DS33310 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Module Identifier	DS33310
Module Title	RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Academic Year	2002/2003
Co-ordinator	Mr Raymond E Lonsdale
Semester	Available all semesters
Other staff	Mr Allen E Foster, Mr Christopher M Baggs, Dr David A Stoker, Professor David Ellis, Ms Pauline Worthington
Co-Requisite	IL30620
Mutually Exclusive	Similar modules in other departments
Course delivery	Lecture	10 Hours
	Seminars / Tutorials	3 Hours
	Practical	3 Hours
Assessment	Semester Assessment	Literature Search	25%
	Semester Assessment	Reference Evaluation	25%
	Semester Assessment	Research Proposal	50%

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

discuss the nature of research and its relationship to professional practice; its development to date; identify and search of information about research, and evaluate published research;
describe the research process and identify the sections of a research proposal;
design a simple survey and be able to use a range of basic descriptive statistics;
consider other relevant quantitative research methods such as the case study and the comparative method;
analyse information and data gathered during the course of a project, be able to write a report, and consider ways of disseminating the results;
understand how to estimate the resources required to carry out the investigation and manage a project

Aims

This module aims to:

provide a basic introduction to research methods which can be used within information and library services;
help students carry out small scale in-house investigations;
assist students lay a foundation of personal research such as their dissertation

Transferable skills

This module encompasses the following learning and teaching skills;

independent project work;
IT and information handling;
use/analysis of numerical information;
writing in academic context;
oral disucssion/presentation;
career needs awareness;
self management;
group actinity

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Consultation
Bell, J. (1993) Doing your research project: a guide for first time researchers in education and social science. 2nd. Buckingham: Open University Press
Birley, G. and Moreland, N. (1998) A practical guide to academic research. Kogan Page
Blaxter, L. et.al. (1996) How to research. Buckingham: Open University Press
Bryman, A. (2001) Social research methods. OUP
CRUS Guides (series of guides published by the University of Sheffield's Centre for Research User Studies).

Articles
Eager, C. and Oppenheim, C. (1996) An observational method for undertaking user needs studies. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 28, pp15-23
Fidel, R. (1984) The case study method: a case study. LISR, 6, pp273-288

Books
Gash, S. (2000) Effective Literature Searching for research. 2nd. Aldershot: Gower

Articles
Goulding, A. (1997) Joking, being aggressive and shutting people up: the use of focus groups in LIS research. Education for Information, 15, pp331-341
Kuhlthau, C. C. (1991) Inside the search process: information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(5), pp361-371