Webinar: Why do library practitioners do PhDs?

LARK is finishing this year on a high note by re-launching our South Australian Chapter. Join our great guest speakers to celebrate this achievement and consider why library practitioners do PhDs. 

Find out more about the re-launch of LARK's SA Chapter from our conversation with Dr Katherine Howard who will facilitate panel discussions on 1 December. 

It is a free online event. Join us via Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82593642241?pwd=WUdsaHFDZm0zOGJCR1RZNHlFMjdHQT09

Meeting ID: 825 9364 2241

Passcode: 946063

Fiona Salisbury is the Executive Director Library and University Librarian La Trobe University. Fiona is an experienced library leader and before being appointed to her current role worked in senior library roles at La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne. Fiona serves on the boards of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and CAVAL Ltd. and is currently the Program Director of the CAUL ‘Enabling a Modern Curriculum’ program. Fiona is a PhD candidate in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She is interested in keeping academic libraries at the heart of the university through conversation, collaboration and transformative cultural change.

Edward Luca is a library practitioner and researcher. He is currently Associate Director, Academic Services at the University of Sydney Library. Prior to this, Edward led a team of liaison librarians providing research and teaching support to the Faculty of Medicine and Health. Edward writes and speaks on topics including design thinking, academic librarianship and scholarly publishing. He is undertaking his PhD in the discipline of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School.

Dr Jo Kaeding is Children’s Librarian with the Adelaide Hills Council. She is the Programs Team Leader, responsible for children’s, youth and adult programs throughout the library service. Jo has a PhD from the University of South Australia, where she also lectures into the Information Management program. Her research focus is inclusive public libraries for children with disability and their families. She is a past recipient of the following awards: South Australian Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship, Public Libraries of South Australia Rod East Memorial Award and the Australian Library and Information Association Twila Ann Janssen Herr Award. Jo is a current member of the Public Libraries of South Australia Executive committee.

"You don't need a PhD to this job": in conversation with Dr Katherine Howard

 

Online via Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82593642241?pwd=WUdsaHFDZm0zOGJCR1RZNHlFMjdHQT09

Meeting ID: 825 9364 2241

Passcode: 946063

LARK is finishing this challenging year on a high note. Our last event this year will be an opportunity to participate in interesting discussions with our excellent guest speakers, and celebrate the re-launch of LARK's South Australian Chapter. You will also have a chance to meet Dr Katherine Howard, LARK's new Treasurer and Chair of SA Chapter, who will facilitate this event. Warming up for the webinar, we invited Katherine for a chat to introduce herself and tell us something about her plans.

Katherine, please tell us something about yourself.

Like many people in librarianship, I came to the sector needing a career change after being a Business Analyst for 7 years. I liked the idea that after completing my qualification I could work in archives or records management, as well as libraries. I was lucky enough to have amazing lecturers who were inclusive of many of the information professions, and that has really shaped how I see the field – that librarianship is just one part of the broader information professions. I strongly believe we need to join forces with all the other information professions – including the computer scientists! – in order for us to gain a more holistic understanding of the field. And the computer scientists could learn a thing or two about us!

Why did you decide to join LARK?

It was another opportunity for me to highlight and promote the importance of research to the profession. I have been on the ALIA Research Advisory Committee for a number of years, and have presented workshops with other committee members at ALIA National conferences.

Working on the LISRA project, a phrase kept coming up again and again – “You don’t need a PhD to do this job.” I thought it was just me on the receiving end of such comments, but apparently not – it's common the world over! There appears to be limited recognition of the value of research or a research degree to library practice. This doesn’t mean that I think every librarian needs a PhD, or even a research masters, but having one certainly brings another level of skill and insight to the way you approach your role. Those skills and insights are largely intangible, so it was only when I started reading the literature in this space that I realised I wasn’t alone. But how do we change that mindset? It’s for this reason that I wanted to explore why library practitioners do PhDs, which is the topic of our next webinar.

Another phrase I came across in my LISRA work was from Juznic and Urbanija (2003) –

“If research is absent [...] there is no profession, but only an occupation[...]”*

I think that bears reflecting on ...

You are relaunching LARK's SA Chapter. Could you tell us more about your hopes and plans?

I hope to create a community of practice amongst South Australian librarians – and anyone else who is interested – to recognise the importance of research to our profession, and to learn from each other what it means to do research. “Research” in this sense is more than a lit review or a systematic review – although they are both aspects of research. I think that is also a common misperception – what do we mean when we say “research”? (a view that is also supported by the literature!). So hopefully these ideas will go some way to ensuring that we don’t become “only an occupation.”

*Juznic, P. and Urbanija, J. (2003), Developing research skills in library and information science studies, Library Management, 24 (6/7), pp. 324-331. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120310486048

Dr Katherine Howard currently works as Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology

Translational research: where is LIS bedside?

  By Suzana Sukovic

Last month I had a pleasure to participate in LISRA’s webinar, Sharing practitioner-research: a panel discussion. In my opening talk, I mentioned a need to engage with ‘translational research’ in LIS. In response to a question from the audience, I promised to share some resources, and here is my answer.

