Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities #libresearch17

This Wednesday 8th November I will be the opening speaker at ‘Themes and trends in library and information research‘, a one-day conference hosted by CILIP in Kent at Canterbury Christ Church University. Entitled ‘Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities’ my presentation covers four mains themes:

The long-identified (and debated) research-practice gap in library and information science research
The case for research-led practice and practitioner-led research
Access to current research in library and information science research in the UK
Means of generating new research ideas

Congratulations Leo Appleton: winner of the LIRG LIS Researcher Practitioner Award 2016

Leo Appleton at the awards ceremony in London on Friday 28th October 2016 (photo credit LIRG)

An on-going concern of many professions, such as policing, social work, psychology, nursing, and teaching, is the “research-practice gap”, and the corresponding distance between researchers and practitioners within each community. Much of my work with the Library and Information Science (LIS) Research Coalition, and its associated projects Developing Research Excellence and Methods (DREaM) and the Research in Librarianship Impact Evaluation Study (RiLIES), sought to address the gap within LIS between 2009 and 2012.