It was encouraging to see so many librarians at the ACRL conference using social research methods. As discussed in the sessions I attended, there is real effort to understand the culture in which we work so that we can serve our patrons effectively. Some of the methods used to find out about the faculty and student population are contextual inquiry, Q methodology, and focus groups, to name a few. Awesome! I think I’ve found the conference that matches my needs and curiosity level. See you in 2011 in Philadelphia, ACRL.
Here are some posters and presentations that used the methods I mentioned:
(poster, used contextual inquiry) Millennial students’ mental models of search tools. Lucy Holman, Langsdale Library, University of Baltimore
(paper, used Q methodology) Conflict and Consensus – Clusters of Opinions on E-books. Aaron Shrimplin and Andrew Revelle, Miami University
(paper, used focus groups) Fishing for Information: Using Focus Group Research to Discover Student Perceptions of Library Services and Resources. Rebecca Byrum and William Weare, Valparaiso University
bonus geek fact: the word research was used in the titles of eight poster or paper presentations at this conference