Translational research originates in health and is still predominantly used to advance health outcomes. It is often described as ‘bench to bedside research’. ‘Translational research’, ‘research translation’ and ‘knowledge translation’ are the terms often used interchangeably, but there is some difference in meaning (see explanation of terminology by Sydney Health Partners). 

So, what is it? 

'Translational research makes engagement with practitioners and the wider community its priority. It seeks to “translate” research in ways that enable that research to be applied. It also “closes the circle” by allowing practitioners to provide feedback to researchers based on their experience’, explains Pru Mitchell in her article From concept to classroom: what is translational research? 

Mitchell’s article is about translational research in education, one of the areas outside health in which this type of research is gaining prominence. A/Prof Elaine Wethington explains reasons why social sciences are later adopters, and outlines some benefits of translational research.  

So far, librarians have been described as supporters of translational research in health, and the support role was discussed in the literature. However, the library and information sector hasn’t applied translational research in its own practice in any substantial way. Once again, our field needs to decide how to move beyond research support to develop our discipline and practice.

Writing this post, I remembered another LARK blog post about lessons from health. This older post is about my conference presentation Towards a teaching library: connecting academia and the profession presented at EBLIP8 (see slides). Since then, I worked in education research in health, and now believe more than ever in the concept of a ‘teaching library’. Furthermore, I now think that the model of a ‘teaching library’ may be a way to introduce translational research into LIS. Some food for thought while we think what ‘bench to bedside’ means in our field.

For further exploration

ACER, Translational Research 

Choi P J, Tubbs R, Oskouian R J (March 19, 2018) The Current Trend of the Translational Research Paradigm. Cureus 10(3): e2340. DOI 10.7759/cureus.2340

CQUniversity Library, Knowledge Translation 

Lowitja Institute, Knowledge Translation 

USC Library, Research Knowledge Translation Defined

Dr Suzana Sukovic is Director of Research and Library Services, PLC Sydney

Translational research image source: https://bctr.cornell.edu/

Sharing practitioner-research: How can ALIA help?

Earlier this week, LISRA organised a panel discussion 'to consider the opportunities, issues and challenges for library and information professionals in sharing and disseminating Australia’s emerging body of LIS practice-based research'. Four panelists started with their statements to open discussions. One of them was Andrew Finegan from ALIA who summarised his opening statement for LARK. A full recording is available from the LISRA event page.

By Andrew Finegan

As a professional association, one of ALIA’s core activities is to support research and publications that inform its members and the library and information sector.

 

One way that ALIA does this is through the production of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, or JALIA. Produced quarterly, JALIA presents research and research-in-practice articles which are subjected to a double-blind peer review process.

 

ALIA’s agreement with JALIA’s publisher allows authors to make their research publicly available through their institutional repository, with zero embargo – through what is commonly known as Green open access. As this content would otherwise only be immediately accessible through subscriptions, we encourage those who publish their work in JALIA to also take this opportunity.

Indeed, it should be noted that this does place the responsibility of access onto the author, with the expectation that the author does the work in preparing and uploading their research onto their institutional repository. University libraries make a valuable contribution to the research community by supporting academics through this process.

 

Of course, not everybody who has their research published in JALIA has access to an institutional repository, with many authors coming from school, public, state, territory and national libraries. This in itself can create a barrier to access, as there is no obvious place for them to upload their Green open access version.

Fortunately, ALIA manages its own repository, ALIA Library, where research content such as conference papers, reports and discussion papers are held. ALIA can work with these authors to make their JALIA-published research available as green open access.

 

However, we also need to think beyond the formal research journal as the only way to engage practitioners with research. The reality is that there are library professionals who, for whatever reasons, do not actively engage with research that is published in this format.

 

ALIA provides numerous opportunities to engage with different audiences with LIS research, through different channels:

• Conferences – there is a current call for proposals for the ALIA National 2022 Conference
• INCITE magazine – upcoming themes and submissions deadlines are listed on the website
• ALIA Groups and committees – The New Generation Advisory Committee run monthly twitter discussions in #AusLibChat, Health Libraries Australia produce their open access journal JoHILA, and of course LARK hold research related events and this blog.

This past year has also seen an increase in webinar discussions which have created new opportunities to engage large audiences online.

 

Of course, to engage effectively with different audiences, it is so important to understand how the tone and style of your communication needs to be adjusted to best connect with that audience - especially with practitioners who may not be actively engaged with an academic style.

 

As with any communications, you should first and foremost think about your audience. There is a very specific style that you’re expected to use to engage with an academic audience. However, for a non-academic audience, this can be much more fluid, and you need to be ready to adapt your tone for each context, and craft your message to be specifically relevant to their interests and sector. This is an art that is best be developed through active engagement, and so I’d certainly encourage LIS researchers to explore these different spaces.

Communications, ultimately, is a call to action, and researchers have the opportunity to connect with practitioners in their own language and in the spaces where they are engaged, to both inform and challenge them to continue to develop their professional practice, with a robust evidence base.

