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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 173 of 293

  • Introduction

  • from PART 1 - PROJECTS AND TRENDS
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 3-4

  • Summary

    In this part of the book a number of libraries from each of six regions of the world are described in short case studies by 11 authors. The purpose of these case studies is to give some insight into important aspects of the libraries and spaces as viewed by each author. This approach contrasts with providing a systematic description of each case study using a list of common factors, such as that found in the excellent online database of UK projects compiled by Jisc infoNet (2013). Some of the authors concentrate on interior space, others spend more time describing exterior architecture, and yet others take an approach that considers ‘soft’ attributes such as educational rationale or societal impact. The variety of approach adopted shows us that library space is not an isolated component of the library but is a result of both architecture and interior design and is integrated with service, function and purpose. It also reminds us that each library is a response to specific factors seen in the context of its setting. For most case studies we have used a keyword or phrase to attempt to convey an important characteristic of each library in order to focus attention on its ‘main’ purpose.

    There is a brief summary of the clear trends in these case studies at the end of Part 1, which shows that new libraries and their learning spaces across the globe have some common directions although they have developed their own identities.

    Reference

    Jisc infoNet (2013) Learning Spaces Infokit, www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/learningspaces/ (accessed 13 August 2013).

  • 13 - What next? Applying your findings to practice

  • from PART 3 - IMPACT OF RESEARCH, EVALUATION AND AUDIT
    • By Robert Gent, Former Deputy Director, Cultural and Community Services, Derbyshire Libraries, UK, Andrew Cox, Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield, UK
  • Edited by Maria J. Grant, Sen Barbara, Hannah Spring
  • Book:
    Research, Evaluation and Audit
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 215-226

  • Summary

    ‘I don't understand some of the decisions that are made in this place.’

    ‘How can I get the support I need to carry on my research?’

    ‘How can I ensure my project has impact?’

    This book is an introduction to research, evaluation and audit techniques for library and information service practitioners. You may well have an interest in pure research for its own sake but it is more likely that you are interested in using research to prompt a change in policy or to improve service delivery. The reality is that much research never does get into practice. If you do not want this neglect to befall your own work, this chapter will give you some pointers about how to design your project with impact in mind and how to plan to influence organizations and wider communities to make use of your project findings.

    In most organizations research, evaluation or audit does not take place in a vacuum. This chapter explores the important question of how you can make your project findings count, to help bring about the changes that will make your organization stronger and more responsive. Equally you may want to influence a whole sector or community of organizations. The techniques explored in this chapter can be summarized under four headings:

  • Understanding the organization

  • Establishing your credibility

  • Designing projects to make change happen

  • Pilot projects.

    • Understanding your organization

    Large organizations are complex entities and they have many different ways of making decisions. These are not always totally rational; you cannot assume that because your project has identified what you believe is the most appropriate course of action that this will be recognized immediately and the necessary changes made as a matter of course. Changing a service can take time, and may involve challenging longheld beliefs and assumptions. If you are not sensitive to your organization's values and culture, and fail to tailor your strategy accordingly, you are likely to be disappointed when others fail to share your enthusiasm. Change will always meet some resistance because it involves effort, and there will always be rival priorities and competition for resources.

  • Introduction – about this book

  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp xix-xxvi

  • Summary

    Scope

    This is a book for anyone interested in libraries and their learning space – what exists, why it continues to be important and what really matters when planning it. The focus is on learning space in libraries that is used for learning outside the classrooms of educational organization and by personal learners in public libraries, generally referred to as informal learning space. In addition to some ideas on built space (the what), consideration is given to ideas and concepts that underpin current library learning spaces and that will inform future ones (the why and the how). ‘New old space’ – space that fails to experiment with new ideas and ways of working – is a common phenomenon in all types of building and libraries are no exception to this. McDonald (2006) identifies an intangible ‘oomph’ (or I prefer ‘wow’) factor as one of the important criteria in the quality of new library space. Creating a space that works from the day it opens is obviously important but adding that ‘wow’ to create new spaces that inspire the library community its readers, learners and staff is more challenging. Tomorrow's library and learning spaces are waiting to be invented so focusing on the future and emphasizing what libraries and learning spaces could be, what matters when we are thinking about and planning these new spaces, how spaces might be used, and how they can attract, support and inspire those who use them is fundamentally important.

