RTI Research Spotlight: The Lasting Effects of RTI Training – Assessing Research Confidence and Retention

 The Research Training Institute (RTI) is a year-long continuing education program designed to enhance research skills among health sciences librarians. The RTI was created in 2018 with grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to address the challenges faced by librarians who are motivated to conduct research but often lack experience and confidence in the process. A recent study published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) assessed the research confidence of RTI participants for the years 2018 and 2019.

Research confidence, often used in other disciplines as a measure of program effectiveness and a predictor of research success, served as a key metric in this study. Findings indicated a significant increase in participants’ research confidence for both cohorts immediately after the workshop and one year afterward. Notably, confidence scores improved further in the second year, highlighting the program’s evolving effectiveness due to the use of findings to inform and improve the program. Participants also reported positive perceptions of the program’s impact on their skills and learning outcomes, supporting the measured increases in research confidence.

The overall assessment underscored RTI’s effectiveness in equipping participants with essential research skills and fostering lasting confidence in their ability to understand and conduct research. A particularly impactful secondary outcome was the retention of research confidence one year after training. By integrating various learning and research confidence retention strategies, RTI provided a more engaging and lasting learning experience, helping participants sustain and apply their new research skills over time.

This study is pioneering in its focus on research training models tailored specifically for health sciences librarians. It uniquely incorporates the concepts of research confidence and its retention into research training. The findings suggest that the RTI model could serve as a valuable framework for research methods training across disciplines and educational levels, offering guidance for educators in developing programs that build research skills and foster sustained research confidence among learners.

Susan Lessick, AHIP, FMLA (RTI Project Director), Jodi Philbrick, PhD, AHIP (RTI Faculty Co-Lead), and Lorie Kloda, PhD (RTI Faculty Co-Lead) co-authored the assessment of the 2018 and 2019 Research Training Institute (RTI) programs. The RTI project was possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (RE-95-17-0025-17).