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Introduction 7
What do you think of when you hear the word “research”? 8
When I first learned this as a vocabulary word in grade 9
school, I remember thinking that it meant looking for 10
something once, then looking for it again—doing a “re”- 1
search. In actuality, that description is not too far off the 2
mark. Research is the practice of discovery, and there are 3
many different roads that can be taken to find what you are 4
looking for. 5
Research means different things to different people. If you 6
are a student, you might think of a research paper that you 7
had to write. A pharmaceutical historian might think of the 8
brutal Tuskegee drug research trials. My husband, who is a 9
child psychologist, thinks about one of his favorite research 20
studies, the “strange situation” studies conducted by Mary 1
Ainsworth in the 1960s to learn more about children and 2
their attachment to their caregivers. Regardless of the topic, 3
research is a way to help reveal hidden information, answers, 4
and clues about the world around us. It has become such a 5
part of modern-day society that many of us just assume that 6
most of what we eat, watch, are treated for, and wear, has 7
been tested in a research setting in some way. Scientific 8
research in the United States has a rich and sometimes 9
troubling past, but no one will argue that the greatest 30
advances in medicine, for instance, are due to ongoing 1
research efforts. 2
Research is changing. The web has added an entirely new 3
layer to the research mosaic that involves collecting and 34R

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 Introduction

1 analyzing data on Internet behavior. Social networking sites,

2 combined with GIS technology, gather data related to who
3 and where our “friends” are. Media research powerhouse
4 A.C. Nielsen recruits families to provide feedback about
5 the shows they watch on TV, and why they like or dislike
6 them. Schools collect and store a wide variety of information
7 on students that is later examined to determine everything
8 from financial aid to roommate assignments. Some research
9 takes place in laboratories, in settings that we can probably
10 imagine (white coats, cold temperatures, metal doors).
1 However, not all research is conducted in this way. Although
2 the sense-making part of research will always require human
3 intervention, the fact is quite a bit of data on a variety of
4 phenomena can now be gathered, analyzed, and disseminated
5 without any human intervention at all.
6 Libraries have traditionally been seen as service centers,
7 community centers, and learning spaces. They are known to
8 be places where people go to find quiet, to find resources, to
9 find subject experts, to find community. They are not
20 necessarily known as hotbeds of research. In fact, it is quite
1 rare to find a library, regardless of the type, that grounds
2 major service and collection decisions solely on research
3 outcomes. It is not hard to figure out why. In most sectors,
4 research is necessary because the stakes are quite high.
5 Whether it is a public health or medical setting, product
6 marketing, or a political campaign, not knowing about the
7 likes, dislikes, habits, opinions, backgrounds, and needs of
8 the public can be quite costly. Libraries do not face the same
9 challenges, so why discuss or write about the need for and
30 application of research in library settings?
1 Libraries and other information environments continue to
2 face challenges now magnified by the burgeoning technologies
3 that surround us. Library users are changing. Library collections
34R are changing. Library staffs are changing. Even library buildings

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 Introduction

are changing. As a result of just trying to keep up, it is becoming 1

increasingly difficult for “the library” to define itself moving 2
forward. Many years ago, there was a great deal of discussion 3
about when (not if) the library would become obsolete. The 4
newest neighbor on the block, the Internet, had so much more 5
to offer users, it seemed: convenience, speed, and 24-hour 6
availability. Why bother an actual librarian when Google is 7
easy, fast, and increasingly accurate? Why check out a book 8
when you can read it online, for free? The digital revolution is 9
actually not a revolution; it has settled in to become just 10
another way of life, and libraries are still having a hard time 1
finding their place. Some argue that the main role of the library 2
is to provide access to subject experts—librarians that have a 3
unique and comprehensive knowledge of different subject 4
areas. This is that unique skill that cannot be duplicated by 5
technology (at least, not yet). Others suggest that the library 6
should be a place where rare materials that cannot be made 7
available digitally should be available. Still others wonder if 8
libraries should not just be places for people to gather and find 9
real-world community, as opposed to virtual ones. Libraries 20
actually continue to be all of these things and more, but there 1
is still an uneasy sense that there is something more out there 2
that libraries should be embracing. 3
Is there any strategy that might help libraries move towards 4
a better-defined, more attuned existence, amidst all of these 5
changes and technological advances? Is there a way to help 6
mitigate the existential crisis that has been brought on by the 7
digital tidal wave? In other sectors, research is used to help 8
define products and services, to test their strengths and 9
weaknesses, to get rid of what does not work. Perhaps the 30
targeted application of research methods to investigate library 1
user needs, user habits, and the user environment, can play a 2
role here. It would not be inaccurate to say that many libraries 3
use surveys and questionnaires routinely to assess user needs. 34R

