Library and Information Science Commons^™

Building Librarians’ Research Skills Through Experiential Learning, Raeda K. Anderson, Katherine Fisher, Emily Williams, George Usmanov

Georgia Library Quarterly

Experiential learning programs are an effective method to teach data-focused research skills and statistical analysis. We examine the effects of a participatory research training program developed and executed by a data librarian and administered to library employees at a large academic library. The program aimed to improve research skills and increase research productivity. This study employs a survey within a concurrent mixed methods methodological framework to examine the outcomes of the training program. Our findings show that the program served as a low-cost, short-term, effective method of teaching data collection and quantitative analysis that increased participants’ knowledge of the research …