GSU Library Research Guides: Library Faculty Research Resources: Getting Started

Where to Look for Research Opportunities & Resources

ACRL Professional Tools: Communication and Idea Sharing
Listservs, discussion groups, blogs, and publications to monitor for research opportunities, ideas, and advice
ACRL Research Agenda for Library Instruction and Information Literacy
Key research questions related to library programming and instruction, compiled by the Instruction Section with the goal of promoting collaboration across institutions and experimentation with a range of methods and variables
ACRL Scholarly Communications Toolkit
The toolkit is an educational resource primarily directed to librarians to assist them with integrating a scholarly communication perspective into library operations and programs and preparing presentations on scholarly communication issues for administrators, faculty, staff, students, or other librarians.
ACRL "Your Research Coach"
A program operated by the College Libraries Section that matches academic librarians working on scholarly projects with experienced "coaches" who can offer advice and support
ALA Connect
Larks: ALA Librarian and Researcher Knowledge Space
A collection of resources for researchers of all experience levels is maintained by ALA's Office for Research and Statistics
A Library Writer's Blog
A blog listing wide range of research opportunities (publications, presentations, etc.) of relevance to librarians. Check out the RSS feed on the Publishing/Presenting Your Work page.

How to Come Up with a Research Topic

Research ideas can come from:

Work that you do every day
Colleagues
Conference poster sessions are especially fertile ground for gleaning ideas
Looking at the professional literature. What are other people writing about? At the end of articles, writers often identify areas for further research; this is a great source of ideas.
Keeping an open mind and being curious
Cutting-edge things the Library is doing
Getting on professional committees with "research" or "statistics" in their names
Looking through encyclopedias of library science
Checking annual reviews of library and information science
Listserv threads

(Based on Librarian Research Resources: Research: Getting Started with My Project, by Iowa State University Library.)

Questions to Ask Yourself

Have I done a thorough literature review?
Is my research question clearly defined?
Have I had someone read over and/or critique my proposal? My final paper?
Are my research instruments aligned with best practices?
If my research involves human subjects, how will I prepare for IRB approval?
Have I identified potential publication venues for this research?
Have I considered which citation style I should use for publication venues?
What structural pieces will my final product need to include? (i.e. methodology section, data analysis, and so on)

PM 36: Faculty Scholarly Activities

Personnel Memorandum 36. available in the University Library Sharepoint, in the "Memoranda" folder. includes information about support for library faculty research.

Personnel Memorandum No. 36

Watch These Webinars!

We highly recommend these introductions to scholarly research and publishing for librarians.

Library Faculty Research Resources: Getting Started

How the Faculty Research Committee Can Help

Where to Look for Research Opportunities & Resources

How to Come Up with a Research Topic

Questions to Ask Yourself

PM 36: Faculty Scholarly Activities

Watch These Webinars!