+27 21 959 2946library@uwc.ac.za
“There is a social logic that emerges when we think about the whole collective enterprise of constructing new knowledge. The process starts, ironically, by looking at old knowledge. PhD [and MA] students are usually told to write a ‘literature review’ at the start of their thesis, where they summarize earlier research. Many wonder why. It may seem a pointless ritual; in fact it is vital. What research does is transform an existing state of knowledge into a new state. The more deeply the existing knowledge is understood, the better." The Good University by Raewyn Connell (2019)
Research Methods for Librarians and Educators by
Using an innovative, real-world approach that makes the research problem and method relevant and valuable to the reader, this book provides a broad overview of research methods used in library and information studies and associated fields. Research remains a core purpose of every library. This book provides a text for LIS students and a practical handbook to librarians and other educators who need to conduct research in their libraries. In Research Methods for Librarians and Educators, contributors reinforce the essential nature of research and provide readers with the confidence that they can conduct research to find solutions to various problems and improve their libraries and library programs. The book details various research methodologies and uses a unique perspective on research that presents authentic scenarios to immediately make the research problem and method relevant and valuable to the reader. It covers topics ranging from various research methods, including Causal, Collaborative, Design-Based Research, Longitudinal, and Mixed Methods, as well as interview methods, learning assessment, literature review, and observation and survey methods. Each chapter includes questions intended to spark discussion and deeper reflection that make the book more useful in learning settings. The summary charts throughout provide a handy and easy reference for readers who want a quick refresher on the research method without rereading the entire chapter. Explains the complex topic of research methodology and statistics in simple, straightforward language Provides examples that help clarify key concepts and points and answer potential questions Supplies guidance with practical applications, allowing readers to see how research methods may be applied to specific situations
Assessing Academic Library Performance by
Assessment is essential to describe a library's value and to inform decision-making. Using the four key assessment components of design, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination, Assessing Academic Library Performance: A Handbook provides strategies and case studies for performing four different types of assessments: Service assessments for the library's outward and inward facing services that either help library users or other library employees to help users. These assessments focus on providing and improving how things are done to better serve others. Resources assessments for the physical and virtual resources that the library has in its holdings or to which it provides access. Resources are the reason libraries exist as they help patrons in instructional and research pursuits. Space assessments for physical and online library spaces. These assessments help ensure that spaces meet user needs. Personnel relationship assessments look at how library employees interact with each other. as library professionals. While not for evaluation or advancement purposes, these types of assessments provide information on what library employees can do to improve their relationships with one another. Each section has information on conducting each aspect of libraries followed by three examples to illustrate how assessment is used to support descriptions of library value and to help library employees make decisions that are critical to library improvement.
Citation Databases
Citation databases are databases that have been developed for evaluating publications. The citation databases enable you to count citations and check, for example, which articles or journals are the most cited ones. This can help you identify leading researches and journals in the your field. Just be aware, citation analysis and bibliometric indicators are based on citations and the amount of them. Citing in itself, however, is not a quality criterion and there can be many reasons for the citing (negative citations, ethnocentricity, self-citation).
Below are two that UWC subscribes to and Google Scholar
Scopus is a multidisciplinary navigational tool that contains records going back to the mid 1960s, offering newly-linked citations across the widest body of scientific abstracts available in one place. More coverage of scientific, technical, medical and social science literature (14,000 titles) than any other database.
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary publication and citation database covering almost 1.9 billion cited references from over 171 million records. It provides cover-to-cover indexing back to 1900 across the world’s highest-quality and most impactful publications.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Several important database providers/vendors (e.g. Ebsco) have not given Google a permission to collect data from their databases, which is why they are not included in Google Scholar search. If you search while using easy UWC easyproxy item available in the UWC collection or databases will display a Fulltext@UWC next to the search result (on the right hand side of the screen)..
UWC Research Repository is a service that stores, distributes and displays digital copies of research output of UWC faculty. Search across the entire collection or browse amongst the research communities associated with your faculties. Researchers register for an account and are given authorisation to deposit files to relevant collections.
When preparing data for sharing, researchers should consider the legal and ethical issues involved in sharing, especially where human subjects and personal subject information is involved (e.g. the POPI Act). These issues are dealt with extensively under Research Ethics Policies of the University.
Researchers can use any repository to store and publish their research data, although UWC’s institutional research data repository, Kikapu, is the preferred platform.
Please use this link for more information on the UWC research data repository.
UNdata is a web-based data service for the global user community. It brings international statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single-entry point. Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources compiled by the United Nations (UN) statistical system and other international agencies. The numerous databases or tables collectively known as "datamarts" contain over 60 million data points and cover a wide range of statistical themes including agriculture, crime, communication, development assistance, education, energy, environment, finance, gender, health, labour market, manufacturing, national accounts, population and migration, science and technology, tourism, transport and trade.
Re3data is a global registry of research data repositories that covers research data repositories from different academic disciplines. It includes repositories that enable permanent storage of and access to data sets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers, and scholarly institutions. re3data promotes a culture of sharing, increased access and better visibility of research data. The registry has gone live in autumn 2012 and has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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