tag: Ethnographic research

How should qualitative research be incorporated into a library’s research agenda? In the latest issue of Weave: Journal of Library Experience “provocateur anthropologists” Donna Lanclos and Andrew Asher reflect on the state of ethnographic research in libraries, which they characterize as more “ethnographish” than ethnographic. Some of the trappings of ethnographish library research include that the projects are: smaller scale, rely on “pre-packaged” methods, and aim towards solving institution-specific problems. In contrast, drawing on their experiences as…

Ithaka S+R is adjusting and expanding our studies of the research practices and support needs of scholars in individual fields of study to conduct them in partnerships with libraries and learned societies. Libraries that participate will learn a great deal about the needs of their scholars, while providing a valuable professional development opportunity for their librarians.  Through this partnership, we will generate a richly illustrated description of the field’s practices and needs and make actionable recommendations for how libraries…

In recent years, Ithaka S+R has expanded our survey research program to have an impact both institutionally as well as nationally. Beginning this winter, we are making a similar expansion and transition for our qualitative projects that study the research practices and support needs of scholars in individual fields of study.   Over the past four years, Ithaka S+R has made a substantial transition in our survey research program. Our sector-wide surveys of higher education institutions…

For the past two years, Ithaka S+R has been working with librarians and library staff at Montgomery College, the community college of Montgomery County, Maryland, to gain a better understanding of student work practices and preferences. Launched by Tanner Wray, director of the Montgomery College Libraries, the study draws inspiration from a previous project at the University of Maryland. Last year, a library team worked with Ithaka S+R to study library use on the Rockville campus; this…

Nancy Fried Foster, with co-authors Patricia Steele, David Cronrath, and Sandra Parsons Vicchio, has a new book: The Living Library: An Intellectual Ecosystem. From the publisher’s website: The Living Library describes the evolution of one possible future for academic libraries: as laboratories for cross-disciplinary investigation. At the University of Maryland, a collaboration among the Libraries, the School of Architecture and the Department of Anthropology led to the participation of students, faculty and staff in an initiative to design a full…