Applying Ethnographic Research Methods in Library and Information Settings

Abstract

This paper reviews the benefits and challenges associated with ethnographic research in libraries and information settings, and provides both historical and recent examples of its application. Ethnographic research, designed to facilitate understanding the whole of different communities and groups, has long been a means of observing and documenting behaviors, customs, and cultures within social sciences such as anthropology and sociology. Information systems, information organizations and libraries happen to be environments where this type of observational and participatory research can go a long way in problem solving. Understanding users, the way they work, and the various challenges they face when trying to locate, retrieve and use information are all ways to improve service to the public, and each may be investigated through the use of ethnographic methods. This type of qualitative approach does not exclude the integration of quantitative analysis and is, in fact, strengthened by its addition.