Defining Values within an Independent Research Experience

Julia Maxwell For my second semester of the Library as Research Lab’s Assessment in Student Learning Lab, I did an independent study project, advised by Dr. Beth Yakel, surrounding some of the preliminary results of the survey that our lab conducted in the fall of 2019. This project, while giving me a chance to learn more project management and technical skills, also taught me a valuable lesson outside of these skills: the importance and necessity of patience during self-motivated research work.

Learning How to Adapt & Be Flexible

Emily Sartorius, Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab The winter of 2020 was my second semester as a Research Fellow for the IMLS Grant-funded Library as Research Lab. The Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab continued to analyze the data from our survey, while starting a new interview study about evaluating information. Between adapting our previous research to inform our interview … Continue reading Learning How to Adapt & Be Flexible

Learning How to Ask Questions

Emily Sartorius, Assessment in Student Learning Lab The fall of 2020 was my first semester as part of the IMLS Grant-funded Library as Research Lab. As a member of the Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab, my team focused the semester on a survey that asked the question: How do students evaluate information before and after a library instruction session? I … Continue reading Learning How to Ask Questions

Adventures in Coding

Doreen Bradley Our Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab is undertaking ambitious work this year.  We designed, conducted, and coded a student survey in Fall 2019, which had over 500 responses.  In Winter, 2020, we designed, conducted and are mid-way through coding 22 individual student interviews.  Both of these research efforts provided our Fellows with … Continue reading Adventures in Coding

Research in an Academic Library

Gina Genova Soon after starting on an academic librarianship track at UMSI, I learned that library science research is a component of many librarian positions in academic libraries. At the time, I was unfamiliar with the breadth of research librarians engage in, but I was interested. However, I hadn’t participated in systematic academic research as an … Continue reading Research in an Academic Library

Qualitative Research on Qualitative Research

Claire Myers Research was not entirely new to me when I joined the Library as Research Lab. I had previous research experience as a Community College Summer Fellow through University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) when I was a student at Washtenaw Community College. The experience that I gained in that program was … Continue reading Qualitative Research on Qualitative Research

Mentorship and Shaping of Career Values

Julia Maxwell When beginning my contribution to the Library as Research Lab project, I had a fair idea of what I wanted my career path to look like: academic librarianship, with focuses on digital scholarship and undergraduate learning. After a semester working on the project, I have found that my career aspirations are now more … Continue reading Mentorship and Shaping of Career Values