Why Should Librarians Use Research?

As information professionals, librarians regularly help their clientele conduct research. It

makes sense that librarians would systematically review the literature, gather more data, and analyze their findings to promote their own practice. At the personal level, research adds variety and depth to the job, helps one become more reflective, and satisfies one’s own curiosity. At the organizational level, research supports strategic planning, increases staff engagement, demonstrates program impact, and enhances the organization’s reputation. At the professional left, research facilitates in-depth discussion and action, furthers professional excellence, and increases the profession’s positive profile (see alsohttp://lisresearch.org/2010/06/01/the-librarian-as-researcher/).

In the final analysis, research can assist in the planning, assessment, and improvement of current and future reading and literacy promotion programmes and services.

Research can:

v  Measure the quality and impact of current practices

v  Establish and measure library missions and plans

v  Measure the effectiveness and efficiency of efforts

v  Measure environmental change

v  Add value to the library programme as a whole.

In any case, research can be considered as knowledge-based assessment. Effective library management involves ongoing monitoring and improvement through thoughtful problem identification and solutions. Systematically examining an issue, reviewing the relevant literature, gathering and analyzing significant factors, testing and evaluating results all help solve crises. By documenting this process, librarians have more control of their efforts, can replicate them more easily, and have the evidence needed to convince decision-makers to allocate the resources necessary to solve the problem. For instance, when a reading workshop is cancelled for lack of interest, librarians can try to figure out the problem by identifying possible factors that led to the cancellation, researching how other librarians have addressed this problem successfully, gathering and analyzing relevant data, and then recommending a plan of action so that future workshops will be more successful.

The most immediate impact of using research is library service, with the intent of greater

customer satisfaction and greater literacy. Hopefully, research efforts are conducted in

consort with affected stakeholders so that feel like part of the solution, making a positive

difference at their site. The research process also constitutes authentic professional development as the librarian research self-identifies reading and literacy issues, and searches for best practice and underlying concepts and theories to ground understanding and appropriate action. As the librarian processes the new information and reflects on it in light of local needs, he or she adds to a personal repertoire of knowledge and skills that can be applied meaningfully and immediately, thus reinforcing the benefits of the effort. More globally, by sharing the research with the larger professional community, librarians contribute to the body of knowledge in the field as well as help their colleagues who might have similar issues to confront.