Phenomenology and LIS research

Phenomenology is a philosophy that qualitative researchers use to guide their own research. There are three schools of this phenomenology:

Edetic or descriptive phenomenology, guided by the work of Husserl
Hermeneutics, also referred to as interpretive or existential phenomenology, guided by the work of Heidegger and Gadmaer
The Dutch (Utrecht) school of phenomenology, which combines descriptive and interpretive phenomenology and raws on the work of Van Manean and Others.

An article I recently read (Dowling, M. & Cooney, A. (2012). Research approaches related to phenomenology: Negotiating a complex landscape. Nurse Researcher, 20(2), 21-27.) provided a detailed explanation of the three different perspectives and research approaches, and how they should be applied by nurse researchers.

One key difference between Husserl’s descriptive phenomenology and Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology is that Husserl believed that a phenomenon and its essence can be objectively studied, requiring researchers to bracket out their perceived reality of world, whereas Heidegger rejected the notion of bracketing, claiming that a researcher cannot separate description from his her own interpretation. This difference bears resemblance to what distinguishes positivism from interpretivism. Researchers (at least nurse researchers nowadays) are trying to find the middle ground and focus more on understanding the reality of their experiences to the person as they engage with the phenomenon rather than the more objective reality of the nature of the phenomenon itself. In other words, phenomenology is most useful when the task at hand is to understand an experience as it is understood by those who are having it.

Reading this article made me want to find out how phenomenological research is done in LIS. I did a keyword search in Library Literature & Information Science Fulltext and came up with 32 results. Some were book reviews, some were reflection pieces and some others were empirical studies. Here is the list of citations – it will be very helpful if I ever teach a course on qualitative research and need to put together a list of class readings.

Burns, C., & Bossaller, J. (2012). Communication overload: a phenomenological inquiry into academic reference librarianship. Journal Of Documentation, 68(5), 597-617.
Chen, K., & Huang, I. (2012). Library Use by Medical Students Engaging in Problem-based Learning: A Taiwanese Case Study. Libri: International Journal Of Libraries & Information Services, 62(3), 248-258.
Budd, J. (2012). Phenomenological Critical Realism: A Practical Method for LIS. Journal Of Education For Library & Information Science, 53(1), 69-80.
Klentzin, J. (2010). Collective Success: A Phenomenological Case Study of Ohio Public Libraries. Public Library Quarterly, 29(4), 293-319.
Budd, J. M., Hill, H., & Shannon, B. (2010). Inquiring into the Real: A Realist Phenomenological Approach. Library Quarterly, 80(3), 267-284.
Hultgren, F. (2013). The stranger’s tale: information seeking as an outsider activity. Journal Of Documentation, 69(2), 275-294.
Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2013). Scholars and faculty members’ lived experiences in online social networks. Internet & Higher Education, 1643-50.
Pietras, M., & Robinson, L. (2012). Three views of the “musical work”: bibliographical control in the music domain. Library Review, 61(8/9), 551-560.
Stephens, M. (2008). The Pragmatic Biblioblogger: Examining the Motivations and Observations of Early Adopter Librarian Bloggers. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 13(4), 311-345.
Budd, J. M. (2008). Cognitive Growth, Instruction, and Student Success. College & Research Libraries, 69(4), 319-330.
Templeton, T. (2008). Placing the Library: An Argument for the Phenomenological and Constructivist Approach to the Human Geography of the Library. Library Quarterly, 78(2), 195-209.
Julien, H., & Hoffman, C. (2008). Information Literacy Training in Canada’s Public Libraries. Library Quarterly, 78(1), 19-41.
Antell, K., & Engel, D. (2006). Conduciveness to Scholarship: The Essence of Academic Library as Place. College & Research Libraries, 67(6), 536-560.
Dalbello, M. (2005). A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part I: Theory and Methodological Framework. Library Quarterly, 75(4), 391-420.
Brown, J., & Duke, T. (2005). Librarian and faculty collaborative instruction: A phenomenological self-study. Research Strategies, 20(3), 171-190.
Limberg, L., & Alexandersson, M. (2003). The School Library as a Space for Learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 9(1), 1-15.
Watson, J. (2001). Making sense of the stories of experience: methodology for research and teaching. Journal Of Education For Library & Information Science, 42(2), 137-148.
Horn, J. (1998). Qualitative research literature: a bibliographic essay. Library Trends, 46(4), 602-615.
Saab, D. J., & Riss, U. V. (2011). Information as ontologization. Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 62(11), 2236-2246.