    The way a space is designed and configured can enable (or disable) a wide range of activities and the services it can provide – space and service are inseparable, and it can be argued that the provision of space is a service in its own right. As service provision is dependent on the amount, type and organization of the spaces in a library then service delivery approaches and the portfolio of services and support provided are inevitably linked to space development. While library services are not the focus of this book, several authors touch on service issues.

    Libraries have always also been places of learning. Ideas about learning, our understanding of learning processes and the impact of technology on learning have all changed considerably in recent years and require us to rethink how we organize and manage libraries and their learning spaces.

  • 4 - Hong Kong projects and trends

  • from PART 1 - PROJECTS AND TRENDS
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 49-60

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In Hong Kong we live in exciting times with many opportunities and challenges for reform and advancement in education – major curriculum reform, change in student demographics, and the ubiquitous use of mobile and cloud-based technologies.

    Few students come to university without powerful mobile technologies, whether laptops, tablets or hand-size devices such as smartphones. Likewise, few students do not make extensive use of the free wi-fi across Hong Kong (Tsang et al., 2008) and the ever more powerful wi-fi facilities within universities and now in a growing number of schools (Chu et al., 2012). In studies into m-learning and the use of cloud-based technologies on university campuses in Hong Kong (e.g. Song and Fox, 2008; Lam, Lam and McNaught, 2010; Fox, 2011), students’ study habits have been found to be changing with the adoption of new and increasingly mobile personal technologies and the need for new learning environments and new educational services.

    The 25–30% growth in education places in Hong Kong universities in 2012 has led to the need for rapid expansion of both physical and virtual services and facilities. In planning for this expansion, universities have been asking what new kinds of library learning places are needed that will suit students today and in the future. Do we need to duplicate and expand existing student services and places, designed before the introduction of new technologies and new practices or should we fundamentally rethink our physical environment, taking into account students’ changing study habits, changing curriculum requirements and emerging technological and pedagogical practices?

    This chapter explores the challenges of doing things differently in Hong Kong university libraries, providing students and teaching staff with new library places that offer new ways of working and services and facilities designed to meet the needs of education today and for the future.

    Background to the changing needs in Hong Kong educational libraries

    September 2012 was the start of a new academic year in universities in Hong Kong unlike any other. All major universities adopted a new outcomesbased curriculum, which adds an extra year to the undergraduate degree programme. This has resulted in large-scale curriculum reform in all disciplines, creating the opportunity to consider what should be included in an undergraduate degree in the 21st century.

  • 23 - The interior designer's view

  • from PART 3 - IDEAS AND FUTURES
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 249-258

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In Interior Design of the 20th Century, Anne Massey (1990) states that ‘Interior design is a phenomenon born of the 20th century, to be precise the latter half of the 20th century’.

    The profession of interior design is a young, evolving discipline that was first formalized in the UK as recently as the late 1960s when a number of tertiary level education courses were inaugurated. One of the most recent environments to employ interior design is the education sector and in particular libraries and learning commons. In the last ten years there has been a surge of interest in the design of ‘learning environments’, which has stimulated widespread refurbishment and building programmes in higher and further education institutions. This interest has been influenced by a complex number of cultural, pedagogic and technological developments and influences. In addition, widening access to higher education has led to greater diversity in student populations.

    Oblinger (2003) provides a useful overview of the new student:

    The ‘new’ student may be a seventeen-year-old high school student (a ‘Millennial’) who uses instant messaging to contact peers and teachers. The ‘new’ students may be a twenty-six-year old college student (a ‘Gen-X’ whose expectations of customer service are radically different from those of previous generations. Or the ‘new’ student may be a forty-year-old working mother (a ‘Baby-Boomer’) who is completing a degree via e learning so that she can balance work and family responsibility.

    The most significant factor driving these changes is the explosion of new technology, particularly social media that enables students to participate in and debate information while sharing this with friends and colleagues often entirely online. Despite this many educators believe that there is a greater need than ever for new spaces to provide opportunities for face-to-face interaction and collaboration. The introduction of technologies to support learners has significantly changed the way that libraries, in particular, look. Evolution from banks of desktop computers to hand held or mobile devices has driven demand for new types of furniture, lighting and accessible power and data outlets. Presentation equipment supporting face-to-face collaboration has further changed the landscape of spaces, emphasizing flexible semi-private spaces with many libraries using pods or booths to facilitate this activity.

