto with which the delegates participated in this activity: “One minute madness worked really well – enjoyed this very much. There should be one at every conference!” “One minute madness was brill. How amazing that it actually worked!” Michael Jubb’s introductory presentation was also well received, with the majority rating this session either “excellent” or “very good”. The most common rating for the breakout sessions was “very good”, and for Charles Oppenheim’s closing keynote, described as a “great finale” in a delegate tweet, it was “excellent”.

The choice of venue was also very popular with the delegates: the majority rated the convenience of the location, its comfort and facilities and the catering as “excellent”: “I was very impressed – plush, great air-con, gorgeous food and handy for King’s Cross. Perfect.”

Those who were involved in the conference administration were pleased that most delegates rated the arrangements as “excellent”, both prior to the conference and on the day itself. Particularly appreciated was the additional “social” information provided in advance of the conference which, it is believed, contributed to the friendly atmosphere of the event.

Feedback from our virtual participants, of which there were at least 29 actively following the conference by watching #lisrc10 on Twitter or interacting with the CoverItLive site, also showed enthusiasm for the proceedings of the day.

Conference thanks

Of course, an enormous amount of effort goes into planning a conference such as this, and we owe thanks to all involved. First we are very grateful to the conference sponsors. A special vote thanks is due to our speakers, facilitators, chairs, student rapporteurs, and the brave one minute madness speakers for their contributions on the day, as well as the hard work devoted to preparing for their roles. We should also recognise that without the commitment of the conference programme committee, we would not have enjoyed a range of sessions that was – as one delegate remarked – so “well-designed from the point of view of the flow of different events/formats and from the point of view of engagement/participation”. There are also two individuals whose work behind the scenes deserves special recognition. Stephanie Kenna, amongst other things, contributed much to the marketing of the event. Stella Wisdom managed communications between Event Logistics and the British Library. Stella also liaised with the AV team to ensure that all the speaker presentations were in order, and prepared the tailored handouts that helped guide us through the process of accessing the British Library’s wireless network.

Conference resources

We have spent the past couple of days writing up the conference sessions and posting materials to the Coalition web site. Our live blogger Kirsty Pitkin of T-Consult Ltd worked at amazing speed to edit the video footage and provide the drafts of session reports for Hazel Hall to edit. Those who have agreed to write their own reports of the event, for example for colleagues or for publication, will be particularly pleased to see the full list of resources now available below (also accessible from the conference web page). We will add links to other conference outputs, for example reviews in the professional press and individual participants’ blogs, as these are published.

All the PowerPoint presentations from the conference are also available from the LIS Research Coalition’s Slideshare site. Video footage from the day, including delegate interviews and the one minute madness session, is available from the LIS Research Coalition’s Vimeo site.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

Introducing the student rapporteurs

June 23, 2010

Our sponsors have generously supported six PhD students to attend the LIS Research Coalition conference as student rapporteurs. The rapporteurs will be undertaking various duties on Monday 28th June, including helping to distill the various conversations and debates of the day so that we – as a community – can consider how to tackle the priority issues related to LIS research in practice.

The students are all keen to share their research and to network with experienced LIS researchers throughout the event, so please do try to talk with them if you are attending. Here is a brief introduction to each of them to give you a taste of their wide-ranging interests.

Liz Brewster (Twitter: @lizzyab)
Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield

PhD Title: Strategic aims and service user needs in bibliotherapy schemes in UK public libraries

Liz’s research examines the impact of bibliotherapy schemes in UK public libraries. These schemes use books to help people with mild to moderate mental health problems. Liz’s aim is to focus on user experiences of bibliotherapy schemes, with reference to their strategic aims. The research will identify potential gaps in service provision, with suggestions for service improvement. As part of her research, Liz is examining: cost effective ways in which bibliotherapy can be administered in partnership between health and library sectors; evidence-based librarianship; and efficient methods of evaluating and benchmarking bibliotherapy schemes, in which ‘soft’ outcomes can be difficult to measure.