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1 However, no librarian reading this would disagree that surveys

2 only scratch the surface of what we really want to know about
3 our users. What we are interested in is understanding them
4 better—not just asking them if they want extended hours. And
5 understanding users requires a far more in-depth approach
6 than a survey, no matter how comprehensive or well-designed.
7 To that end, this book is about qualitative research
8 approaches and how they might be applied in library settings
9 to address library and information-specific problems faced by
10 librarians and users. It is not a book about how to conduct a
1 research study; rather, it is a glimpse into some of the ways
2 that user-focused qualitative research, combined with other
3 approaches, might help those who work in libraries find out
4 more about their users, and perhaps generate questions they
5 did not know were out there. There are a number of very
6 well-written books (Wildemuth, 2009; Berg, 2009; Nachimas
7 and Worth-Nachimas, 2008; Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Miles
8 and Huberman, 1994; see References for Chapter 1 for details)
9 that discuss qualitative research practices in the social sciences
20 in great detail, and this book does not attempt to duplicate
1 those efforts. These books are highly recommended for anyone
2 who wants to learn more about the research process in general.
3 We can never fully expect to know all there is to know
4 about our users. Although I refer to them here as a single
5 group, they are in fact incredibly heterogeneous, and
6 changing all the time. Each of us is constantly influenced by
7 the world around us, and it will not ever be possible to define,
8 absolutely, the “typical” library user. It is possible, however,
9 to employ a wide variety of creative and interesting
30 information-gathering techniques to learn what we can, and
1 to build on what we already know.
2 This book has ten chapters. The first chapter provides
3 a definition and very general overview of qualitative
34R research, and some of the approaches that are commonly used.

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Chapter 2 takes a look at how qualitative approaches are used 1

in other settings and disciplines to learn more about users, 2
consumers, and patients, and what the library and information 3
world can learn from these applications. Chapter 3 provides an 4
in-depth look at the ethnographic approach, since it has a 5
special relevance for library and information environments. In 6
Chapter 4, I discuss how librarians and others might educate 7
themselves about the relevant areas of research and scholarship 8
that might be germane to their own work settings. The user 9
experience is a very popular topic these days, with lots of 10
discussion about its relevance for library and information 1
settings. Chapter 5 discusses research within the context of 2
examining the user experience. Chapter 6 examines some 3
common library user challenges that might be examined by 4
way of qualitative approaches. The qualitative study of 5
librarians within their own work environment is rare, and 6
Chapter 7 takes a look at ways to evaluate the workplace using 7
qualitative techniques. Libraries operate all over the world, 8
and Chapter 8 explores an example of a global qualitative 9
research project. Librarians do not typically receive formal 20
training as researchers, so Chapter 9 explores some ways in 1
which librarians might learn more about qualitative research. 2
Finally, the last chapter summarizes the message of the book— 3
just do it! All in all, each chapter seeks to shed a little bit of 4
light on how librarians and others might collect and explore 5
qualitative data to learn more about their users, and improve 6
their services. There is no one right way to do this—there are 7
many right ways. Conducting this type of research is often trial 8
and error, but it pays to start somewhere. And every little piece 9
of information that we can learn about our users will only 30
serve to make us all better at what we do in the long run. 1
2
Valeda Dent Goodman 3
November 2010 34R