Better Library and Learning Space
  • Projects, Trends, Ideas
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • What are the most important things a 21st-century library should do with its space? Each chapter in this cutting-edge text addresses this critical question, capturing the insights and practical ideas of leading international librarians, educators and designers to offer you a 'creative resource bank' that will help to transform your library and learning spaces. This is an innovative and practical toolkit introducing concepts, drawing together opinions and encouraging new ways of thinking about library learning spaces for the future.

  • 3 - China projects and trends

  • from PART 1 - PROJECTS AND TRENDS
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 37-48

  • Summary

    Introduction

    China's dramatic rise has manifested itself in urban growth and a growing collection of stunning modern buildings, increasingly designed by native Chinese architects. Several of these buildings belong to new or massively expanded university campuses each featuring its centrepiece ‘library’. Other libraries have formed part of school or community campuses but, not generally being in standalone buildings, have been less dramatic although, ironically for the same reasons, it is these buildings that possibly show greater organizational thought.

    Not unsurprisingly the emphasis of recent Chinese design has been on external form, where dramatic shapes and modern materials celebrate power, progress and an ability to match what is being done elsewhere in the world. Less thought has been paid to the subtleties of internal function. This review has revealed relatively traditional notions of what might constitute the library or ‘learning centre’. To suggest that architectural emphasis is only on the dramatic would be to sell these many talented architects short, however. The subtlety and beauty of the limited number of buildings reviewed reveals an architectural potential that will no doubt continue to grow.

    Chinese library design is therefore in its infancy compared with the west and reflects the priorities of the current regime. A centralized system based on bureaucratic control does not provide much opportunity for innovation. In particular the liberal attitudes to learning and teaching that underpin the newer and more experimental UK higher education libraries appear to be absent in China. The result is a focus on library operations in most of the libraries reviewed – in simple design terms a fairly regimented arrangement of book stacks and study tables.

    Seen more positively it is essential to remember that the Chinese educational system is very different from that in the west and has been for thousands of years, so much so that the Chinese mentality is different, accepting – even welcoming – a degree of control and imposed order. It is therefore clearly inappropriate to judge Chinese educational practice by the criteria that have been adopted more recently in Europe, although China is increasingly adopting western styles of operation and is increasingly operating in a western world.

  • 12 - Disseminating your project findings

  • from PART 3 - IMPACT OF RESEARCH, EVALUATION AND AUDIT
    • By Jane Shelling, Manager, National Drugs Sector Information Service, Australia
  • Edited by Maria J. Grant, Sen Barbara, Hannah Spring
  • Book:
    Research, Evaluation and Audit
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 203-214

  • Summary

    ‘What exactly is dissemination?’

    ‘My work is specific to my library; I doubt anyone else would be interested in it.’

    ‘When should dissemination be planned?’

    Introduction

    Dissemination can be a confusing term and its definition can depend on context. As library and information practitioners, many of us are familiar with dissemination as it applies in the term ‘selective dissemination of information’ or SDI. Whilst this term is also open to interpretation, it usually means a current awareness service which involves screening documents to select information to meet the specific research needs of a user and delivering that information directly to them (Hossain and Shiful, 2008). Dissemination is one of as many as 29 terms identified and used to describe knowledge to action; others include knowledge translation, knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange, research utilization, implementation and diffusion (Graham et al., 2006).

    In the context of this chapter dissemination is a term used to describe ways to alert interested parties to your research findings and encourage the uptake of that evidence into practice. No particular theory or model is being advocated; presented here are ideas and suggestions to establish or improve the dissemination of research.

    Dissemination is an integral part of the research process and is often included as a requirement in a researchfunding contract. Dissemination can become complex, because it involves a number of processes and different target groups, but it can and should be viewed as just another part of the wider research process. In addition to planned dissemination activities, approaches and opportunities to disseminate findings may present themselves during the research. As suggested in Chapter 11, if you are new to project work you may wish to consider approaching an experienced colleague or mentor in your workplace for their advice in developing your dissemination plan.

    Plan and evaluate

    A dissemination plan may contain five major elements (Carpenter et al., 2005):

  • What is going to be disseminated

  • Who are the end users

  • Dissemination partners

  • How to disseminate

  • Evaluation.

