Beyond Library "Science" (part 2)
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Date
2011-04-27
Authors
Hudson, Dave
Fields, Erin
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Abstract
In light of the increasing emphasis on librarians as scholars, this panel sought to draw attention to the limitations experienced by new professionals with humanities backgrounds who are operating in an LIS research environment dominated by (social) science methodologies and perspectives. As well as highlighting barriers created by invocations of "pragmatism" that align research support chiefly with quantifiable outcomes, the panel also hoped to deepen understanding of the value of critical humanities methods to the profession.
Description
This video captures part two of the panel. However, there is about 1 minute missing at the start of the video during which Erin says, "Recently I read an article about a reference questions review within a smaller university library. As with most “studies” the article was broken into an introduction, question statement, a literature review, methodology, data analysis, and conclusions. The author performed a study of almost 7000 reference transactions at a desk to determine how many of the transactions require the presence of a librarian and applied a cost-benefit analysis indicating the average cost of a reference interaction based on the salary of a librarian." Presented on April 9, 2011 at the British Columbia Library Association's Annual Conference in Victoria, BC, the panel featured Dave Hudson, Learning and Curriculum Support Librarian at University of Guelph, and Erin Fields, Reference Librarian at University of British Columbia. Get in touch by emailing dhudson at the University of Guelph's domain name, uoguelph.ca.
Keywords
Library and Information Science, Librarianship, Libraries, Library education, Research methods, New professionals, Critical theory, Humanities