Andrew Finegan is ALIA Communications Manager

publishing@alia.org.au

Information for Learning: symposium recording

 

The symposium Information for Learning was a long time in the making. As it turned out, it was worth waiting for this thought-provoking event. The symposium was organised and then postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, to be offered in a refreshed form online in 2021. In the meantime, the use of information for all types of learning has become more relevant than ever. The Organising Committee was pleased to present an exciting program, addressing some perennial and current issues. The event, however, exceeded our expectations. It was free of technical glitches, well-attended and our excellent presenters kept the audience engaged throughout the day. 

We know that many people were disappointed that they could not attend and asked us about a recording. We are pleased to offer now a recording of the presentations. Although we can't offer a recording of discussions during Q&A sessions, our Twitter feed gives a sense of unfolding conversations.

You will find a recording of all the presentations on the link below. Please see the symposium program for abstracts and presenters' biographical notes

ALL SYMPOSIUM RECORDINGS 

KEYNOTE INSIGHTS

Dr Tanya Notley - Young Australians’ socially-mediated news engagement: exploring the implications for civic engagement

Professor Emerita Margy MacMillan - News and the American college student: Translating research in news literacy into developing student agency

PAPER SESSION 1: COMMUNITY

Dr Yazdan Mansourian - ‘I’m learning new things, and it brings up new things’: Information seeking for informal lifelong learning as a serious leisure

Ms Kate Rowe - Digital literacy in the community and the role of libraries

PAPER SESSION 2: HEALTH

Dr Suzana Sukovic and Ms Jamaica Eisner - ‘Just the way my brain works’: exploring capabilities for data use in the health workplace

Dr Yulia Uliannikova and Mr Edward Luca -Developing a staff mentoring program for systematic reviews

PANEL

Library clients as learners: What do libraries need to know?
Each speaker started with an opening statement followed by discussion
Mr Nathan Sentance (First Nations perspective)
Ms Oriana Acevedo (Multilinguistic and multicultural library users)
Dr Danny Liu (Learning analytics)

The Organising Committee thanks our presenters for their time and effort, and to the audience for contributing to a great day of learning and professional conversations. 

LARK's Treasurer: expressions of interest

 

Do you want to engage with an active ALIA group? Do you want to keep in touch with research in practice? Can you manage some financial tasks? If your answer is 'yes', the role of LARK's Treasurer is for you.

The Treasurer is responsible for Group’s financial administration and serves as the point of contact for financial matters. 

The Treasurer is responsible for

·      providing individual event budget and the annual budget

·      banking cash received

·      forwarding cheques or credit card payments to be processed

·      approving Group’s expenditure and serving as one of the two signatories           necessary for Group expenditure.

This is not as daunting as it sounds. Most of our events are free and our finance is pretty simple. The LARK Chair will work with you and help is also available from the ALIA House finance team. 

Please get in touch if you have any questions and send us your expression of interest by email.

Contact: Suzana Sukovic 

Email: lark.kollektive(at)gmail.com 

Twitter: @suzanasukovic

Image source: https://www.worldcc.com/Learn

Information for Learning: Meet our panelists

Library clients as learners - What do libraries need to know?

Mr Nathan Sentance (Australian Museum), Ms Oriana Ocevedo (State Library NSW) and Dr Danny Liu (The University of Sydney)

LARK is delighted to present a panel session with three experts who will present their perspective on library clients as learners. The panel will address which types of information libraries have, or need to have, to support different types of learning and knowledge in their diverse communities. This panel will start a conversation by introducing a First Nations perspective and a point of view from a librarian who supports culturally and linguistically diverse people. Also, what can we learn from data? What are the possible uses for, and blind spots of, learning analytics? What can the library and information profession learn from other fields?

What are you going to ask our panelists? See our symposium page to reserve your place. Registrations close on 6 April 12 pm AEST.

About the panelists

Oriana Acevedo works at the State Library of New South Wales (NSW). In her role as the Multicultural Consultant for Public Libraries, she provides advice and supports the development of multicultural library services within the State Library and NSW public libraries. She represents the State Library in government and non-government organisations for the advancement, participation and settlement of migrants and refugees in NSW. Oriana manages the Multicultural Cooperative that assists public libraries with the acquisition of materials in languages other than English (LOTE) and also manages the State Library’s bulk loans services that provides contemporary lending collections in 43 languages.

Danny Liu is currently an Associate Professor in the DVC (Education) Portfolio at the University of Sydney. Danny is a molecular biologist by training, programmer by night, researcher and academic developer by day, and educator at heart. He works at the confluence of educational technology, student engagement, learning analytics/educational data science, pedagogical research, organisational leadership, and professional development. His work in educational innovation has been recognised through a number of national and international awards.

Nathan Sentance is currently a project officer in at the Australian Museum working on cultural programs with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus. Nathan's main work focus is ensuring Indigenous perspectives and voices are part of the cultural and historical narrative that GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) institutions collect and convey as well as working on accessibility to information held in institutions to Aboriginal communities. Nathan was the recipient of the Loris Williams Memorial Scholarship 2015. He is also the current secretary of Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Issues Special Interest Group (ATSI SIG).