As members of the Charles Sturt University community, we acknowledge the words of the Wiradjuri people, on whose land our university was founded, and share the aspiration of Yindyamarra Winhanga-nha, the aim for us all to learn the wisdom of respectfully living well, in a land worth living in.

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‘Your opinion is important to us’:

CHALLENGING ‘JUST DO A SURVEY’ TO ADVOCATE THE VALUE OF PRACTITIONER RESEARCH SKILLS

Rebecca (“Bec”) Muir

Charles Sturt University

(not?)

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Developing qualitative, quantitative skills and understanding value of varied approaches

90% of participants self-educating on how to research (LISRA)

Unsure where to publish for impact (or organizational output retention)

41% of participants did not receive any research support (LISRA)

80% of participants need support to write ethics applications (LISRA)

“No more fluffy statements about how good libraries are: in the post-recession world ... we must prove the value we provide with hard evidence” (Griffiths, 2009: 61)

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Research results in too much data!

We need quick answers – research takes too long!

That isn’t your job – stop showing off!

We don’t have staffing/budget to do that!

Practitioners aren’t interested in research!

We already know what our patrons want!

What do

we need?

• Identify the best ways to gain and analyse data to address problems that we see

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• Empowers the development of an evidence-based literature which we can then refer to

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• Improves our ability to advocate for our value and community impact (=sustainability)

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• Improves our ability to ‘talk research’ with others and position as subject matter experts

What is the value in…:

Understanding

research

• Improves our ability to construct clear questions, plan projects, and write proposals (all in-demand skills)

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• Enhances our ability to critically reflect on the literature and understand research ethics

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• Improves our abilities to influence policy makers and funders

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• Improves our ability to understand research and to extract/interpret findings

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What is the value in…:

Constructing and

writing up

research

• Improves our ownership of changes and our ability to ‘pivot’ to challenges

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• Marketable and desirable skills in user experience and user design (increasingly needed in libraries)

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• Improves our ability to help our community by improving our information discovery skills

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• Enhances our abilities to make proposals or requests and justify these based on clear, quality evidence fit for purpose

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What is the value in…:

Applying and learning from research

• Lisresearch.org.au

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• LARK, Research Working Groups or Institutes, Communities of Practice, and/or collaborations

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• Contact me!

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• Read up or contact practitioner-researchers (Helen Partridge, Emilia Bell, Jo Kaeding, Mary Coe, Romany Manuell, Lisa Given, Alisa Howlett, Adrian Stagg…)

How do we continue to improve our skills?

If we need the best evidence to improve the quality of best practice…

Photo by Christina Morillo: Pexels

… then growing our research skills just makes sense

Questions?

Rebecca Muir, Doctoral Candidate, Charles Sturt University

rmuir@csu.edu.au | @thebibliobec

I love questions!