LIS DREaM workshop #lis_dream2

I’m just on my way back from the first LIS DREaM (Developing Research Excellence and Methods) workshop held in Edinburgh. It was a fantastic day and I’m still taking a lot of it in, there’s plenty to follow up on.

Each workshop will cover a research approach, two research methods (one quantitative and one qualitative), and a research concern. Today we covered:

• Ethnography
• Social network analysis
• Discourse analysis
• Research ethics and legal issues

Most of these were relative unknowns to me, so it was really useful to learn about. I took something away from every single session and now have books and articles to read, and methods and analysis software to research and consider for possible future use (I was particularly interested in the social network analysis as it might be a potential way of examining existing communities and demonstrating how they have grown/strengthened).

There was also an unconference half hour which I volunteered to join in with – I briefly spoke about our ‘Supporting the mobile library‘ project which we’ll be starting soon. I was even complimented on my poster design:

It was really interesting to learn more about other attendees and about their current research or future research ideas. I’m looking forward to getting to know more about the group with future workshops.

As with previous LIS Research events, the support for people following remotely was great, and the resources are already online. Videos will be added to the website soon so you’ll even be able to watch the presentations from the comfort of your own home!

The next workshop will be in London in January – I’m very much looking forward to learning about other research methodologies and approaches, as well as being part of a group of people who are really hoping to embed research into practice and build stronger links within the community amongst researchers and practitioners. There was a real buzz of enthusiasm today and I’m sure that will continue throughout the workshops.