Academic Librarian Research: A Survey of Attitudes, Involvement, and Perceived Capabilities

Abstract

This article reports on the development and results of a recent survey of academic librarians about their attitudes, involvement, and perceived capabilities using and engaging in primary research. The purpose of the survey was to inform the development of a continuing education program in research design. It updates earlier studies of academic librarian research; with the introduction of a confidence scale, it also contributes new insights regarding how prepared librarians believe themselves to be with regard to conducting research. The authors found that confidence in one's ability to perform the discrete steps in the research process is a statistically significant predictor of a librarian conducting research and disseminating the results. The analysis of the responses to the confidence scale and other survey questions suggests several paths for future research about academic librarians and their research agendas.ibrarians in an academic setting are integrally involved with providing research services to faculty, students, and staff of higher education institutions. Though familiar with the research process and responsible for supporting others in their academic agendas, it is said, "librarians generally do not publish their research." Motivated by a desire to help academic librarians improve their research skills and, thus, the quantity and quality of their research, the authors of this study explore ways in which librarians have developed these skills in the past and how that process might be improved in the future.crl-276

Research engagement of health sciences librarians: a survey of research-related activities and attitudes

“…Our study was, however, more in line with another UK study, which found that 47% of UK health librarians had research involvement in the previous 2 years [17]. A high level of research involvement by academic librarians is shown in our study as well as in others (59% versus 62% and 66%, respectively) [16,18]. Research grant writing by health sciences librarians may have slightly increased from 29%-30% in the 1990s to 33% [19,20], as found in our study.…”

“…Another 2012 study of academic librarians [16] corroborated this high reading level, finding that 78% of them regularly scanned research-based literature, while 66% regularly read the full research articles. Likewise, we found that a high percentage of health sciences librarians (58%) had applied published research to practice, also in accordance with the Powell et al study, which reported that 66% had ''occasionally'' or ''frequently'' applied research findings in the literature to practice [15].…”

Research engagement of health sciences librarians: a survey of research-related activities and attitudes

“…The studies that did exist [28,30] differed appreciably from the research attitudes of health sciences librarians described in our study, ranking professional development and promotion and tenure requirements as important motivators, whereas both health sciences academic and hospital librarians in our study ranked demonstration of the value and impact of libraries and provision of guidance as primary motivating factors. The top barrier to research for health sciences librarians was lack of time, nearly universally mentioned as the greatest obstacle in other studies [15,16,28]. Further, in a related area of scholarship, that of writing for publication, librarians consistently cited a lack of time as the primary reason for low or nonexistent publication productivity [29,[31][32][33].…”

Research and Writing

“…In the interest of full disclosure, I should note both that I am currently serving on the IRDL Advisory Board and that the need for a program like IRDL was suggested by the work that its founders published in this journal in 2012. 1 But any program promoting research skills for academic librarians must also consider writing skills. Years ago, the now-defunct ACRL Research Program Committee piloted a "Research Writers Program" that offered one-on-one mentoring for new and experienced writers at ALA and ACRL conferences (including the National Conference in Philadelphia in 2011).…”