Sarah Fetzer IRB Certification Reflection LIS 600

IRB Certification Reflection

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the IRB certification process. Many of the more
noteworthy cases (Tuskegee, Stanford Prison, Milgram Experiments) were things that I had
previously learned about in an introductory Psychology course. It was interesting to learn not
only the details of the scandalous cases but also their repercussions for modern-day behavioral
experimentation and research. These were examples of not only bad research but illegally bad
research. Research that had caused major physical or psychological harm to participants. The
protections that arose from these examples of research gone awry have made modern behavioral
research a much more regulated process.
I’m especially glad that I took the modules dealing with the special protections afforded
to children. As one of the three special groups which are specifically protected in behavioral
research, working with children can be far more complex in terms of data, types of research, and
allowable situations than working with adults. I think this will have a major impact on any
research that I do for the LIS program. I work in a public library in an area with a large
population of children. The library’s most popular programs are always children’s programs,
and regular story times are held ten times per week in my small branch alone. It would be almost
impossible to separate any research that I am doing from working with children, be it directly or
indirectly. It is good to know the specific requirements for taking data in regards to children and
what levels of “risk” are acceptable and unacceptable.
It is my understanding that the vast majority of any research I conduct for an LIS
program will be extremely low risk. Much of the research will be observational in nature. For
example, if I were to study in my library the usage of a certain collection, let's say young adult
audiobooks, I would not need any personal data. I would instead be looking at things like
number of in-house check-ins, number of circulations, and popularity of certain titles. None of
this data is tied to a specific participant. Some research conducted will require survey response
from participants. While the data will need to be stored without any identifying markers, none of
the participants would be placed in any physical or psychological distress by taking a survey.
This kind of research would be particularly applicable to situations involving program
assessment. Assessing the community for what type of programming is most popular, and what
is most requested is a good basis for building programming in your library.
The IRB certification did leave me with a greater understanding of the nuances of
research and data collection. Data collection sounds so straightforward in theory. A person or
group of people have the data that you desire. Collect that data. Store it however you want:
flash drive, paper copies, papyrus scrolls, whatever. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple. Who does
your data come from? Is it someone from a protected group? How are you gathering your data?
What does your data producing environment look like? It also must be considered how you're
going to entice your participants to give up the data that you need. Finally, you've gotten your
data and you're storing it. Is it secure? Does your data have identifying markers which can tie it
back to a specific participant? How many people can access your data? There is so much more
to think about than I had ever imagined.