Research, Evaluation and Audit
  • Key Steps in Demonstrating your Value
  • Edited by Maria J. Grant, Sen Barbara, Hannah Spring
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • This handbook provides library and information professionals with the information they need to undertake research projects in the workplace in order to inform their own practice and improve service delivery. Whether you are a complete novice or have experience of undertaking evaluations, audits or research, this book will guide you step-by-step through the key phases of planning, doing and disseminating research.

  • Preface

    • By Maria J. Grant, Research Fellow (Information), School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Salford, UK
  • Edited by Maria J. Grant, Sen Barbara, Hannah Spring
  • Book:
    Research, Evaluation and Audit
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp xvii-xviii

  • Summary

    This handbook has been written specifically to meet the needs of library and information science (LIS) practitioners interested in doing research to inform their own practice and the wider library and information evidence base. Whether you are a complete novice or have limited experience of undertaking evaluations, audits or ‘research’, this handbook is about you and, rather than supporting the research activities of others, it seeks to support your development and explains how evidence based library and information practice is relevant to you. It is based on the ten steps of the HEALER research toolkit and is divided into three sections, guiding those new to research through the key phases of a planning, doing and disseminating research.

    In Part 1 the handbook introduces the concept of research and provides strategies for novice researchers to build their confidence as they seek to define their research question, write their research plan and consider the ethical implications of their research.

    In Part 2 you get down to the nitty gritty of research, covering familiar topics such as reviewing literature as well as being introduced to the range of qualitative and quantitative methods available. It provides a pain free overview to data analysis techniques and explores the range of easy touse tools available to assist you along the way.

    In Part 3 you consider how best to maximize the impact of your research in terms of writing the project up for internal and external audiences, implementing your findings into practice and the potential for the wider dissemination of your work.

    Each chapter is structured to begin with a comprehensive introduction to a discrete topic area complemented with case studies drawn from a broad range of LIS contexts to illustrate the issues raised and provide lessons transferable to your own context. There are also opportunities to reflect on what you have learnt, with the intention of enabling you to apply your learning practically within your own setting.

    The authors are LIS practitioners and researchers from a diverse range of sectors and geographical locations, including business, finance, national information services, public libraries, research bodies, sixthform colleges and universities from areas including Australia, the UK and the USA.

  • 14 - Books, nooks and MOOCs

  • from PART 3 - IDEAS AND FUTURES
    • By Jo Dane, education consultant in the Melbourne Studio of global architectural practice, Woods Bagot
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 175-182

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Ssssshhhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but the university library is a hip and happening place. Learning actually happens there. Some even still have books in them. Do you need to work in a group? Do you need a quiet place of respite? Do you like studying in proximity to others? Do you need access to a fast computer? The library has become a spectrum of spaces to cater for every imaginable learning modality. Consequently librarians have become curators of learning, anticipating the resources, services and physical settings to support all levels of education and research.

    An archaeological dig of the University of Alexandria dating to the 5th century revealed the instantly recognizable remnants of a series of lecture halls: tiered seating and a podium for the scholar (Majcherek, 2008). Some 1500 years later lectures remain the dominant mode of content delivery across the majority of universities, despite criticisms in recent decades regarding the effectiveness of learning in lectures (Bligh, 1972; Penner, 1984; Hodgson, 1997). In stark contrast, the university library represents a space typology that has adapted to new pedagogies and technologies emergent in the last 20 years, generating a distinctly different student experience from libraries of past eras (Jamieson, 2005).

    21st-century library space – it's all about value

    Where traditional libraries were typically centred on books and study carrels, the 21st-century library is developing as a dichotomy of spaces: quiet versus noisy (individual and group learning); hi-tech versus low-tech (digital and analogue activities); light versus dark (reading and multimedia activities); open versus closed (short and long duration). Furthermore, the role of books in the student learning experience is being seriously questioned, with librarians being forced to negotiate the value proposition of space for books. Do students get more value from space comprising book collections or places where they can access digital resources and study collaboratively?

    In a recent focus group of first-year students discussing use of their university library, the students conveyed their systematic avoidance of sourcing books on course reading lists, in deference to digital resources they found much easier to source (Woods Bagot, 2012). A related survey of students at the same Australian university revealed that access to computers and quiet study spaces were valued above access to book collections, closely followed by demand for group study spaces (Woods Bagot, 2013).

