LIS Research Coalition Conference 2010: not really a writeup, more a springboard for rambling

I should warn you: this post isn’t my write-up of the conference.  I’ll do that separately, but what follows will probably give you an idea of my thoughts.  Spoiler: I liked it.

Like my favourite superheroes, I have many origin stories.  The most popular ones include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the Batman: Year One-esque “real” version is a bit different.

In my first week at university, we had a library induction.  The Brynmor Jones Library is undeniably cool: the front part contains Larkin‘s old office, and the seven-storey tower on the back offers impressive views of Hull.  If you don’t believe such a thing exists, blag your way into the BJL and head up to the seventh floor.

So the building was impressive, as were its collections, but what struck me was the demonstration of a citation database on CD-ROM.  This was in 1998, so (I think) just before full-text ejournals took off: still, I was blown away that by searching a database you could learn where to find journal articles on the subject you were interested in.  You then had to trek over to the OPAC, search for your journal, check the holdings and find it on the shelf, but I had found something I wanted to be a part of.  My boyhood dreams of being a scientist, an inventor or an astronaut were gone: I was going to be a librarian and I was going to help people find things out.

The idea of the library as a research tool, as a means of discovering and making use of information and ideas, drew me in.  The more I looked, the more I liked what I saw.

The LIS Research Coalition Conference reminded me of why I fell for the library biz.  The thing that’s been missing from my professional life during the six years I’ve spent in public libraries is that idea of research, of a rigorous and robust approach to assessing a situation, investigating it, reaching conclusions and sharing the outcomes with fellow professionals.  In public libraries, we tend to run headlong from one corporate priority to another, too infrequently stopping to consider the broader LIS landscape and what we could learn from it, what our peers in other services have achieved and how we can make the best use of the growing LIS research evidence base to inform our decision-making processes.

That decision-making is going to become more important than it has been for a long time: as central government’s spending on public services shrinks, we will inevitably face our hardest challenges.  Isn’t now the best time for us to engage with the research base?

MLA‘s new role – perhaps not so new any more, really – is as a research-focused organisation, acting to highlight good practice within the sector, to disseminate the results of research, to build up a library (pun most definitely intended) of case studies.  You will, of course, have read the transcript of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries, Literacy and Information Management‘s hearings*, so you will have read my attempt to strike an optimistic note about what we might expect MLA to achieve in this arena.  They’re getting there, I think, even though they haven’t yet thanked me for so robustly defending them…

This conference was, for me, a second epiphany about the value of libraries and about research.  Although I was first drawn to them by their power as research tools, my graduate traineeship included a substantial research project on allocating the university library’s materials budget to different subject areas.  This covered the standard stuff: a literature review; some interviews with university librarians elsewhere in the country; and some suggestions based on the results.  Since finishing my MA I’ve not really revisited these areas, which is a shame: I loved doing that work.  I believe wholeheartedly that only by undertaking, and otherwise using, quality research can we be absolutely confident that we are making the best possible decisions about our libraries on behalf of our users.  There’s a community of academics dedicated to researching public libraries out there, in need of our involvement as practitioners.  Let’s work with them, and with each other, and make the best libraries we can.

As a step toward achieving this, I’d love to see the Society of Chief Librarians join the LIS Research Coalition.  Their absence is a bit of a hole: MLA’s involvement is great, but there’s a lot of value in SCL – representing, effectively, the practitioners in the public library field – taking part and steering the direction of research within their arena to suit the needs they would identify.

As for me: I’m determined to do something with my epiphanic moment.  I want to be involved in research, as a practitioner, to keep my skills fresh and relevant and to shine the light of my experience on the process.  I have no idea how I’m going to do this yet, or what I’m going to do, but I’m confident I’ll figure that out.  This conference reminded me why I love the work we do in libraries.  I’m grateful for that.

* Seriously, I have never been so scared.  I was invited to a “round-table discussion” on libraries.  I turned up at the House of Commons (with Manchester’s Nicky Parker) and went to the committee room.  The civil servant waiting for us in the corridor said, “Are you here to give evidence to the Inquiry?”  And I thought, “Holy crap.  Evidence?  Inquiry?”