A social science? Really?

I mentioned before that I never took the research course in SLIS (which has changed names and numbers since I was there.)

After being exposed to the concepts in my current class, I have to wonder why I wasn't required to learn how to do research. Why did no one encourage me to justify the sociological importance of libraries through measurable scientific inquiry? Why do those of us practicing librarianship, especially public librarianship, not back up our enriching and enlightening programming with qualitative research?

And if we are doing this, why am I not hearing about it? I scour newsfeeds of all kinds for information like this, and there are slim offerings of research studies regarding the significance of adult programming in public libraries, for instance. How about library management? The impact of libraries on literacy rates? Where is this information?!?!

If library science is truly a social science, then we'd better get on the ball and contribute to the body of knowledge before it's too late.

Back to School

So, I've started my first class in SPEA course: Public Program Evaluation.

Believe it or not, I've never taken a research course. It's just not something that ever interested me, so I seemed to always manage to skirt around it. I cracked open the textbook for the class yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the tone of the author. The way he introduces research really drew me in: "This book is about knowing things--not so much what we know as how we know it."

I guess at this point in my career (life?) I'm ready to really explore the "how" of what we know. I can honestly say I'm looking forward to this class.