Thinking about student research

While I was setting up the new LSJ facebook page (go like us!) I had the chance to revisit the LSJ mission statement as I was filling in all the profile information for the page. Here’s the official LSJ mission:

Library Student Journal (LSJ) seeks to publish the best papers from Library and Information Science (LIS) students worldwide, and to serve as a forum for discussion of LIS education, training, career paths, and future trends.

Given that our standard for article submissions is that they should contain original research or critical literature reviews, the implication is that, as part of our central mission, LSJ supports student research.

As we here at LSJ are thinking about our place in the LIS student community, what we mean to our readers and contributors, and what we offer to the world, one question in particular comes to my mind: how important is research in the academic interests and future careers of LIS master’s students? Most of our submissions come from master’s-level students, but in my experience transitioning from a master’s to a doctoral program, there isn’t much emphasis on research design or method skills at the master’s level. Paper-writing is about exploring existing sources, not generating new data. References classes make us experts at finding and evaluating information, but there might not be a class that necessarily gives us the skills to create it. And although there is certainly original research that happens in master’s coursework, it seems completely possible to avoid such work if you so desire, while you may have to go out of your way to learn the skills to do it on a level that will be publishable.

I was able to take a social science research methods class while I was a master’s student, but the rest of the class was mostly doctoral and other post-master’s students. Had I not taken the PhD route, what I learned in that class would have been integral to my staying involved in LIS scholarship, undertaking new projects at my library (and writing them up for publication), participating in conferences, and keeping up with other librarians’ research as part of my professional development. As it stands, the class introduced me to a lot of concepts, principles, and jargon (we do like our jargon!) that has made my transition to doctoral work considerably smoother than it might have been without it. For instance, I didn’t have to ask what “IRB” stood for when I started my research assistantship! (It stands for the Institutional Review Board, and you need its approval to conduct research involving people.)

So whatever students’ goals are, I think the minimal attention to original research in most master’s coursework is a gap, feeding into the divide between theory and practice that can sometimes occur in LIS scholarship. I can think of plenty of situations in which research skills–and not just conducting original research, but also some formal ways to consider the methodological soundness of original research that pertains to your job–are extremely relevant to working librarians. Academic librarians may need to conduct research as part of their tenure process, depending on their employer’s institutional structure. Public librarians (among others) often write what are sometimes dismissively referred to as “how we done good” articles, which provide readers with an overview of a particular library program or endeavor, how it was created and run, and its effects. Why not give future practicing librarians additional training and resources to facilitate such practice-based scholarship? Is there a place for covering basic research principles in required or recommended classes?

I recognize the arguments against such a change. There’s already so much for LIS students to learn to enter the field, and so much more that we will learn on the job. It’s impractical for most students to add a research methods class to an already packed schedule, but isn’t it worth working a bit of discussion on research and methodology into existing courses? Maybe a research component fits best in subject overview classes like academic librarianship, youth services, public librarianship, etc., where it can be more specific to a future career. Or maybe it’s enough that research-based articles are critiqued in class.

We also need to spend more time unpacking what we mean by “original research,” and think about how authority is claimed or denied in these contexts. The last thing I want to suggest is that librarians don’t have the ability or skills to undertake original research or analyze the research output related to their field. Instead, my concern is more that librarian training at the master’s level doesn’t systematically introduce future librarians to the conceptual framework, jargon, and conventions that will help them establish authority and communicate in the same language as those with more formal or extensive research methods training.

So, what can LSJ contribute on the subject? Well, to start, I’m going to be posting periodically about some of the resources and issues I come across as I take a research methods overview course this semester. Also, I’d love to hear from you in the comments: what has your experience been with this issue? Do you agree or disagree that it’s a gap, or that it’s needed at all? How do you approach research? What kind of coursework have you taken that supports this interest? How do you want to use research skills in your future career? What resources or forums do you want to see provided, through LSJ or through your department, in the future?

–Claire