LIBRARY & INFORMATION RESEARCH GROUP (LIRG)
CHAIR'S ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1998/9

1.	Committee and Officers

The Committee worked very hard on behalf of the Group during the year and
achieved some notable successes including:

· The launch of a programme of research methods workshops
· A publicity campaign which lead to 30 new personal members
· The redesign of Library & Information Research News

This is in addition to the administration of the Group's range of
prizes/awards and the regular production of the Group's newsletter, Library
and Information Research News.

The Committee for 1998/9 consisted of:

Colette Coles, The City University
Alan Cooper, Library Association (co-opted LA Observer)
Ros Cotton, British Library (LIRN Associate Editor)
Biddy Fisher, Sheffield Hallam University (Treasurer)
Penny Garrod, University of Plymouth
Elizabeth Hart, Staffordshire University (Secretary)
Steve Morgan, University of Glamorgan (LIRN Reviews Editor)
Clare Nankivell, University of Central England
Philip Payne, Leeds Metropolitan University (Chair)
Carolynn Rankin, Leeds Metropolitan University (Publicity/Marketing Officer)
John Sumsion, Loughborough University
Peter Taylor, Taylor Graham (co-opted)
Isobel Thompson (co-opted BLRIC Observer)
Maurice Wakeham, Anglia Polytechnic University
Dorothy Williams, Robert Gordon University (LIRN Associated Editor)

In addition, Bruce Madge agreed to join the Committee towards the end of the
year as a co-opted member to facilitate discussions with the Library
Association's Health Libraries Group (HLG) about a joint initiative to
tailor the research methods course to the health sector.

Penny Garrod will be standing down this year and I would like to thank her
for her contribution to the Committee's work.  Peter Taylor will also be
standing down as a co-opted member.

The Committee met four times during the year (March, July, September, and
December).  However, much of the work of the Committee takes place through
small working groups and by e-mail, telephone, and post.


2.	Library & Information Research News

The Group is indebted to John Sumsion who edits Library and Information
Research News.  He has transformed the newsletter into an attractive, timely
and readable publication with the assistance of the two Associate Editors,
Ros Cotton and Dorothy Williams and the Review Editor, Steve Morgan.

Four issues of Library and Information Research News appeared during the
year including the delayed issue no. 69, a special issue on e-lib, which was
edited by Philip Payne and Sacha Shaw.

Articles which appeared during the year included:

l Towards the digital library: how relevant is e-lib to practitioners?
(Andrew Green)
l The impact of e-lib: the emerging paradoxes  (Graham Walton & Catherine
Edwards)
l Beyond e-lib: how does e-lib fit into the wider context of electronic
information research (Charles Oppenheim)
l The Stakeholder approach to the construction of performance measures: some
implications (John Crawford)
l Academic researchers' use of the Internet and their consequent support
requirements (Neil Jacobs)
l IT in public libraries: seeking out the users' perspective (Colette Coles)
l Research activities in public libraries - Findings from  fieldwork: facts
and methods (Deborah Goodall)
l Framing the subject: a subject indexing model for bibliographic databases
in the humanities (Hazel Rothera)
l Virtual reality interface for accessing electronic information (Felix Moya
Anegon, Victor Herrero-Solana, & Vicente Guerrero-Bote)
l Information, technology and transformational change in the HE sector
(David Allen)
l PROSPECTS: a strategy for action - review article (Jack Meadows)
l A new horizon - evaluation of a library online public access catalogue:
note on NUD.IST (Sheila Anderson)
l Little acorns: small scale research in the practice setting - how
employers can foster research awareness (Maurice Wakeham et al)
l Architects' use of electronic information (Diane Sloan)

In addition to the articles, each issue has contained a mix of news, views,
and book reviews.   The cover of LIRN was redesigned during the year: the
red cover which has been used for many years was replaced with a smart new
blue and green design which matches the Group's house style and image.

On behalf of the Group, I would like to thank the editorial team which
produces LIRN: Ros Cotton, Dorothy Williams, Steve Morgan, and especially
John Sumsion.  I would also like to those who contributed articles and book
reviews over the year.  We value your support and contributions.


3.	Student Prizes and Research Awards

The 1997 student prizes were awarded to Amanda Tinker from Loughborough
University (postgraduate) for her review and empirical evaluation of
automatic abstracting and to Jaspal Kaur of the University of Central
England (undergraduate) for her investigation into information disaster
recovery in a UK law firm.  Competition for both the postgraduate and
undergraduate prizes has become much more intense and we are very pleased by
the high quality of the entries which are nominated by the Departments of
Library and Information Studies.  Judging of the entries for the 1998 prizes
is currently taking place.

