El riesgo cultural

Once you have clearly defined your research question, you are ready to conduct your study. The process of conducting a study of a practice-based question is similar to any

Questions Originating in Library and Information Practice 23

other type of study, with one possible exception: often you are conducting the research in an organization of which you are a member. For example, if you were comparing two different approaches to bibliographic instruction for college students, it’s likely you’d be working with a sample of the students at your own institution. Or if you were investigating the usability of your organization’s Web site, you’re likely to need to convey the results to designers within your organization. Your own closeness to the participants (or other stakeholders) in your research can carry with it some political issues that need to be resolved (O’Leary, 2005). Be sure to think these through as you’re designing your study. Plan for how you will handle any potential problems that may arise.

The final step in the process is applying the results of your research to improve the services you offer. As O’Leary (2005) points out, the research you conduct “can be instrumental to your ability to either: (a) modify, refine and improve what it is that you do, or (b) make recommendations that can influence the practices of others within a particular setting” (p. 8). In the first case, you should be able to apply your research results as strong evidence related to the decision you’ll make about your current practices. In the second case, you’ll need to link your results to earlier work on the same question, pointing out how your results reinforce or differ from the results of those previous studies (Plutchak, 2005). In either case, you should disseminate your results by publishing them so that they can be of use to others facing similar questions in their local settings (Crumley & Koufogiannakis, 2002). In this way, your work can benefit you directly as well as build the body of information and library science knowledge.

EXAMPLES

Each of the three examples discussed here is based on a practice-based research question, and the results of each have important implications for that practice. The first was conducted by a single branch of an academic library but still has implications for the development of marketing strategies for academic libraries more generally. The second examines one way in which existing data (transaction logs of searches conducted on a particular Web site) can be used to help Web site designers make decisions during the design process. The third example is a statewide study of school libraries, with implications for ways in which they can more effectively support student learning.

Example 1: An Evidence-based Marketing Plan

As the Business and Economics Library (BEL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (UIUC) was considering new services to offer, one of the librarians there (Song, 2006) undertook a marketing study “to understand how business students per- ceived BEL and its current services” (p. 70). It was expected that understanding library users’ attitudes about current services would help the librarians identify new services that would be most valuable to this audience.

The goal of the study was to survey all the graduate business students at UIUC. Two of the three research questions were intended to help the BEL design a general marketing strategy. These were: (1) “What services do graduate business students want to receive from BEL?” and (2) “With whom should BEL partner to increase visibility at the College of Business?” (Song, 2006, p. 72). Because over half of the students in the College of Business (the library’s primary target audience) were international students, and approximately 70 percent of those international students were from East

24 APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS

Asia, the third research question focused on this subpopulation: “Should BEL develop marketing strategies differently for East Asian business students?” (Song, 2006, p. 72). Both open-ended and close-ended survey questions were used to generate results that addressed these questions.

This study illustrates the way in which a local library’s planning needs can be addressed, while still conducting a study that will be of interest beyond the local setting. Very concrete results were obtained to provide support to the BEL’s efforts in planning a marketing strategy. At the same time, it is likely that those results would also be applicable to other institutions (i.e., other large universities with a departmental business library that includes a high proportion of international students). By making these results available through publication, Song has added to our knowledge base for marketing academic libraries.

Example 2: Developing a Web Site’s Menu Structure

Huntington and Nicholas (2006) argue that because “the search terms entered by users reveal their information need” (p. 119), the logs of user searches can be used effectively to design a Web site’s menu structure. The design of a site’s menu structure is a core problem faced by Web site designers in their daily practice; while the authors of this study are not practitioners, they have selected a research problem that has important implications for practice.

From a population of over 4 million searches, the authors analyzed the 1,838 searches that were related to diabetes. These searches included 384 different search expressions, with the top 20 search expressions accounting for 58 percent of all the searches. The search expressions (excluding the single term diabetes) were then classified into 19 broad subject categories. These categories were compared to the menu structures already implemented on three Internet-based diabetes information services (including the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] site, from which the transaction logs were collected). None of these menu structures was completely effective in covering the 19 broad subject categories identified from the user searches. The authors conclude by proposing a six- item menu structure that will provide good coverage of the subject categories derived from user searches.

The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate that transaction log data could be used as the basis for the design of Web site menu structures. Using one health-related topic (diabetes) as an example, Huntington and Nicholas (2006) were able to derive a menu structure that provided good coverage of the types of information needs that searchers of the BBC site expressed in their searches. To be applied to a wider range of topics (e.g., all health-related topics, or even more broadly, all topics covered on the BBC Web site) would require a significant additional investment. Nevertheless, the approach they espouse could be taken by designers of well-focused sites and could improve the menu structures on those sites.

Example 3: Evaluating School Libraries

Like many other states, Ohio was interested in investigating the potential links be- tween investments in school libraries and student learning outcomes. To pursue this interest, the state awarded a grant to the Ohio Educational Library Media Association in 2002 to conduct a statewide study of the ways in which libraries help students learn. The

Questions Originating in Library and Information Practice 25

connection between the research question and its implications for improving practice are made clear in Todd’s (2003) summary of the study2_{: “On the basis of how students}

benefit from effective school libraries, this study sought to provide recommendations for professional practice, educational policy development, further research, and tools for school librarians to chart their libraries’ impacts on learning. The project team also sought to focus on evidence-based practice by providing statewide data on best practices and promising practices in school librarianship that could serve as a basis for dialogue, continuous improvement and professional development across Ohio” (p. 1).

The study focused on 39 effective school libraries in Ohio. Students in grades 3 to 12 were invited to complete a Web-based survey of the ways in which the school library helped them learn; almost 900 of their teachers completed a similar survey. The survey consisted primarily of 48 sentences, each describing a way in which the library might help a student learn (e.g., “The school library has helped me be more careful about information I find on the Internet”); the students and faculty were to rate each “help” on its level of helpfulness.

In a later critique of the study findings, Logan (Everhart & Logan, 2005) outlines several ways in which the findings can be applied to practice in school libraries. They can use the findings to develop a shared vision or to develop new services for stu- dents (e.g., checking their bibliographies before they hand in a paper). This study also serves as a model for the way in which individual school librarians might evaluate their current or planned programs and services or might use student input in other ways. While this example study was conducted on a large scale, it can still serve as a model investigation of the practice-based question, How do school libraries help students learn?

CONCLUSION

As can be seen from these examples and many others not discussed here, it is important for the development of our knowledge base in information and library science to study research questions derived from the context of practice. As you consider undertaking a study based on such a question, you might find O’Leary’s (2005) checklist useful: Is the question right for you?

Does the question have significance for an organization, an institution, a group, a field, etc.? Can it lead to tangible situation improvement?

Is the question well articulated? Is the question researchable?

Does the question have a level of political support? (pp. 35–36)

If you responded yes to each of O’Leary’s questions, then you’re ready to embark on the design of your study. Once it’s completed, the dissemination of your results will add to the body of knowledge that we can use to support evidence-based practice.

NOTES

1. It is likely that differing views about the appropriate level of abstractness for research ques- tions is what leads practitioners to believe that the questions formulated by academic researchers are not useful (Booth, 2001; Lewis & Cotter, 2007).

26 APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS

2. Additional details on the study are available at http://www.oelma.org/StudentLearning/ default.asp.

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Descriptions of Phenomena or Settings