lecture presented by Fe Angela M. Verzosa at PLAI-Southern Tagalog Region Librarians Council Seminar-workshop on the theme, “Research in Librarianship : Capacity Building to Strengthen Research Culture”, held 7 October 2015, El Grande Residencia Hotel and Resort, Brgy. San Carlos, Lipa City

1. Choosing a Research Topic
By
Fe Angela M. Verzosa
PLAI-Southern Tagalog Region Librarians Council Seminar-workshop
“Research in Librarianship : Capacity Building to Strengthen Research Culture”
7 October 2015, El Grande Residencia Hotel and Resort, Brgy. San Carlos, Lipa City

2. Writing a Research Paper
Liberty University Center for Writing and Languages
Past Lectures on Research in Librarianship

3. “Research in librarianship, particularly within the
context of the Philippine situation, is sad to say, very
disappointing.
Why, because there is really not much to talk about
on research in Philippine Librarianship, outside of
the realm of graduate work, or research pursued in
connection with graduate studies.
While our profession has an abundance of well-
educated, well-trained professionals, it is sadly
lacking in research-oriented librarians.”
“Research in Librarianship: Challenges, Competencies, and Strategies,” Keynote
Address at PLAI-STRLC Seminar-Workshop on Research in Librarianship, 9-10
October 2007, held at La Vista Resort, Pansol, Laguna

4. Conclusion
If research has an important role in understanding
the needs to which libraries should be
responsive, and if librarians need to conduct
research in order to better assess the
effectiveness of their approaches to delivering
library services, then librarians and other LIS
professionals, including the agencies
responsible for educating them, and their
employing institutions, should be more attentive
to such a critical activity as library research.

5. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1471-
1842.2007.00759.x/asset/j.1471-
1842.2007.00759.x.pdf?v=1&t=hzs7e3ya&s=9526bae653387ba9c56d7c
d33aad4c7b61d516c4

6. PLAI 2014 National Congress
“The Role of Research Librarians in Shaping the Future of Academic Librarianship,” PLAI
Congress on “Philippine Libraries: Future Possibilities”, 25-28 November 2014
•How research mesh with the profession of librarianship?
•In this lecture, I explored such issues as:
-Should scholarly research be expected of academic librarians?
-What are the benefits of research to the Librarian, to the Institution, and to the Profession?,
-What supports are needed to facilitate research activities?

7. Developing a research
culture
7
• Professional associations have an
obligation to prepare practitioners to
conduct and critically consume
research.
• Support and encouragement
can come in the form of research
grants and other incentives.
• Fostering a research environment
within the institution may come in the
form of cross departmental and
collaborative projects
• Embedded librarianship in research~
this model encourages faculty-librarian
research partnerships (project-based)

8. http://library.ifla.org/961/1/150-apolinario-en.pdf

9. Key Findings in Apolinario’s study
Majority of respondents are female academic librarians
Academic librarians receive institutional support to conduct
research (time off, financial incentives, promotion)
The number of librarian-researchers as well as the publication
of research findings was quite insignificant (1.8%)
Knowledge sharing among librarians is not a prevailing
research activity (only 38.2% of respondents have published or presented their
results to an external audience)
Collaborative research among librarian-researchers is low (70%
of researches were single-authored)
Contributions of practitioner-researchers are higher than
academics-researchers

10. Research Outputs (Topic-wise)

11. http://library.ifla.org/967/1/109-abrigo-en.pdf

12. Key Findings in Abrigo’s study
Academic librarians
account for a huge
number of knowledge
output generation
institutional mandate
is the primary reason
for doing research
Collaborative research
activity is low (65% are
single-authored)
Only 48% of researches are
published in conference
proceedings, subscription-
based sources, and seminar
websites.

13. Research Outputs
Others
Books
17%Monographs
29%Feasibility/project studies
34% Reports
42% Programs for the library
46% Learning modules
52 % Papers/articles (published or publishable)
53% Lectures (for seminar/forum presentation
57% Documentation of institutional processes

14. Service role of Librarians

15. Service Role of Librarians
15
• Service to the user community is the goal of every librarian
• Research is essential to good service
• Conducting evidence-based research is a mechanism to
• explore new approaches to improve library services
• enhance research support provided to students and faculty
• advance use of technology in support of learning
• Address critical needs for archiving and preserving access to
information

16. What do we mean by ‘research’?
‘ACADEMIC’ RESEARCH ‘PRACTITIONER’ RESEARCH
• Problem solving or curiosity
driven - purpose is to create new
knowledge (or confirm existing
knowledge)
• Grounded in disciplinary context
(literature, theory, methodology,
interpretation)
• Produce outputs of publishable
quality
• Audience: other scholars, policy
makers, practitioners
• Make an ‘impact’
• Focused on current problem or
need identified by library or
institution
• Pragmatic approach to theory
and methodology – often
investigative or evaluative
• Research is applied to practice
• Results inform practice –
support decision-making for
immediate benefit
• Dissemination often a
secondary consideration
Source: Librarians As Researchers by Miggie Pickton, CILIP
University College & Research Group, June 2010

17. Choosing a Research Topic

18. Where to start?
18
• Selecting and developing an interesting topic
• Criteria for selecting a topic
• Narrowing a topic
• Sources of research ideas
• The Researching Librarian
• Why conduct a literature review?
• How to become research-competent
• Benefits of research to the profession

