8/14/2019 A great resource for creating cutting-edge library services

1/120 LIBRARY & INFORMATION UPDATE March 2010

BRIEFING

THIS BOOK IS aimedprimarily at library studentsand at practitioners who areseveral years away from theirlibrary training and would liketo undertake some workplaceresearch. The author arguesthat more and better researchin library and informationscience would help developa more robust theoreticalframework and philosophy

of librarianship. It would alsobring library and informationscience more in line with otherprofessions, such as medicine.For those who have neverundertaken a research project,the sections on formulatingresearch questions andworking through a literaturereview will be most useful,as these two topics oftenget glossed over in otherresearch method books. Theauthor provides examples

of good and bad researchquestions and offers criteriaon which to evaluate thequality of a desired researchtopic. The author also listsquestions to have in mindwhen conducting a literaturereview. Again, this simplemental nudge can makemore manageable somethingwhich can easily grow outof control. Ethical concernsare well covered, with the

book featuring principles andstandard practice for ethicalresearch in the US. Anotherstrong point is the coverageof specific resources, such asdatabases and survey toolswhich will help in both the

literature review and the datacollection process.The major shortcomingsof this book include the

omission of action researchand ethnography as researchdesigns, a general bias awayfrom qualitative research,and a too-short section onquantitative data analysiswhich risks overwhelminganyone not already familiarwith these processes.This book would be a usefulsupplement for the studentundertaking research forthe first time but, for many

research methods, would notbe sufficient on its own.

Cristina Ritchie

PhD Researcher

University of Strathclyde

The latest titles from your sector. PODCAST:In conversation with Ayub Khan.Listen to Ayub Khan talk about hisbook, Better by Design:

an introduction to planning anddesigning a new library building.

X Listen to the podcast:

Lawal, Ibironke O. Library and InformationScience Research in the 21st Century. Oxford:Chandos, 2009. 212 pp. ISBN 978 1 84334372 1. 47.

How to formulateresearch questions and dothe literature review

Bookreviews

ANYONE WHO HAS heardthe game One song to thetune of another on the BBCs

Im Sorry I Havent a Clue isfamiliar with the origin ofmashups: content aggregationto create new services throughmixing vocals and tunes.From music it passed via

business, architectural andsocial applications to webdevelopment, where mashups

combine data or functionalityfrom several sources. Whetherthis is fair use or breach ofcopyright has long beendebated.This book (originallypublished in the US byInformation Today) bringsmashups to libraries,exploring their relevance anduse. The 21 contributionscover the topic in depth. Theylook at definitions, techniquesfor mashing up catalogue data

and ways to incorporate maps,photos and videos as content.There is a helpful glossary also available on InformationTodays website, and on theEditors site which has a rangeof information, including the

books web links (Chapter 1is available as a free taster onFacets site, too).Engards introduction bubbleswith enthusiasm for newtools and re-uses for old

ones. As we all know, gettinginformation out of mostlibrary catalogues is nearly...impossible, she says. So we areencouraged to mix in contentfrom the likes of Delicious,Flickr, Google Maps, Library

Thing and YouTube in orderto enhance the informationlibraries provide to users.

A word of warning: this is a

how-to book where you wontfind the legal or technicaldownsides. And case studiesfrom Cambridge, Chelmsfordand Manchester Libraries arenot written in good English.The mashed-potato puns, bythe way, have been left to thewebsite.

Ralph Adam

Harrow

A great resourcefor creating cutting-edgelibrary services

Engard, N. C. (ed.). Library Mashups: explor-ing new ways to deliver library data. London:Facet Publishing, 2009. xviii + 334 pp. ISBN978 1 85604 703 6. 29.95 (CILIP members:23.96).

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