Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science

Wildemuth, Barbara M. (EDT)

ISBN 10: 1440839042 / ISBN 13: 9781440839047

Published by Libraries Unlimited, 2016

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26023908-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science
• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1440839042
• ISBN 13: 9781440839047
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The second edition of this innovative textbook illustrates research methods for library and information science, describing the most appropriate approaches to a question-and showing you what makes research successful.

Written for the serious practicing librarian researcher and the LIS student, this volume fills the need for a guide focused specifically on information and library science research methods. By critically assessing existing studies from within library and information science, this book helps you acquire a deeper understanding of research methods so you will be able to design more effective studies yourself.

Section one considers research questions most often asked in information and library science and explains how they arise from practice or theory. Section two covers a variety of research designs and the sampling issues associated with them, while sections three and four look at methods for collecting and analyzing data. Each chapter introduces a particular research method, points out its relative strengths and weaknesses, and provides a critique of two or more exemplary studies.

For this second edition, three new chapters have been added, covering mixed methods, visual data collection methods, and social network analysis. The chapters on research diaries and transaction log analysis have been updated, and updated examples are provided in more than a dozen other chapters as well.

About the Author

Barbara M. Wildemuth is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Information and Library Science at the UNC Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science, USA. She earned her PhD from Drexel University and holds master's degrees from Rutgers University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests focused on people's information behavior, particularly the ways that people seek and use information through computerized retrieval systems.