19. What to write?
19
• Conference papers/reports
• Book Reviews/Literature Reviews
• Case studies
• Learning Modules
• Other papers
• State-of-the-art reviews
• Surveys of current practices

20. Selecting and developing
an interesting topic
20
• Personal - Identify an area of interest
• Practical - Identify an available population and/or
setting for the study
• Feasible – Consider an issue/s related to the area of
interest that can be studied
• Important – Identify a worthwhile research question
• Ethical – Make certain conducting the study will not
harm anyone
Source: “Selecting and Defining a Research Topic”, by Stephen E. Brock, Ph.D., NCSP California State University, Sacramento

21. Narrowing the topic
21
• Focus on a specific TYPE or CLASS
• Focus on a particular PLACE or
REGION
• Focus on a certain TIME PERIOD
• Focus on a certain ASPECT
o Social, legal, medical, ethical,
biological, psychological,
economic, political,
philosophical, etc.
• Focus on a specific POPULATION
Gender, age, occupation, ethnicity,
nationality, educational
attainment, species, etc.

22. Sources of ideas
22
• Your own experience
and knowledge
• Prior research findings
• Using existing theories
• Colleagues
• Listservs
• Scholarly sources – primary and secondary
• Other Professional experiences & observations

23. Generating ideas ~ examples
• Evaluate service performance for
current services
• Identify gaps in service provision and
recommend measures to fill these gaps
• Measure impact/effectiveness of a
new approach to information literacy
teaching
• Investigate potential new services e.g.
use of mobile technologies for alerting or
accessing resources
• Identify best/good practice elsewhere
and introduce it to your own workplace
• Look into improvement of database
management and curation activities
2
3

24. Look into the Research Domains for EBL
"Evidence-based librarianship
(EBL) is a means to improve the
profession of librarianship by
asking questions, finding,
critically appraising and
incorporating research evidence
from library science (and other
disciplines) into daily practice. It
also involves encouraging
librarians to conduct research".
~Andrew Booth
https://www.academia.edu/225730/Evidence_Base
d_Practice_for_Information_Professionals_A_Han
dbook

25. Generating ideas - Research Domains of EBL
Reference/Enquiries –providing service and access to
Education –finding teaching methods and strategies to educate users
Collections –building a high-quality collection of print and electronic
materials that is useful, cost-effective and meets user needs
Management –managing people and resources within an organization
Information Access & Retrieval –creating better systems and
methods for information retrieval and access
Marketing/Promotion –promoting the profession, the library and its
services

26. The Researching Librarian

27. The Researching
Librarian
27
• created for librarians--new or experienced—who need
to perform research for purposes of publication,
promotion, tenure, or other reasons
• list of web resources
• useful for research
• freely searchable citation
• and full-text databases
• funding information, relevant journals, statistics and
statistical methods, useful research tools, current
awareness sources, and conference papers and
proceedings
• just click here:
http://www.researchinglibrarian.com/journals.html

28. The Researching
Librarian –
full-text databases
28
• EThOS (Electronic theses online
service) http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do, the UK’s national thesis service
with 300,000 records relating to theses awarded by over 120 institutions, and
100,000 of these also provide access to the full text thesis,
• Australian Digital
Theses Program - maintains
a collection of open access versions of
some ANU theses http://research.anu.edu.au/thesis/"The University.
• FindArticles.com http://findarticles.com"FindArticles is a specialized
search engine designed to help you quickly and easily find published articles
on the topics that interest you.
• PQDT Open http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/search.html” provides the
full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. You can
quickly and easily locate dissertations and theses relevant to your discipline,
and view the complete text in PDF format.”

29. Conducting a literature
review
29
•Why?
•To be informed!
•So as not to duplicate prior studies
•Helps in narrowing down your research topic
•Literature review helps in constructing a research
design
CILIP (n.d.) A CILIP policy for information and library research

30. Research Training
• Research training, whether formal or
informal, must be re-introduced as
part of our growth and development.
• Training should involve concepts
and procedures for preparing,
designing, conducting, and
evaluating research.
• Any training should provide a
survey of social science research
methodologies and a review of their
applications
Check out the interactive research tree from here:
http://www.etc.edu.cn/eet/articles/methodsofinq/index.htm

31. • learn to think like
researchers –
critically, analytically,
methodically
• educate ourselves on research methods
• read other librarians’ researches, and try to
evaluate their work, critiquing on their
shortcomings or limitations
How to become research-competent…

32. How to become research-competent
• Attend research seminars,
workshops (provided
internally or externally; either
generic or specific to LIS
research)
• Collaborate with partners
(e.g. faculty, colleagues from
other support departments,
professional colleagues from
other institutions) to
• form a group or build a
research team with
complementary skills
• take advantage of others’
expertise
• Mentoring / buddying – share
experience, learn together
32

33. Why research?...
33
•Research is interesting
•It’s challenging
•Adds variety to the job
•Increases job satisfaction
•Supports professional development
•Enhances personal reputation
•
•Financial? extras...

34. Benefits to the Profession
34
•Research provokes conversation and debate
•Creates new knowledge
•Provides an evidence base for best practices
•Provides positive change
•Builds image and enhances reputation
•Develops an engaged and vibrant professional
community
•Impacts on the future/direction of the profession
•Contributes to the growth of LIS as a discipline...
CILIP (n.d.) A CILIP policy for information and library research

35. famverzosa@yahoo.com
Questions ?

36. Thank you for listening!