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.

Research in real life

Jackie Freeman Depending on where (and when) you attended library school, a research methods class was probably a requirement. These types of courses are designed to provide students with theoretical knowledge of research methods – and if they are particularly fortunate – students may have an opportunity to work with a library practitioner on some aspect of that librarians’ research. Due to the length of most library school programs, these opportunities when offered are necessarily brief and often do not allow for sustained engagement with a project from inception to completion and dissemination.