Liz says “I find working closely with library service users an enriching experience, and appreciate the chance to discuss this type of research with a varied spectrum of the LIS community. The conference seems to focus on a number of issues highly pertinent to a new researcher, and I feel it would be encouraging to participate in discussions concerned with impact, evidence and funding.”

Charlie Inskip
Department of Information Science, City University (Twitter: @CharlieInskip)

PhD Title: Communicating meaning and meeting information need within the music industry

Charlie writes a monthly column on music and LIS issues for CILIP’s Update magazine. He is particularly concerned that the LIS research landscape is constantly shifting to accommodate changes in funding and evaluation, which affects those – like himself – who are approaching the end of a AHRC funded PhD and are looking for new opportunities. Charlie believes that attending conferences such as this one provides an excellent opportunity for new researchers to gain inside knowledge of these developments, and enhances their value to the wider LIS community.

Charlie says “The conference agenda themes of evidence, value and impact are highly topical and relevant across today’s research world. I am keen to increase my understanding of the importance of these issues and the impact they may have on the career development of new researchers such as myself.”

Liz Poirier
Department of Information Science, City University

PhD Title: Towards a theory of slow information: time, pleasure and consumption in theories of information behaviour

Liz’s research is concerned with human information behaviour, specifically how we cope, both individually and collectively, in a society characterized by increasingly overwhelming information environments. As information channels accelerate and proliferate, she asks how are we to navigate a successful path to relevant resources and how are those paths depicted in existing theories of information behaviour?

Liz’s experience as a librarian in the higher education sector is informing her approach. This made evident that some key assumptions in existing theories – whereby rapid speed and expansive volume are implicitly framed as the pinnacle of information seeking and use – were not always the primary goals for information users. She was prompted to expose this gap in the literature and explore why it exists.

Liz says “I did not embark on this PhD in order to pursue a life of pure academia, and I have always imagined a hybrid career where research and practice share equal billing, and provide fuel for each other in a reciprocal relationship. The Library and Information Science Research Coalition conference seems a perfect opportunity to explore how this might be possible.”

Hannah Spring (Twitter: @hannahspring101)
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, York St John University

PhD Title: Barriers to, and priorities for, research development in health librarianship

Hannah’s study takes the concept of evidence-based health practice and considers this in context with the LIS health research landscape. Whilst the Government agenda for health maintains a requirement for accountability and evidence-based health practice, the health librarians that support the research activities that underpin such agendas are not currently noted for placing focus on working to an evidence-based agenda within their own professional practice. Hannah’s research therefore has two strands. The first is an investigation into the reasons for, and barriers to, lack of engagement in research activity within the health-related LIS professions. The second is an investigation into research priority development, with the aim of contributing to the future strategic development of LIS health research.

Hannah says “Although my background and experience is specific to health librarianship, many of the issues I am investigating are entirely transferrable to a general LIS research audience. The areas of focus highlighted on the conference overview – such as techniques for integrating research activities into everyday work and practice (evidence-based practice), identifying research opportunities, collaboration and publication for instance – are all areas with which I closely identify.”

Charlie Major (Twitter: @vkwn)
Department of Information Science, City University

PhD Title: Objectivity and the Gene Ontology: how do biologists working within the e-science paradigm classify theoretical entities?

Charlie’s research project is focused on classification in a specific domain: the classification of ideas, objects and data in biology. He is interested in the schema biologists have developed to structure knowledge in biology, and to aid information retrieval. Charlie believes that the boom in bioinformatics and the trend towards e-science-driven methods beg interesting questions such as “Can a machine be a biologist?” or “Should biological classifications be constructed be consensus?” He is a LIS researcher with an active blog, and a belief that LIS research can be communicated to wider audiences in a style that is both interesting and (heaven forbid!) even funny and entertaining.

Charlie says“The LIS Research Coalition conference looks interesting to me because it puts the emphasis on translating research into practice. What’s the point of a bottle of wine if you haven’t got a corkscrew?
Secondly, the conference also cannot fail to get the LIS juices pumping with a session called ‘One minute madness’, although I am suddenly distracted by an idea for ‘Gong Show’-style challenge where researchers are voted off the lectern with a resounding clang should their presentations fail to keep an expectant audience’s interest.”