The 1998 Daphne Clark Prize for excellence in practitioner based research
was awarded to a project team from Huddersfield University, led by Margaret
Weaver, which examined the effects of using supplied classification numbers
and subject headings on throughput, cost, and subject retrievability of new
acquisitions.  The project used some interesting and novel methodologies for
benchmarking processes, analysing scatter, and evaluating subject strings.
Judging is now taking place of the entries for 1999.

The Elsevier Science/LIRG Research Award for 1998 was won by Jonathan
Willson of Manchester Metropolitan University for a study of privacy and
confidentiality of Internet use in public libraries.  The judging panel had
the difficult task of choosing from several very high quality entries and we
are very pleased that the Elsevier Science/LIRG Research Award is viewed to
be of sufficient stature to attract applications of this calibre.  I would
like to thank Elsevier Science for their continued support for the Elsevier
Science/ LIRG Research Award.


 4. LIRG Mailbase List & Web Pages

LIS-LIRG, the Mailbase list for the Library and Information Research Group,
continues to be popular and now has over 125 members and non-members as
subscribers.  The list is useful for disseminating news and to make contacts
but the Committee's attempts to stimulate e-mail discussions have not yet
yielded results.

Little work has been undertaken on the LIRG Web Pages which are hosted on
the Library Association's Web site.  This will be a priority for 1999/2000
as the Committee sees the site as an important way of marketing the Group
and its activities, especially the new research methods courses, and for
supporting its mentoring and networking initiatives.

5.	Events

The Events Group has concentrated this year on the establishment of a new
course of five workshops on research methods.  In the last ten years, LIRG
has run several day workshops on research methods.  Each series has been
organised independently and with a different group of people managing the
process.  The Committee were seeking to develop a sustainable programme
which can be run at regular intervals with minor modifications in different
parts of the country on a continuing basis.  The Committee commissioned
David Haynes of David Haynes Associates and David Streatfield of Information
Management Consultants to work with the Events Group on designing the
programme and then delivering the first two series of the programme.  The
programme consists of five workshops each covering a stage of research:

· Managing your research project
· Designing a good questionnaire survey
· Doing research with people: interview and observation
· Creative data analysis
· Getting research results disseminated and used

The first series of workshops took place at fortnightly intervals in London
from January until March of this year. The second series is being offered in
York from April.  The interest in the courses has been heartening and the
first series has received excellent evaluation from participants.

 Discussions are now taking place with the Library Association's Health
Libraries Group to tailor the third series of workshops to the needs of LIS
professionals in the health sector.  This third series would be scheduled to
take place in Autumn 1999 and fourth generic series would run in Spring
2000.  It is then intended that two series of the course would be run each
year.

 I would like to thank those involved in the Events Group: Liz Hart, Biddy
Fisher, Carolynn Rankin, and John Sumsion for their hard work in launching
this major initiative for the Group.  I would also like to put on record our
thanks to David Haynes and David Streatfield, who have developed an
excellent course, and the British Library Research and Innovation Centre
(BLRIC) for their support of the courses.


 6.	Collaboration with other organisations

 We continue to enjoy the benefit of having representatives of the Library
Association (Alan Cooper) and the British Library Research & Innovation
Centre (Isobel Thompson) as co-opted members of the Committee.  This helps
in providing effective communication and encouraging collaboration but we
also enjoy the active support and encouragement of Alan and Isobel in the
work of the Committee.  I would like to thank them both for their
contribution to the work of the Committee and to thank their host
organisations for enabling them to actively participate.

I would also like to thank the British Library Research and Innovation
Centre (BLRIC) for permitting the Group to insert a publicity flyer in the
mailing of its Research Bulletin.  This led to the recruitment of about 30
new members and we now have the highest level of personal membership of the
Group for many years.  I would like to thank Carolynn Rankin, our Publicity
and Marketing Officer, for organising this publicity campaign.

We welcomed David Haynes (of David Haynes Associates) to the Committee
Meeting in December to discuss with us the Review of Research Funding which
he was carrying out for the Library and Information Commission (LIC).  A
focus group on Research Funding was subsequently organised for LIRG members
in London in February.

 The Committee submitted comments on the following issues during the year:

· The Comprehensive spending review : a new approach to investment in
culture (DCMS)
· The Future of the Library and Information Statistics Unit  (BLRIC)
· New organisation for library and information professionals  (LA/IIS)

All such submissions are now reproduced in Library and Information Research
News.

7.	Administration

I would like to thank Jo Glover, LIRG Administrative Officer, on behalf of
the Group for her hard work including maintaining the membership and
subscriber lists, collation and proof reading of material for LIRN,
administration of events, and preparing papers and correspondence.  Jo works
just a few hours each week on behalf of the Group but her contribution is
considerable.  We could not undertake our current range of activities
without her support.


Philip Payne
Chair
Library and Information Research Group
March 1999




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