Curriculum
The Research Training Institute curriculum focuses on individual development for library professionals who want to enhance, extend, or refresh their individual research skills, knowledge, and confidence. Training covers all the stages of designing, implementing, and publishing a successful research project framed in the context of health information research.
Participants will receive expert instruction from 6 faculty experts beginning with pre-institute learning activities in May and continuing with a series of 16 online modules throughout the institute year. All participants receive a year of online mentoring and support while designing and conducting their research project. Participants also present a poster and presentation about their research project at the MLA annual meeting in May (See schedule). Additionally, participants are encouraged to continue their research engagement as members of an online research community of practice for their continuing learning and collaboration with other librarian-researchers.
Learning Outcomes
The Research Training Institute curriculum will provide theories, tools, and strategies to build participants’ mastery of each of the outcomes below. Course objectives complement MLA’s Competencies for Lifelong Learning and Professional Success.
By the end of the institute program, participants will be able to:
- write research questions and hypotheses
- select a research plan to address their research question
- identify the components of a research proposal
- select a theoretical framework appropriate to a given research question
- conduct a literature review
- apply sampling, recruitment, and ethics approval strategies and procedures
- apply data collection and data management strategies
- identify statistical analyses appropriate to a research question and interpret statistical tests
- identify venues, processes, and issues related to research dissemination
- identify the components of a publishable research report
- apply strategies for writing and submitting a draft research article
- apply strategies for digital research dissemination to various audiences
- enumerate factors that influence balance of research with workplace demands
Course Content
Content for each institute may vary somewhat based on the research proposals submitted by the participants. Breakout sessions will focus on themes that emerge from participants’ projects to maximize the institute’s relevance to each participant. The curriculum will be flexible enough to accommodate each unique cohort and their research interests and projects.
Course content will include the following topics:
- research timelines and project planning
- writing of research questions
- identification of funding opportunities
- research ethics, including institutional review boards (IRBs), research rigor, reproducibility, and data sharing
- comprehensive literature searching: methods and appraisal
- Theoretical frameworks
- basic quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research designs and methods
- surveys
- Interviews and focus groups
- best practices for survey design, in-depth interview techniques, and focus groups
- data collection and management strategies
- essentials of data analysis for qualitative and quantitative data
- Interpretation of statistical tests
- data visualization
- presenting and publication of results
- research and grant writing
- digital research dissemination on social media
- strategies to incorporate research into practical work
- structure of research papers (introduction, methods, etc.)
For questions regarding the institute, please contact Susan Lessick, AHIP, FMLA, Research Training Institute Project Director.