Research Methods

Research Methods: Information, Systems, and Contexts, Second Edition, presents up-to-date guidance on how to teach research methods to graduate students and professionals working in information management, information science, librarianship, archives, and records and information systems. It provides a coherent and precise account of current research themes and structures, giving students guidance, appreciation of the scope of research paradigms, and the consequences of specific courses of action. Each of these valuable sections will help users determine the relevance of particular approaches to their own questions. The book presents academics who teach research and information professionals who carry out research with new resources and guidance on lesser-known research paradigms.

• Provides up-to-date knowledge of research methods and their applications
• Provides a coherent and precise account of current research themes and structures through chapters written by authors who are experts in their fields
• Helps students and researchers understand the range of quantitative and qualitative approaches available for research, as well as how to make practical use of them
• Provides many illustrations from projects in which authors have been involved, to enhance understanding
• Emphasises the nexus between formulation of research question and choice of research methodology
• Enables new researchers to understand the implications of their planning decisions

Kirsty Williamson has focused her career almost entirely on research since 1996 when she obtained her PhD. For much of that time she was Director of the research group, Information and Telecommunications Needs Research (ITNR), a joint initiative of Monash University and Charles Sturt University in Australia. She has undertaken many research projects and has received many research grants from a range of different non-government and government organisations, including the principal funding body of Australian Universities, the Australian Research Council (ARC). Her research has been widely published.

Graeme Johanson is Director of the Centre for Community Networking Research at Monash University. He has undertaken academic research for 45 years, and his research findings are widely published. He has supervised many research projects, mainly about the evaluation and use of information and communications technologies for the benefit of developing countries and marginalised groups of people. His initial interest in archives, historical documents, and oral history led him to work as a librarian in research institutions for ten years before becoming an academic focusing on information management and community informatics.