  • 19 - Beyond analogue: the learning studio as media-age library

  • from PART 3 - IDEAS AND FUTURES
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 215-222

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky (2011) signals a fundamental transition of our post-television age. He argues that media has become ‘the connective tissue of society’. No longer ‘something produced by professionals for consumption by amateurs’, the power of digital media is in moving culture beyond the one-way transmission of broadcasting to a two-way interaction where new ideas and ways of thinking emerge. The challenge for educators in the 21st century is in capturing this active role for our students and classrooms: ‘We have to rethink the basic concept of media: it's not just something we consume, it's something we use.’

    This challenge is nowhere more evident than in library spaces. Mobile devices have created new ways of connecting and learning from others through images, audio and video; our students come to us expecting to interact and collaborate in vital communities linked by new media messages. Though significant attention has been given to the transition from print to digital collections, the 21st-century library must attend to the participatory culture sparked by digital media and modes of thinking and working together.

    In 2010 the Brown Library at Abilene Christian University (ACU) opened the AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) Learning Studio. In the last decade, library redesigns built around the information commons model attempted to move spaces beyond the analogue assumptions of the repository – curation and consumption – and connect the library to the world of the web, creating a kind of crossroads for information gathering of all sorts. The studio model takes an essential next step, seeing library spaces as sites of not only information literacy and analysis but also production, collaboration and a growing list of practices essential to learning in the 21st century.

    Towards media fluency

    One early voice in reframing education for the 21st century was the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) project. In 2002 the US Department of Education founded this project with advocacy groups like the National Education Association and corporate support including Apple, Microsoft and Time Warner. The P21 project asked what core skills would need to complement knowledge in core subjects to allow students ‘to succeed as citizens and workers in the 21st century’ (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2002).

  • 2 - US projects and trends

  • from PART 1 - PROJECTS AND TRENDS
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 21-36

  • Summary

    Introduction

    I am intrigued by the transformative power of built space – in our case the library. How does the interface of library space and library patron, library space and library collection, library space and library staff, and library space and library space create something new and more valuable? I wonder how it is that a space that works well for one individual may totally frustrate another? I wonder how library spaces can be designed or improved to facilitate learning – in effect, ‘learn’ to be better learning spaces?

    Great library learning spaces can be accidental. Conversely, good intentions by librarians, engineers and architects may not result in space that functions as intended. Can elements common to all great library learning spaces be identified that can guide librarians, planners, architects and engineers?

    Successful libraries are transformational spaces

    In the USA, dozens of libraries are considered great architecture but may not be great or even good libraries. They are often deemed great by critics because of the reputation of their designers, not because of the satisfaction of the occupants.

    A grand exterior design is secondary to what takes place in its interior. Once inside, the visitor should experience a sense of having stepped away from the pressures, distractions and often toxic energies of the outside world. In that way a library resembles other transformational spaces such as churches, synagogues, mosques and temples.

    Perhaps libraries do not create the other-worldliness of religious places with their vaulted ceilings, subdued lighting and evocative art. But they should create an awareness of a special place – a place where learning takes place, where contemplation and thought is encouraged, and where those who are curious can readily commune with the authors of the books and texts they encounter – even though separated through space and time.

    The exterior of the building is only one variable in the creation of a great learning space. It has a specific task. The exterior must beckon the patron to enter. For example, the Carrière and Hastings design of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, with its iconic lions, Patience and Fortitude, framing the steps leading upward to the main entrance, has been photographed many millions of times (Dickson, 1986, 62).

  • 13 - Nothing has changed/everything has changed – the enduring aspects of learning

  • from PART 3 - IDEAS AND FUTURES
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 167-174

  • Summary

    The limitations of ‘library’

    It is sometimes depressing when talking to clients about libraries that they lapse into traditional notions of what these spaces might be. But it is easier to pigeon-hole a concept into a traditional building type than deal with the socio-technical complexity that the concept involves.

    Thus on the one hand ‘library’ is a misleading shorthand for something ever-changing and far more complex than it once was, but to suggest, on the other, that it does not include enduring aspects of the process of learning and working is equally wrong. What is important is to understand the fundamental human processes at work in the new concept of ‘library’ and not be confused by either traditional or futuristic images. Image, when we come to it, will be critical, especially in establishing the attitudes of users to what is possible, but image is only ‘image’. In adopting instead a fundamentalist, ‘space usability’, activity-led approach to library design one can avoid becoming a ‘style monger’ and free oneself up for a more creative approach. At haa design we have applied an activity-led approach to the design of various building types and found this liberating. It may not be dramatic but it enables us to look into the future in a way that can provide genuine clues of what might lie ahead. It is an approach that has worked within the evolution of other building types where, far from inhibiting the development of ideas, it has led to massive, liberating change and an escape from either traditional or futuristic cliché.

