Writing for the profession: the experience of new professionals

Bradley, Fiona

doi:10.1108/01435120810917332

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…2011, Tysick and Babb, 2006, due to the publication requirements of their faculty status academic librarians. There is no similar motivation for librarians to undertake research and publication in Australia, as they are employed as professional staff members rather than faculty (Bradley, 2008). This is also the case for the majority of librarians in Ireland and the UK.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing a culture of research practice in an academic library: an Australian case study

2013

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the establishment of a Research Working Group at Flinders University Library, a mid‐sized teaching and research university located in South Australia. The group was founded to encourage staff to develop a more reflective, research‐oriented and evidence‐based professional practice initially for a three‐year term. This paper comes at about two years into the pilot and provides an interim report of the group's experiences and achievements.Design/methodology/approachAs a case study, this paper describes the introduction and background of the Flinders University Library Research Working Group, its purpose, the selection of projects, and its work to date.FindingsThe paper reports on the management‐driven practical supports that have been implemented to assist practitioners undertaking research at Flinders University Library.Practical implicationsThe paper can be used as an exemplar for other academic libraries with staff with non‐tenured staff which lacks a culture of research.Originality/valueThis paper adds an Australian perspective to the existing literature on support for academic librarians undertaking research. The literature is dominated by US and Canadian experiences based on academic status.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing a culture of research practice in an academic library: an Australian case study

2013

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“…The experience of academic librarians as practitioner researchers has been well documented in the literature and includes explorations of motivation (Clapton 2010), barriers to research (Fox 2007), the role of research methods education (Luo 2011), and the experiences of discrete groups such as new professionals (Bradley 2008). The value of a support group -whether it be peer support and mentoring, writing support or support through resourcing -has often been cited as a necessary component of a successful research culture (Blessinger et al 2010;Cirasella and Smale 2011;Fallon 2012;Gratch 1989;Lee 1995;Sapon-White, King, and Christie 2004;Stephens et al 2011).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practitioner research in an academic library: evaluating the impact of a support group

Hall

McBain

2014

The Australian Library Journal

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This paper explores how a support group has contributed to building a culture of research practice at Flinders University Library. The brief of the Research Working Group (RWG) is to develop a culture of research and professional reflection in the library's professional staff. The RWG has three broad goals against which to measure its impact: to develop the professional staff's skills with regard to research engagement; to encourage analysis and investigation of the library's services and resources; and to engage more widely with the library profession and the wider higher education community through presentation and publication of research results. Professional staff completed a questionnaire examining their participation in research, their confidence in undertaking research, and plans for future research projects. The results were analysed with reference to the first goal of the RWG. The importance of practitioners undertaking research is increasingly being recognised as a core value in academic libraries. Many support groups for librarians undertaking research have been described in the literature, but few have evaluated the impact of such a group. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the RWG on the professional staff at Flinders University Library to date.

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“…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]. Other significant barriers identified in our survey, such as lack of institutional support and training, have also been reported in other studies [15,20,28].…”

Section: Institutional Affiliation and Research Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lessick¹,

Perryman

Billman

et al. 2016

J Med Libr Assoc

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Introduction:The extent to which health sciences librarians are engaged in research is a little-studied question. This study assesses the research activities and attitudes of Medical Library Association (MLA) members, including the influence of work affiliation.Methods: An online survey was designed using a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions and distributed to MLA members. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, content analysis, and significance testing. The authors used statistical tools and categorized openended question topics by the constant comparative method, also applying the broad subject categories used in a prior study. Pearson's chi-square analysis was performed on responses to determine significant differences among respondents employed in three different institutional environments.Results: Analysis showed that 79% of respondents read research articles at least once a month; 58% applied published research studies to practice; 44% had conducted research; 62% reported acting on research had enhanced their libraries; 38% had presented findings; and 34% had authored research articles. Hospital librarians were significantly less likely than academic librarians to have participated in research activities. Highly ranked research benefits, barriers, and competencies of health sciences librarians are described.Conclusions: Findings indicate that health sciences librarians are actively engaged in research activities. Practice implications for practitioners, publishers, and stakeholders are discussed. Results suggest that practitioners can use published research results and results from their own research to affect practice decisions and improve services. Future studies are needed to confirm and extend these findings, including the need for intervention studies to increase research and writing productivity.

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Writing for the profession: the experience of new professionals

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Establishing a culture of research practice in an academic library: an Australian case study

Establishing a culture of research practice in an academic library: an Australian case study

Practitioner research in an academic library: evaluating the impact of a support group

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

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