Research as a Social Process: Considerations for Academic Libraries
Doug Horne · TSpace (University of Toronto) · 2011
Academic Libraries for some time have attempted to come up with innovative ways to accomplish the mission of supporting research. Since research is a core activity of academia this would seem to be a natural goal for libraries, but it has been difficult at times to gain the attention and imagination of the academic community as libraries attempt to come up with new ways to serve the researcher. This paper suggests that our difficulty in gaining “traction” with our community members involved in research might be resolved if we take a closer look at what the practice of research involves, and attempt to more closely match the services we develop to the types of activities that our community undertakes. In particular, this paper suggests that libraries and those who provide us with information have lost sight of the fact that research is a social process in which researchers value interaction and confer prestige based on reputation and influence. Influence and reputation are vital concepts in the legitimization of ideas, the determination of the relative value of research, and the creation of knowledge. If academic libraries hope to be a central focus of research on campus, librarians need to build tools and offer services that take into account these social interactions and the importance of the community to the researcher.