Possibility and imagination: a personal exploration of research and librarianship
| Published date | 09 January 2017 |
| Date | 09 January 2017 |
| Pages | 11-19 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-08-2016-0065 |
| Author | Alex Byrne |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,HR in libraries,Library strategy,Library promotion |
Possibility and imagination: a
personal exploration of research
and librarianship
Alex Byrne
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –Libraries and research have a symbiotic relationship. Researchers depend on libraries and the
collections and information services we curate and libraries depend on researchers and writers, and their
publishers, to deliver the stuff that we make available. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship
between research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper reports the author’s perspective as a librarian with nearly
four decades in practice who has undertaken a variety of research throughout his career.
Findings –Identifies the need for a more systematic relationship that will encourage better practice in
research and lead practitioners to draw on the findings of more reliable research to inform their practice, test
possibilities and stimulate imagination.
Originality/value –Tracing the intertwining of research and practice through one career, the paper
presents a uniquely detailed perspective.
Keywords Research, Activism, Library, Management, Information, Practice
Paper type Viewpoint
Libraries and research have a symbiotic relationship. Researchers turn to libraries and the
collections and information services we curate to find out what has been done before in their
fields, to compare their findings with those of other researchers and to seek serendipity and
inspiration. Many, especially in the humanities, mine the original materials in the collections
of our great and specialist libraries. Furthermore, our libraries are central to scholarly
education and the development of researchers. School and university students research
assignment topics and projects. Independent researchers, family and local historians and
creative writers and artists depend on libraries and the resources we offer, including the
extensive microfilmed and digitised records found in both university and public libraries.
In turn we transmit each field’s research findings –andincreasinglyresearchdata–to those
in the field but also to other fields and to the lay reader. Our libraries depend on researchers and
writers, and their publishers, to deliver the stuff that we then make available. The parallelism is
obvious, researchers (of all types) need libraries and libraries need researchers.
But that is in the being of libraries: our job is to transmit the record and we thus have a
necessary relationship with the users and creators of the record whether researchers,
recorders or creators. However, turning our attention to library and information services
themselves, do we, or should we, have a deeper relationship with research, a relationship in
which research is central to our practice? A research and evidence-based practice is one that
is always testing possibilities, imagining our future, informed in what we do and stimulated
by what we have done.
Research in library and information studies
A look at the library and information literature shows a great body of research employing
many approaches and methodologies and traversing all aspects of the field. A recent study
of research methods in library and information science (Chu, 2015) provides a useful basic
categorisation of research approaches and methods used in library and information
Library Management
Vol. 38 No. 1, 2017
pp. 11-19
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/LM-08-2016-0065
Received 24 August 2016
Revised 17 October 2016
Accepted 28 October 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
11
Exploration of
research and
librarianship
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