Objectives |
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Introduction to Research in
Information Studies (INF 397C) is intended to acquaint students with
doing, reading, and evaluating research. It aims to help students
bring their own and others' research to their professional practice, no
matter the setting in which that practice takes place. The critical
spirit of inquiry gives the information professional, whether a
librarian or not, the opportunity to serve clients better and to
perform other organizational tasks. All information professionals
must evaluate information services, products, and policies.
Understanding how to perform research oneself and to judge the research
of others is essential to the success of such evaluations. In
addition, information professionals must often write grant proposals
and engage in other activities that demand research competencies. The four major goals of this course, reflecting the role of research in the master’s program at the School of Information, are to: 1. Introduce students to important concepts and techniques in empirical social science research, both quantitative and qualitative. Although we emphasize quantitative methods in this course for the sake of ensuring some level of “statistical literacy,” like many researchers, I take a catholic approach in my own work, using both qualitative and quantitative methods (what is commonly called methodological pluralism). The course will include discussion of qualitative methods, and you will be encouraged to use those methods as appropriate. 2. Enable students to be more discerning and informed readers of others' empirical research. 3. Help students develop competencies in the planning, description, and completion of empirical research studies, i.e., proposal preparation, instrument design, instrument use, data analysis, and research reporting. 4. Encourage students to do empirical research throughout their professional lives. With these goals in mind, INF 397C examines: • Creation of knowledge -- how we know and investigate; what "scientific" research is, especially in information studies. The course will explicitly engage the fragility of knowledge and how it is that we must act in all sorts of professional situations without the luxury of certainty. • Evaluating the research of others -- how to develop and apply criteria to determine the value and applicability of research in various literatures to particular professional situations. • Defining a research problem -- how to develop and operationalize a researchable problem. • Collection of data -- how to use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including surveys, focus groups, structured interviews, historical research, ethnographic observation, oral history, and bibliometrics, to explore research problems. • Analysis of data -- how to use descriptive statistics, some inferential statistics, and content analysis. One goal of the course is the development of skills in applying basic statistical techniques to understand phenomena of interest to the information professions. • Preparation of a research proposal -- how to conceptualize, plan, and communicate an investigation of a phenomenon of interest in information studies; students will design an empirical data collection instrument developed in conjunction with the research proposal. • Reporting research -- how to share the results of research. In the summer session, I do not ask students to perform empirical research and report the results; in the fall and spring (long semesters), however, I do. |