Introducing the Research and Scholarship Lab
The research and scholarship lab investigates library support for research and scholarship throughout all phases of the research lifecycle, encompassing a range of activities from funding and ideation to dissemination and impact. The library presence across the research lifecycle has implications for staffing and expertise, service design and development, and the continual quest to better understand and reimagine the roles of disciplinary and functional specialists. Evaluating library support for digital scholarship and research data management is of particular interest, given the necessary investments into tools, methods, and analysis.
Project: Support for Qualitative Data Analysis
The University of Michigan Library has a longstanding commitment to support for spatial and numeric data services and has more recently developed services for data visualization and research data management. This project recognizes the centrality of quantitative methods in existing library data services and establishes a goal to develop more inclusive services going forward.
We are engaged in a needs assessment in order to learn about unmet campus and disciplinary needs for qualitative and mixed methods research support. We have developed two interview protocols, based on our review of the literature, and are conducting semi-structured stakeholder interviews with faculty, doctoral students, and librarians. As we code and analyze interview transcripts, we are able to identify opportunities for library support and engagement. Early analysis indicates two key opportunities: 1) facilitation of communities of practice and 2) enhanced access to methods texts and resources through library collections.
Lab Members
Elizabeth Yakel
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Information, School of Information | Winter 2018; Fall 2018 – Fall 2020
Alexa Pearce
Head, Social Sciences & Clark Library, University Library | Winter 2018; Fall 2018 – Winter 2019
Jacqueline Freeman
Informationist, Health Sciences, University Library | Fall 2018 – Fall 2020
Karen Downing
Education Librarian, University Library | Winter 2018; Fall 2018 – Fall 2020
Jeremy York
School of Information Doctoral Student | Summer 2020 – Fall 2020
Allison Thorsen
School of Information Graduate Student | Winter 2019 – Spring 2020; Fall 2020
Claire Myers
School of Information Graduate Student | Winter 2019 – Spring 2020
Research Assistant | Spring 2020 – Fall 2020
Joseph Muller
School of Information Graduate Student | Winter 2019 – Spring 2020
Digital Publishing Coordinator, University of Michigan Library | Spring 2020 – Fall 2020
Shelby Long
School of Information Graduate Student | Summer 2020 – Fall 2020
Faye Polasek
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Undergraduate Student | Summer 2020 – Fall 2020
Caroline He
School of Information Graduate Student | Winter 2018; Fall 2018 – Winter 2019
Hilary Severyn
School of Information Graduate Student | Fall 2018 – Winter 2019
Andrea Kang
School of Information Graduate Student | Fall 2018 – Winter 2019
Russel Peterson
School of Information alum
Research & Instructional Services Librarian, University of Alabama Libraries
Alix Keener
Digital Scholarship Librarian, University Library | Winter 2018