Yesterday I made good progress on the section on library research related to "the faculty." I did find some research that dives into disciplinary differences a bit, but without any substantial theory. These studies tend to express disciplinary differences because a survey had different categories for faculty to assign themselves to. Today I need to write up this section.
I also started looking more exhaustively at existing studies that use LibQUAL+ data. I had explored dissertations (there are only a few), but yesterday did some searching in LibraryLit and Library, information science & technology abstracts. I hadn't realized what a weak database LibraryLit is. There are few abstracts, and the attached resources in WilsonSelectPlus are terrible scans. I am also frustrated that the Zotero filters for the database (in FirstSearch) dump almost all of the data in a notes field.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Day Two
Yesterday was productive, I think. It's been so long since I've made real progress on the treatise that it is hard to measure productivity. I managed to resist the allure of email until my 4 p.m. goal (though I heard it singing it's siren song about 3:40). I put together a stronger outline for my first chapter on my desktop, thanks to some Post-its. I also did a little editing of my most recent intro draft, too, based on my new outline.
The problem I'm having is that the ceiling fan doesn't seem to respect my "geek cave" - I may actually need to invest in some better sticky notes! (If you haven't seen the Post-it "man cave" commercial this won't make sense)
Today's goal is to attack another chunk of the intro. In particular I plan to work on the section about how academic librarians tend to conduct research about faculty (when we conduct research at all) at the macro, "the faculty" level, rather than at a more granular discipline or departmental level. I found a number of interesting articles about library/faculty relationships yesterday (Anthony, 2010; Christiansen, Stombler, & Thaxton, 2004; Ithaka, 2010; Kempcke, 2002; Kotter, 1999). All of them used "the faculty" as the unit of analysis, though some did mention the issue of disciplinary subcultures.
Yesterday I also dug into the recent discussion and research on academic library "return on investment." Though not specifically on ROI, one gem of a paper I came across in the process (Gibson, 2009) talked about the "nascent" state of "research and development" operations within academic libraries. I highly recommend the piece, and plan to share it with whomever we hire for the newly-created position of Assistant Director for Research and Analysis.
Pardon the sloppy citations -- need to get back to the treatise work!
Anthony, K. (2010). Reconnecting the Disconnects: Library Outreach to Faculty as Addressed in the Literature. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 17(1), 79-92. doi:10.1080/10691310903584817
Christiansen, L., Stombler, M., & Thaxton, L. (2004). A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations from a Sociological Perspective. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(2), 116-121. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2004.01.003
Ithaka : Faculty Survey 2009. (2010). Retrieved September 1, 2010, from http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/faculty-survey-2009
Gibson, C. (2009). Playing on “practice fields”: Creating a research and development culture in academic libraries. In Pushing the edge: Explore, engage, extend (pp. 304-316). Presented at the ACRL 14th National Conference, Seattle, WA: Association of College and Research Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/national/seattle/papers/304.pdf
Kempcke, K. (2002). The Art of War for Librarians: Academic Culture, Curriculum Reform, and Wisdom from Sun Tzu. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2(4), 529-551. doi:10.1353/pla.2002.0081
Kotter, W. (1999). Bridging the great divide: Improving relations between librarians and classroom faculty. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 25(4), 294-303.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Day One
Today I begin a one-month professional leave to draft my Ed.D. treatise proposal. I've nearly as absent from my treatise work as I have from this blog over the last several months. Now I have a luxury I've never had before - time away from work while in school. Granted, I have taken small chunks of vacation time to work on various projects. I have never, however, had 31 days at my disposal to focus on school work.
This leave is breaking some long (too long, I think) ground in our library system. Since we implemented the Academic Professional status about seven or eight years ago no one has applied for a professional leave. The professional leave option was written in as a substitute for a research leave/sabbatical, which is, of course, available to tenured faculty. We didn't want to lose the opportunity to focus on professional development along with the loss of the option of tenure for librarian. So I'm happy to turn over this sod, and also feel an added sense of obligation to make this endeavor produce results.
I have done some work over the last few months on the treatise. Most notably I've moved from planning a qualitative research methodology to a quantitative project. I always expected I would do a quantitative project until I got mired down in a path that led to lots of faculty interviews. I feel that my current trajectory of using existing data sets will be a better fit. I plan to use data from the Faculty Survey on Student Engagement (FSSE - pronounced "fessy"? "fussy"?) and LibQUAL+ (short "i" for those of us steeped in phonetics during our elementary days, long "i" for others) to explore disciplinary differences and local departmental culture.
Here I go...