(One minute madness presenters will be relieved to hear that we will not be following up Charlie’s interesting proposal!)

Hui-Yun Sung
Department of Information Science, Loughborough University

PhD Title: Community engagement in public libraries

Hui-Yun’s research interests are located in community engagement and public libraries. Community engagement is an emerging area in the public librarianship literature, and may be one way to help explain how public libraries can effectively involve communities. Her research aim is to investigate the important elements that help make community engagement work in public libraries.

Hui-Yun says “I hope that by attending the conference that I will be able to identify research opportunities in the LIS for my future career from listening to keynote presentations and various speeches by both academics and experienced practitioners in relevant areas. In addition, I will learn how to translate my research outcomes into practice to make them more applicable for public library services.”

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Posted by Kirsty Pitkin

The librarian as researcher

June 1, 2010

Over the past few months the LIS Research Coalition has been involved in a number of conferences and meetings, as can be seen from the listings on the Events web page. Last week attention focused on the Librarian as Researcher event organised by the Yorkshire and Humberside branch of the University, College and Research (UC&R) group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). As well as those who attended in person, a number of people followed the day’s proceedings on Twitter by watching the hashtag #ucryhres and corresponding with those tweeting, including @LISResearch. Miggie Pickton, who presented at this event, kindly agreed to contribute a guest blog posting on the day for the LIS Research Coalition web site.

Miggie is Research Support Specialist at the University of Northampton. She has been a great supporter of the LIS Research Coalition in the first year of its implementation. Miggie has served on the programme committee for the conference which takes place later in the month on Monday 28th June at the British Library, and is the one behind the organisation of the one minute madness session at this event.

Over to Miggie…

We all enjoyed a fun-filled day on practitioner research in York last Thursday, participating in the ‘Librarians as researchers’ event hosted by UC&R Yorkshire and Humberside. In the morning Jean McNiff of York St John University put us all through our paces as action researchers (yes, we actually did a piece of action research there and then) and then Sheila Corrall from the University of Sheffield’s i-School presented a set of convincing arguments for embarking on a higher degree in LIS. Professional doctorates appeal – a structured programme with lots of relevance to the day job – but, as yet, there not many professional doctorates available for LIS professionals in the UK.

Slightly awed by this exalted company, I was there banging the drum for practitioner research. But why would practitioners want to do research? The group came up with lots of reasons….

Research is good for the individual:

  • It is interesting – an opportunity to explore something in more depth, learn something new, satisfy your curiosity
  • It encourages you to challenge yourself, to move out of that comfort zone, develop new skills, become reflective, stretch yourself
  • It adds variety to the job – research involves a change from routine, an opportunity to do something different, work with new people
  • It involves making a personal connection with work
  • It increases job satisfaction
  • It enables you to do your job better
  • It supports professional development
  • It enhances personal profile and improves career prospects

Research is good for the service and the organisation:

  • It provides evidence of value and demonstrates impact
  • It underpins strategic improvement and other decision-making… and on the way research can help to solve problems and improve service
  • It leads to greater engagement with service users through:
    • Understanding their perspective
    • Showing that you’re interested in their needs
    • Doing what they do (promote the library as ‘academic’ department and the librarian as credible researcher)
  • It increases staff motivation and dynamism
  • It enhances organisational reputation and achieve recognition (within and beyond the institution)
  • It brings financial benefit – by generating income or discovering ways to reduce costs

Research is good for the profession:

  • It provokes conversation and debate (and not just within LIS – with other disciplines too)
  • It creates and disseminates new knowledge and good practice – furthering professional excellence (as CILIP would have us do)
  • It provokes positive change
  • It develops an engaged and vibrant professional community
  • It enhances the profession’s reputation and profile
  • It defines our professional future

And with all that is going for practitioner research, we’d better get on with it, taking advantage of continuing the conversation at other professional events that provide research support and opportunities to consider its context in LIS practice, such as the LIS Research Coalition conference at the end of this month.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

Six months into the implementation and priorities for future work

February 4, 2010

Six months have passed since work began in earnest on the implementation of the plans of the LIS Research Coalition. In this time we’ve made progress in meeting the goals related to establishing a structure to facilitate a co-ordinated and strategic approach to LIS research across the UK. For example, the Coalition web site grows steadily as a source of information about LIS research. Equally the Twitter account, @LISResearch, provides regular news feeds on research projects from proposal to publication of results, as well as research opportunities ranging from advertised PhD places to vacancies on high level research-related bodies and committees.

