EDU 6920 Reflection

Ethics of Research

We started this course with ethical training, especially focused around working with students and protecting their rights to confidentiality and privacy. I completed similar research ethics training when working on my MLIS degree. Re-doing this training was very helpful for me; I may have felt as though it was unnecessary, but as I delved back in I realized how many details I had forgotten, although the larger gist of it remained in my brain.

As a librarian, I place a lot of importance on the quality of research and part of this is being aware of how ethical the study was. Another part of the ethics as a person who is disseminating information to others is making sure that I can help them deconstruct it if needed. Understanding the ethics and terminology used overall is essential.

Action Research

I love research. I was a researcher, I am a researcher, and now I am also an action researcher. Being able to tailor the research to small-scale sample sizes and a short period of time was key for my library and my work as a youth services librarian. I will break up this research in three parts: database diving, organizing to the nth degree, and living the life.

Database diving is my bread and butter. Give me a topic -- even one that I previously had 0 interest or knowledge in -- and I am going to dive deep. This part of research is comfortable for me. I can skim abstracts, articles, and key words. I can analyze the currency and relevance. I can re-word and re-connect subjects all day. And, as makes most introverts happy, I can do it mostly on my own.

Organizing to the nth degree is my kryptonite. I will plan and organize and get excited about research and what comes next -- but it's also a way that I procrastinate. I will organize and reorganize as many times as necessary to avoid actually stepping up to start the action part of the research. 

Having an assignment that required action research instead of solely a literature review forced me to keep my organizing and planning to a moderate amount so I could live the life. This action research was AMAZING. I analyzed data from the past five years at the library and learned that some of the hearsay was rose-tinted and my goals were more reasonable than expected. I also made connections with more teachers and school librarians. And most importantly, I made connections with students.

What Now?

Now that I've started my action research, I feel fully confident in continuing it. Where before I was most interested in the literature review and analyzation for my personal research, I feel equipped to jump off the high dive and actually engage beyond the safety of published work. This action research helped me check my own biases about what teens want and need. My goal was to give teens a bigger voice at the library, and this research helped me step back to quiet my voice and give them more space. As an added bonus, it also helped (and is continuing to help) me reach and engage with more teens to give them access to resources and services at the library.