CAROLINE WAVELL

Biography: For the past six years, I have been employed as a Research Assistant working with Professor Dorothy Williams in the Department of Information Management at The Robert Gordon University.   I began my career working in Poole Museum, Dorset before taking time out to have a family.   During my time at RGU, I have worked on funded research projects examining the relationship between school libraries and learning, and how the impact of libraries on learning might be evaluated.   These studies have revealed a number of inter-related factors which influence the way in which individuals respond to learning experiences.   The relationship between mediation, interaction and prior knowledge has now developed into my particular area of interest.

Title: Turning Research into Practice

Summary: Turning research into practice or turning practice into research? This paper considers how research and professional practice are inter-related and how combining the two can provide a sound foundation for evidence-based practice, which all professionals are encouraged to adopt.    Reflective practitioners need to embrace research techniques and transform information provided by research, whether internally or externally conducted, into new understanding, which can then be used to underpin effective practice.

Research can be undertaken by practitioners within their own organisation and is particularly important when reflection is given to how findings relate to research conducted externally.   This paper looks at studies undertaken by researchers in the Department of Information Management at The Robert Gordon University in order to illustrate the way an awareness and understanding of research can support professional practice.   For example, during analysis of the data in the Impact of the School Library Resource Centre on Learning study, a number of different research studies proved particularly valuable in understanding the observation findings.   A more recent study invited school librarians to look closely at student learning in their own library settings and to study a number of potentially relevant research documents in order to investigate whether any provided useful frameworks in which to interpret and describe student learning for self-evaluation and advocacy purposes.  

Although this paper is primarily concerned with research into school libraries and student learning, the concept of using research as a tool to gain greater understanding and to update and improve practice is similar for information professionals in other library sectors.   One of the key factors for incorporating research into practice is relevance to the context in which it is applied. Researchers and practising librarians need to work together to ensure results of research are made readily accessible for busy professionals who are keen to find out about issues influencing their own work environment.