    Activity-led design

    What is ‘activity-led design’ and why is it key to developing an idea of the library of the future? Da Vinci's and Le Corbusier's icons of ‘modular man’, a man whose physical proportions underlie the appropriate design of all usable spaces, will be familiar to many, but these icons draw attention only to our anthropometric needs, to the way that the design of spaces to be used by humans requires ultimately to relate to the proportions of the human body. What is less celebrated (and also less succinct) is an analysis of man's basic psychological and emotional needs, our ways of behaving and operating, and yet these needs constitute the corresponding building blocks of good design.

  • Introduction

  • from PART 2 - TRENDS AND IDEAS
  • Edited by Les Watson
  • Book:
    Better Library and Learning Space
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 95-96

  • Summary

    In this part there are four chapters, covering important aspects of the development of better library learning space. The importance of technology to the library was clearly evident in the case studies in Part 1, and this is discussed in Chapter 7. Technology is without doubt one of the most important factors to be considered in the development of new buildings and spaces. Because of its rapid developmental trajectory, it requires constant horizon scanning and some degree of risk taking in order to implement the most appropriate technology in a timely fashion. Chapter 7 looks at the relationship between the library and technology, what we really mean by rapid change, and suggests how technology should fit with overall strategy and what features technology-rich library space has today and may be like tomorrow.

    In Chapter 8 aspects of literacy and learning that are most relevant to the development of the informal learning space commonly found in libraries are discussed, with an emphasis on the central importance of conversation to the construction of our knowledge and understanding. The growing acceptance of the importance of informal learning is considered as is societal change and the need for diversity, variety and flexibility of space provision.

    Chapter 9 contains a range of ideas about space and the tangible and intangible factors that make it work well. Among these are the emotional impact of space and the importance of experiences. Open plan space is considered along with strategies such as zoning and the ideas of semiprivate space, balance of spaces and the flow between them.

    The importance of intuitive approaches to library space and the professional insight of expert intuition in the planning of library learning space are discussed in Chapter 10. Other topics include imaginative approaches to the consultation process, evaluation processes and the importance of experimentation and modelling.

  • 9 - Data analysis

  • from PART 2 - DOING RESEARCH, EVALUATION AND AUDIT
    • By Jenny Craven, Information Specialist, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, UK, Jillian R. Griffiths, Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
  • Edited by Maria J. Grant, Sen Barbara, Hannah Spring
  • Book:
    Research, Evaluation and Audit
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013, pp 145-176

  • Summary

    ‘What is data analysis? In fact, what is data?’

    ‘Statistics are just plain scary!’

    ‘Can't I get someone else to do this bit?’

    What is data analysis?

    Data analysis is a vital step in the research process. Whatever method has been applied to data collection, at some point it will be necessary to translate raw data into usable information. Analysis is usually undertaken after all the data have been gathered, but it may also be undertaken during the collection period or as part of a pilot study to ensure the most appropriate method of collection is selected. Whichever approach is undertaken, it is important to remember that without data, no analysis can take place, and that the quality of your analysis will depend, to a great extent, on the quality of your data. As Robson puts it: ‘No data – no project’ (Robson, 2002, 385).

    What comes before?

    Before data analysis can commence it will be necessary to go through a number of stages. These have been discussed in earlier chapters, but in summary, before the analysis stage, you should have undertaken the following activities:

  • • identifying research problems

  • • searching the existing literature base

  • • critical appraisal of the literature

  • • developing the questions and/or hypothesis

  • • applying a theoretical base

  • • sampling strategies

  • • data collection techniques.

    • You should now be ready to start analysing your data.

    Types of analysis: quantitative and qualitative

    There are a variety of approaches to conducting research (see Chapter 1) but in general research tends to use an inductive or deductive approach.

    An inductive approach seeks to build up a theory that is adequately grounded in a number of relevant cases and involves comparing concepts or categories emerging from one stage of the data analysis with concepts emerging from the next stage. These comparisons form the basis of the emerging theory. The researcher continues with this process of comparison until no new significant categories or concepts can be identified (see Lacey and Duff, 2001, 7; Robson, 2002; Strauss and Corbin, 1998).

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