The Coalition has also taken the opportunity to present to external audiences. This has been achieved both at a general
level – as at Online 2009, and in the Coalition response to the consultation on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – and with reference to concerns of particular user groups, such as the “student experience” focus of the autumn 2009 SCONUL conference. Further conference and meeting contributions are planned for a variety of audiences. We are also looking forward to the LIS Research Coalition’s own conference on Monday 28th June 2010 at the British Library Conference Centre in London. Events – both Coalition and externally organised – are noted on the Coalition web site Events page. We’ve also been busy engaging with the media, attracting coverage of our activities in both the LIS and general press (for example, we’ve had two mentions in Times Higher Education to date). Details of such publishing activity are given on the Media coverage page. It is hoped that these efforts will succeed in the goal of pushing LIS research further up the agenda of the UK LIS community, particularly amongst practitioner colleagues. Longer term it is anticipated that they might result in an improvement in the volume and quality of practitioner research, and the translation of this future research output into practice. Ultimately the research completed should also inform the development of future UK LIS research strategy.

One of the Coalition’s goals is to address current gaps in LIS research activity in the UK. The need to develop a strong evidence base that can be used to demonstrate the value and impact of library and information services has been identified as a priority area. We intend to put resources into addressing this ahead all of other possible research themes. This is on the basis that without easy access to an evidence base that can be used to assess and publicise impact and value, library and information services are rendered vulnerable to cost-cutting exercises. Funders will protect units where contributions to organisational objectives and the bottom line are more clearly artciulated, not least as demonstration of accountability for their own decisions. A second priority is to consider how to provide research methods training opportunities, primarily for the (potentially enlarged) practitioner researcher audience. Currently work is on-going on a funding bid for the provision of a series of events focused on research methods. A further possibile initiative is to run smaller-scale one-off sessions on specific themes of interest to those starting to engage in research activities.

In forthcoming meetings of the Board of Directors of the LIS Research Coalition we will be discussing how we can build on
our initial work to progress it further: there is clearly much more that could be done! The focus of these discussions will be how to ensure that we channel the resources available to the Coalition into activities that deliver real value to the LIS research community in the UK. There will be opportunities for greater participation in the debate on the direction of the Coalition at the LIS Research Coalition conference at the British Library Conference Centre on June 28th 2010. In the meantime members of the UK LIS research community – from established researchers to aspiring new professionals – are invited to respond to the proposals made in this blog posting. Of particular interest would be suggestions on how the work of the Coalition could be developed to meet the needs of practitioner researchers. Responses can be made by leaving comments below, or by e-mailing Hazel Hall directly at hazel.hall@lisresearch.org.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

LIS Research Coalition “review” of Online 2009

December 9, 2009

Taken as a whole, the annual Online event at London Olympia each December is a huge gathering of the information industry. Upstairs in the conference centre there are the formal conference sessions, downstairs are the exhibitors and free seminars, and around Olympia smaller satellite events take place in hotels and bars. Hence the use of quotation marks of the title of this blog posting. This is a “review” of Online 2009 from the perspective of Library and Information Science Research Coalition staff: participation was limited by the laws of physics that render it impossible to be simultaneously in more than one place at the same time. Thankfully a number of other participants have also blogged their experiences of Online 2009. These include: Brian Kelly of JISC (@briankelly); Marydee Ojala and colleagues of Information Today (@marydeeo); and Bethan Ruddock, who worked on the Mimas stand at the exhibition (@bethanar). Others have contributed posts about specific conference themes, such as Pete Cranston (@petecranston). In the New Year reviews of Online 2009 will appear in the print media. In the meantime, for a fuller picture of what went on at Olympia in the first week of December this year, please follow the links provided at the end of this entry.

