Comments on: The Beauty Of A Practitioner’s Conference

By: Stephanie Willen Brown

Stephanie Willen Brown — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:05:13 +0000

This is tangentially related, but a research / practice conference that I like is ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science & Technology). It happens every year in the fall and is mostly papers (some doctoral) from folks in LIS education. But it also includes some of us practitioners, and it’s often a nice mix of theory and practice. Kind of like reading a bunch of really thoughtful blog posts about LIS. I like hearing about the theory and can often figure out a way to relate it to my library practice.

By: Denise Koufogiannakis

Denise Koufogiannakis — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:17:40 +0000

Research and practice should not exist as separate entities. If we want to improve our profession, those focused on practice should start talking with and listening to those focused on research, and vice versa. Researchers need to hear about the practical issues and concerns in our profession so they can examine research questions that help practitioners make better decisions. Practitioners need to use the research that has been done to guide their decision making and hopefully improve services. Why do we need to segment our conferences? In LIS, much of the research is focused on the practical, so why wouldn’t practitioners want to hear that? We need to reduce the research-practice gap that exists in our profession. Breaking down those barriers via conferences is a place to start. Thinking about research once every two years is simply insufficient.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:26:04 +0000

The only problem with this is that you are assuming a practitioner’s conference is useful for practitioners, which is not necessarily the case. how many times is ALA going to offer a session on “new” reference that includes IM, Meebo, and other virtual reference? We’ve got it, time to move on and decide what *else* we can do – most of us have been using this ‘new’ reference for years. If a theoretical paper might have a practical application that is actually useful, why not make space for it? I would love to go to a practitioner’s conference…but going to see the same old same old on why blogs and wikis are cool, and having someone deign to teach me instant messaging is a complete and utter waste of my time, and of the time of other academic librarians who implement these things on a regular basis.