Faculty Motivations: An Exploratory Study of Motivational Factors of Faculty to Assist with Students’ Research Skills Development

• Main Author: Laurie Morrison
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Partnership 2007-09-01
• Series: Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research
• Subjects: Faculty/Librarian collaboratio; information literacy; research skills
• Online Access: http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/295/556

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study which sought to uncover the motivational factors of faculty to address the library research skills of students. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in the fall semester of 2004 with teaching faculty, users and non-users of library instruction, at the University of Guelph. Participants were asked to discuss their use of course-integrated library/research instruction. In its absence, faculty were asked how (if at all) did they assist students to learn to do research. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Findings may be useful to instructional librarians seeking to enhance collaboration with faculty. One finding is a suggestion that faculty are motivated by their desire to produce independent learners with transferable skills. Scholars look to potential students for the next generation of scholars – graduate students. They see a link between the development of research skills and readers – scholarly community, an audience for their work. Some participants who had not previously collaborated with a librarian described their own methods of integrating research skills development into the curriculum.