Supported Australian LIS Practitioners are Confident LIS Practitioner Researchers: Insights from a National Survey

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a survey of 291 Australian library and information science (LIS) practitioners, examining their research capacity by identifying attitudes towards, and experiences of research activities, including support needs and barriers. This study found that supported LIS practitioners will be confident LIS practitioner-researchers. Findings reveal that in addition to fostering research skills and knowledge strategies to build LIS practitioners’ research capacity, the profession must acknowledge and address the feelings that underlie resistance to research. In addition, before mentoring can be used as a meaningful research support mechanism, LIS practitioners need to first develop confidence that their experiences are sufficient to provide support to others and receive training in research methods to bridge the gap between research as service, and research as partnership. LIS academics, with their expertise in research, are well placed to take an active role in collaboration with LIS practitioners to provide research training and mentoring. For LIS practitioner-researchers’ potential to be realised, developmental interventions need to be addressed within LIS institutions. As a supportive research culture within a workplace is enhanced, mistrust in research and anxiety about research practices will diminish, and practitioners will build their identities as practitioner-researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• Practitioner-research
• practitioner-researchers
• library and information science research
• research culture
• research skills and knowledge
• research education and training

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the library and information practitioners who generously contributed their time and thoughts to this research project. The authors would also like to thank the Australian Library and Information Association, and National and State Libraries Australasia for the support as project partners. The authors acknowledge and thank John Gilmour who provided initial statistical advice.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number LP150100456].

Notes on contributors

Helen Partridge

Professor Helen Partridge is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Teaching and Learning at Deakin University. Prior to this she was the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Southern Queensland. Professor Partridge has published widely in the area of teaching and learning and has received a number of teaching awards and a Teaching Fellowship in 2008 from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. She is an active member of the Australian and international library and information profession, has served on the board of directors of the Australian Library and Information Association and is a Fellow of the Association. Professor Partridge’s research explores the interplay between information, learning and technology. She has been a visiting research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Harvard University.

Lisa M. Given

Lisa M. Given, PhD, FASSA, is Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, and Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University (Melbourne). Her interdisciplinary research in human information behaviour brings a critical, social research lens to studies of technology use and user-focused design. Her studies embed social change, focusing on diverse settings and populations, and methodological innovations across disciplines. A former President of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Prof Given is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has served on the Australian Research Council’s (ARC’s) College of Experts. She holds numerous grants funded by ARC, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, working with university and community partners across disciplines. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology and lead author of Looking for Information: Examining Research on How People Engage with Information (2023). You can follow her on X/Twitter @lisagiven and read more about her work at https://lisagiven.com/.

Angela Murphy

Angela Murphy manages the adoption of learning analytics for academic quality at the University of Southern Queensland including supporting the use of analytics to inform teaching and learning practice. Angela is a Research Psychologist with a PHD from the University of South Africa. She dabbles in social research using statistical methodologies to unpack the impact of the digital world on teaching and learning outcomes.

Alisa Howlett

Alisa Howlett is a library and information practitioner-researcher with professional experience spanning government archives and records management, corporate information management and university libraries. As the Research Support Librarian at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Alisa engages stakeholders across the university to promote collaborative, evidence-based practice approaches to the development and coordination of its research training program. Prior to this, Alisa was the Coordinator of Evidence-Based Practice at the University of Southern Queensland Library, partnering with individuals and teams across the Library to build tools, processes and capability in evidence-based practice. Her professional experience, research and contributions to the library and information science profession has been presented and published internationally, most notably in evidence-based library and information practice. Alisa was recognised by her peers with the ALIA Metcalfe Award in 2017 and achieved ALIA Distinguished Certified Professional status in 2021. She has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and a Master in Information Technology (Library and Information Science) from QUT, and is now completing a Graduate Diploma of Psychology at the University of Adelaide with a view to further develop her research skills and experience. More information about Alisa’s experience and research can be found on her website at www.acrystelle.com.

Elham Sayyad Abdi

Dr. Elham Sayyad Abdi is an applied information researcher. Her research interests lie at the intersections of people, information, and learning. Through her research, Elham explores people’s information experiences in different settings, how this leads to learning and how the findings from such inquiries translate into practice. Elham holds undergraduate and postgraduate coursework qualifications in librarianship, a PhD in Information Technology, and a Graduate Certificate in teaching in the higher education context. She currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Creative Arts, and Social Inquiry, Curtin University, Australia. Elham co-chairs the ALIA Research Advisory Committee, represents Curtin University in the iSchools Organisation, and is a member (and former convenor) of the IFLA LIS Education in Developing Countries Special Interest Group. She has also previously served as the secretary for the ASIS&T Asia-Pacific Chapter.