IL33310 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Module Identifier

IL33310

Module Title

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Academic Year

2003/2004

Co-ordinator

Mr Raymond E Lonsdale

Semester

Semester 1

Other staff

Mr Allen E Foster, Dr 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

Assessment Type	Assessment Length/Details	Proportion
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

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6