Books about Research Methods (2)

One of my favorite professors in my PhD program, Dr. Barbara Wildemuth, published a research methods book in 2009, titled “Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science”. This book divides the chapters into different stages of conducting research – formulating the research question, establishing the research and sampling design, collecting data, and analyzing data. Each chapter focuses on a particular design (e.g. case studies, longitudinal studies) or a specific method (e.g. semi-structured interviews, qualitative content analysis). What I like most about this book is that for each chapter, two to three exemplar studies using the research design or method discussed in that chapter were carefully critiqued, which provides a contextual and concrete way to understand how to successfully employ the design/method in a research study.

The book is intended for a wide variety of audience – doctoral/master’s students that are learning to conduct research, practitioners that are interested in carrying out research studies, and experienced researchers that are considering a method they are not familiar with. I use several of its chapters as readings for my own research methods class and students often find them helpful. I use it as a reference book for my own research as well.

Oh, by the way, I co-wrote two of the chapters in this book. Maybe I should’ve opened with that? 🙂

The Research Methods Course – An opportunity to tackle real-world problems

One of the courses I teach regularly is “Research Methods in Library and Information Science”. The section I teach is general-purposed and covers the frequently used research methods in the field of LIS. In the meantime, the course has other sections that focus on special topics, and students are free to choose based on their interest. The specializations include different types of research, such as qualitative research or action research, or different LIS domains, such as research in reference and information services or youth services. Students with different backgrounds and pursuits may choose accordingly to fulfill their needs. For example, students who intend to seek positions as children or young adults’ librarians, may elect the section that introduce them to the theory and methods of planning and evaluating youth services (children and young adults). Those who have an interest in working in archives may elect the section that covers theory and methods of historical research and writing. In addition, the research methods course can be taken twice for two specializations so students can expand their repertoire of research knowledge and skills.

A major assignment in the course is to develop a research proposal, where students need to identify a research problem, formulate a research question, and design a research study to answer the research question. I always position the research methods course as a “problem-solving” course that will equip students with skills/techniques to solve actual problems they encounter at work. And this proposal assignment manifests how the skills/techniques can be put to work in a hypothetical situation. Well, not entirely hypothetical. I encourage students to talk to practitioners and see if they have any problems that could benefit from a research study, and some of them have developed their research proposals based on real problems faced by librarians. For example, after talking to Oakland public librarians, a student is proposing a study to assess Oakland teens’ technology needs and how they are met by the local public library, because this is what the librarians want to find out.

I think the research methods course presents a good opportunity for students to understand the kinds of issues and problems that original research can help tackle. But for now I haven’t done more than encouraging them to talk to practitioners to identify practical problems that they can propose a research study to solve. I’m sure there’s more that I can do, and I just need to figure out what and how. To be continued.

Books about Research Methods (1)

Some LIS practitioners may not get a chance to take the Research Methods course in their degree program, and to help with this issue, Professor Sharon Weiner from Purdue University Libraries created self-directed online professional development program, “Practice into Research, Research into Practice,” to try. The program is openly available at no cost. It consists of a slide orientation; a pre-assessment; a syllabus that details the assignments and activities; and a program assessment.

Sharon’s program is an inspiring idea, and I would like to follow her lead and introduce some books about research methods that I find useful for practitioner researchers. If a librarian doesn’t have formal education or training about research methods (or doesn’t have time for it), reading a book is probably the easiest way to gain the basic knowledge about how to conduct and evaluate research.

The first book I would like to introduce is the textbook I use in my own class “Research Methods in LIS” – The Practice of Social Research, 13^th ed., by Earl Babbie. Babbie wrote this book for all social science students, so it’s not specific to the LIS field. But I like how he explains the concepts, terminology and techniques involved in research. In my class, some students love the book because of its clarity and readability, but some others find it difficult to digest the content without the LIS context. I try to compensate for that by giving students additional readings of LIS research articles so that they can see how the research methods discussed in Babbie’s book are applied by LIS researchers.

Babbie’s book starts with an introduction to what social research is, and then explains the research design process (conceptualizing and operationalizing the variables under study), which I appreciate most because it lays a solid foundation to understanding the following chapters of data collection and analysis methods. The focus of the book is entirely on practical techniques that researchers use to carry out their observations and analysis. It touches little on research paradigms and theories, and I guess that’s why the book is called “The practice of social research”. For practitioners who wish to develop a well-rounded view on social research and recognize the elements of valid and reliable research, this book would be a good place to start.