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Libraries in Support of Research and Instruction

My first guest issue, volume 56, issue 4, in 2015, on research methods for librarianship, was recently published in The Reference Librarian. The editors subsequently asked me to publish another issue as a guest editor on research in librarianship, especially with an emphasis on instruction in the use of libraries and reference services to students and faculty. This special issue builds on my recent book and my expertise in research methods (Handbook of Research on Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods). With the new emphasis in mind, I contacted many of my colleagues with a strong background in research methods, and five articles were carefully selected using a blind review process for this issue. The first article, “Library Space: Its Role in Research,” by Lesley S. J. Farmer, argues that as librarians reflect upon their role in supporting research, they should seriously consider the issue of library space allocation. Because libraries serve the entire educational community through planned programs of services and resources within a structured learning space, libraries constitute a pivotal site for self-directed intentional learning and research. The second article, “Bravo! Using Library Dance Collections to Recreate Historical Ballets,” by Debra Weiss-Randall, posits that for ballets created in the modern age, film, videotape, and dance notation aid in the reconstruction. Dance reconstructors comb through notated dance and music scores, choreographers’ notes, pictures, libretti, reviews, sketches, and eyewitness accounts. The third article, “Recognizing the Value of Threshold Concepts: Application of a Conceptual Tool to Professional Students Learning to Be Researchers,” by Kristine Alpi and Chad Hoggan, shows that threshold concepts are key understandings, ways of thinking, and subjectivities that are necessary for newcomers to learn to participate successfully in a given field of study or practice. Through examining the context of a summer research scholars program for veterinary students, they elucidate and consider these concepts further.