This leave is breaking some long (too long, I think) ground in our library system. Since we implemented the Academic Professional status about seven or eight years ago no one has applied for a professional leave. The professional leave option was written in as a substitute for a research leave/sabbatical, which is, of course, available to tenured faculty. We didn't want to lose the opportunity to focus on professional development along with the loss of the option of tenure for librarian. So I'm happy to turn over this sod, and also feel an added sense of obligation to make this endeavor produce results.
I have done some work over the last few months on the treatise. Most notably I've moved from planning a qualitative research methodology to a quantitative project. I always expected I would do a quantitative project until I got mired down in a path that led to lots of faculty interviews. I feel that my current trajectory of using existing data sets will be a better fit. I plan to use data from the Faculty Survey on Student Engagement (FSSE - pronounced "fessy"? "fussy"?) and LibQUAL+ (short "i" for those of us steeped in phonetics during our elementary days, long "i" for others) to explore disciplinary differences and local departmental culture.
Here I go...
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Assessment opportunity at ALA 2010
The Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation Section (MAES) will be hosting a preconference in DC on working with "visual data." As the chair of the planning committee I know it will be a great event. We have three dynamic leaders who will work with participants in a hands-on workshop. Please join us!
Looking through New Eyes: Collecting and Using Visual Data
Friday, June 25, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Learn to look at your library like a customer, not a librarian. Understand your users better by getting a peek into how they live. Spend the day with experienced researchers, getting hands-on experience with visual data collection and analysis techniques, including photo and video surveys, wayfinding studies, and customer-led design activities. Return home with new skills and strategies for using visual data to plan and advocate for spaces and services designed with users in mind.
Speakers: Nancy Kress, UNLV; Kathleen Webb, Univ. of Dayton; Katie Clark, Univ. of Rochester
Tickets: Advance and Onsite: ALA Member $195; LLAMA Member $145; Round Table Member $195; Retired Member $195; Student Member $95; Non Member $295 Event Code: LLA3
Looking through New Eyes: Collecting and Using Visual Data
Friday, June 25, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Learn to look at your library like a customer, not a librarian. Understand your users better by getting a peek into how they live. Spend the day with experienced researchers, getting hands-on experience with visual data collection and analysis techniques, including photo and video surveys, wayfinding studies, and customer-led design activities. Return home with new skills and strategies for using visual data to plan and advocate for spaces and services designed with users in mind.
Speakers: Nancy Kress, UNLV; Kathleen Webb, Univ. of Dayton; Katie Clark, Univ. of Rochester
Tickets: Advance and Onsite: ALA Member $195; LLAMA Member $145; Round Table Member $195; Retired Member $195; Student Member $95; Non Member $295 Event Code: LLA3
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Breakthrough?
It's funny how just a few words, in the right place and at the right time, can bring things into stark relief. I'd abandoned my first chapter a few weeks ago to work again on my literature review. This morning the abstract to an article from 1996, that I'd ordered on ILL in June and just got around to reading, helped me think in a clarified form about the main thrust of my argument for why this paper, and the concepts I'm exploring, can be useful to practitioners. The great thing is that this "new" insight doesn't change my direction at all. I just feel like I have a much better framework for my argument.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Diigo iPhone app
First, I have to say that the Diigo folks are very responsive. I had a couple messages from them very shortly after I tweeted about some frustration with the much-anticipated (at least by me!) iPhone application. So I feel I owe them, and others, a more complete review. First, I said the bookmarklet wasn't working. It is working for me now, but the functionality is disappointing. I try to use Diigo as my one social bookmarking tool. But the delicious bookmarklet is sooo much better that I may have to figure out a strategy to keep my bookmarks in sync. With the Diigo bookmarklet, you can only add the URL to your account, in private mode, without tags or description. The delicious bookmarklet allows you to choose whether or not to share, to add a description, and to tag the link (and suggests tags from others).
As for the Diigo application itself, I don't know why the focus seems to be reading documents offline, rather than on the social aspects that make regular Diigo superior to delicious - commenting on documents, and reading others comments. The other big issue I've had with the Diigo app so far is that the built-in browser is slow and inconsistent. My experience thus far is that links rarely work, and when they do the pages are very slow to download.
As for the Diigo application itself, I don't know why the focus seems to be reading documents offline, rather than on the social aspects that make regular Diigo superior to delicious - commenting on documents, and reading others comments. The other big issue I've had with the Diigo app so far is that the built-in browser is slow and inconsistent. My experience thus far is that links rarely work, and when they do the pages are very slow to download.
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