Keynote slide shot

Charlene Li was the opening keynote speaker on the Thursday


From the perspective of the LIS Research Coalition two themes appeared to dominate this year’s conference: (1) social media and (b) the semantic web. In her opening keynote on the Thursday morning Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, made sense of much of the discussion of social media of the previous two days that had taken place in formal conference presentations and face-to-face conversations, as well as along the conference’s Twitter back-channel. It is now obvious that the time has come where engagement in social media is not optional for any organisation that hopes to maintain its competitive advantage. We are also now witnessing the impact of social media internally, for example on organisational structures, particularly in terms of communication and reporting.

In contrast the conference sessions on the semantic web gave the impression that those in library and information science related roles are now beginning to consider the exploitation of data to data links, although it is not yet obvious where the greatest commercial benefit will lie in doing so.

The CILIP stand on the exhibition floor


Other sessions of particular interest to the Research Coalition were those related to the future roles of information professionals. Professor Blaise Cronin’s discussion of the paradox of a postmodern profession made some astute observations, not least that long-term predictions on the future of library and information services by experts are often inaccurate. It was interesting to hear that an analysis of citations of LIS research literature shows that researchers from other domains are increasingly drawing on this body of work, thus indicating that its impact is growing in the research mainstream. Bob McKee, Chief Executive of CILIP (a founding member of the LIS Research Coalition) took advantage of the discussion following Professor Cronin’s presentation to refer to CILIP’s forthcoming “big conversation” on the LIS profession in 2010.

Both in the conference sessions and on the exhibition floor there were opportunities to see demonstrations of products and services that could be adopted by library and information services. Ellysa Kroski, for example, gave many examples of how libraries in the US are using social computing applications to their full potential. It was surprising to a few, however, how little mention was made of Google Wave in Online week.

FreePint stand

FreePint is a regular exhibitor at Online

On the Thursday morning Hazel Hall gave an introductory presentation about the LIS Research Coalition to Online 2009 delegates. This covered the background to the formation of the Coalition and its broad mission to provide a formal structure to improve access to LIS research, and to maximise its relevance and impact. Taking each of the five specific goals of the Coalition, she explained the progress so far that the Coaltion has made on each. Hazel encouraged the audience to visit the web site at http://lisresearch.org, as well as follow @LISResearch on Twitter. She hoped that delegates would be able to keep Monday 28th June 2010 free to attend the forthcoming LIS Research Coalition conference. Hazel’s slides Introducing the UK Library and Information Science Research Coalition are available on SlideShare.

Hazel and Ben

Hazel Hall with Ben, the youngest delegate and son of one of the speakers at Online 2009.

Throughout the three days of the conference, as well as on the Monday evening at a lively TFPL Connect event, Hazel met with a number of people interested in and enthused by the work of the Coalition. She accepted a number of speaking and writing invitations, the details of which will be publicised in due course.

Links

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Posted by Hazel Hall

Presentations at forthcoming events

September 22, 2009

If you would like to learn more about the work of the LIS Research Coalition, there are opportunities to do so in person at two forthcoming conferences in London: the SCONUL Autumn Conference on November 17th 2009, and Online 2009 on December 3rd 2009. For further details, please see the Events page.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

Plans for the LIS Research Coalition podcast

September 15, 2009

Plans for the LIS Research Coalition are discussed with Talis in this podcast interview recorded on 15th September 2009.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

LIS Research Coalition in the news

September 8, 2009

The LIS Research Coalition issued its first news release yesterday (07/09/09). Links to the stories generated from this appear on the Media coverage page.

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Posted by Hazel Hall

Welcome to the LIS Research Coalition web site

August 14, 2009

Welcome to the Library and Information Science Research Coalition web site. Here you can find out more about the work of the Coalition. You may also like to follow the Coalition on Twitter: @lisresearch.

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Posted by Hazel Hall