Librarian Research

Kathleen DeLong, Marianne Sorensen and Vicki Williamson

8Rs Redux: Research as an Area of Competency in CARL Libraries

-    second wave of this research project, longitudinal data collection

-    extensive review of the research instrument

-    evaluate what factors that have changed, to ensure 'apple to apple' comparisons could be made.

-    extensive survey, responder exhaustion always a possibility

-    previous, probability survey, this time it was a non-probability survey

-    results divided by career stage

-    institutional surveys as well as practitioner surveys

-    small sample size, so necessary to have a high response rate

-    any change over time, can seem like a lot of change, again small community (small sample size)

-    use higher threshold when considering institutional data than you would use when looking at the practitioner survey (larger sample set, hundreds and hundreds of people)

-    8Rs looked at librarian research participation (early career, mid-career, and late career librarians)

-    looked at the barriers to conducting research

-    lack of time, financial support, mentorship support, lack of confidence in research skills, lack of research skills, recognition for conducting research, or lack of interest