ar130405 / Pixabay

The word ‘research’, like so many terms has a variety of definitions. To a teacher librarian when a student or a teacher needs help ‘researching’, what they are actually doing is gathering information about a topic through discovering what has already been published and disseminated. INF447 – Reasearch in Practice is a subject that explores ‘formal research’, not ‘information research’.

‘Formal research’ involves collecting, analysing and interpretting origanl data as a means of answering a problem or a question. I expect that the skills and knowledge I gain through this subject will help me engage in ‘formal research’ within my school community to adress issues and problems that I identify. Teacher librarians have a priveleged position within their schools to see students and teachers across all departments and it is imperitive that we use this position to adress core problems and issues we see within our individual communities to better our proffessional community in its entirety.