Ethnographic Methods are Becoming More Popular in LIS Research

Abstract

the terms of the Creative Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License 2.5 Canada (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one. AbstractObjective -To determine the number of ethnographic studies of libraries and library users, where these studies are published, how researchers define ethnography, and which methods are used by the researchers.Design -Literature survey.Setting -The researchers are located at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.Subjects -81 ethnographic studies of libraries and library users.Methods -The researchers conducted a literature survey, starting with a pilot study of selected library and information science (LIS) journals, to find ethnographic studies and to determine key terms in research using ethnographic methods. The researchers used these terms in the main study to identify more LIS research using ethnographic methods. The same journals used in the pilot study were then searched online as part of the main study, along with three LIS databases (LISA, LISTA, LLIS). The researchers also searched the open web in order to capture grey literature in the LIS field. All literature found, including those sources found through secondary citations, was screened for inclusion in coding. Studies with non-LIS settings were excluded as were studies that utilized non-ethnographic methods. The screened studies were coded to determine categories of methods used.

Ethnographic Methods in Libraries Revisited

“…A criticism that has been levelled at the research by Khoo, et al (2012) was their interchangeable use of the terms 'ethnographic methods' and 'ethnographic studies' (Wakimoto, 2013), but it would appear that the former was used to mean methods that were employed ethnographically, that is, for an ethnographic study. As the authors consider participant observation to be a 'key' feature of such a study, one might therefore assume that the specific methods they identified in each study were employed (or reported to have been employed) by a participant observer.…”