Primary tabs
You don't need to be an ALA Member to purchase from the ALA Store, but you'll be asked to create an online account/profile during the checkout to proceed. This Web Account is for both Members and non-Members.
If you are Tax-Exempt, please verify that your account is currently set up as exempt before placing your order, as our new fulfillment center will need current documentation. Learn how to verify here.
- Description
- About the author
- Reviews
Library and information professionals are increasingly called upon to justify budgets, services, programs--sometimes even our very existence. This very practical and clear guide offers step-by-step guidance for using traditional research methods to help improve, validate, and ultimately advance the day-to-day work and purpose of libraries. Beck and Manuel’s straight-forward and understandable approach shows how different methodologies--focus groups, usability tests, action research, classroom research, bibliometrics--can be used to evaluate and enhance library functions, including:
• Instruction
• Web site usability
• Program development
• Content analysis
• User interactions
• And more
Each chapter outlines a particular methodology’s process, including: selecting the research topic, formulating questions, defining the population, gathering data, interpreting evidence, and telling the story. Specific advice for navigating legal and ethical concerns, avoiding incorrect inferences, overcoming communication obstacles, and working with institutional review boards is also included. This is an easy-to-use guide for practitioners and a down-to-earth introduction for library school students.
"Susan E. Beck and Kate Manuel have written a detailed work on practical research methods that should appeal to librarians and information professionals who struggle to fit serious research into their busy professional duties."
--Portal: Libraries and the Academy "A good tool for teaching the research method to library students as well as information professionals seeking to learn or relearn the process."--Journal of the Medical Library Association "I would recommend it without hesitation for several audiences. The text should be valuable for library students (regardless of their field), and deserves a look from busy librarians and information professionals as well."--ARBA "A guide to assist librarians to become more than what they are ... Highly recommended for any library science collection and for the librarians themselves."--Midwest Book Review "The perfect book to help librarians find both the time and the expertise needed to conduct thorough and rigorous research ... Beck and Manuel have crafted a superb resource for beginning and veteran researchers alike."--The Journal of Academic Librarianship