Recent trends in research: A methodological essay

The first national library research seminar, held at Florida State University in 1996, provided the impetus for this consideration of relatively new and uncommon research methods being employed by researchers in the social sciences and in library and information science in particular. This article begins with a review of the various research methods that researchers in library and information science have used. The focus then shifts to an identification of methods appearing in the qualitative research literature. They include phenomenological methods, hermeneutics, ethnomethodology, reflexivity, discourse analysis, and semiotics. Methods more, if not exclusively, quantitative in nature are next examined and include discrete choice analysis, log analysis, protocol analysis, and geographic information systems. (A geographic information system can be viewed as an information service or a management information system, but it is considered here because of its applications as a research method.) Brief consideration is given to possible future methodological trends in social science research. An extensive bibliography is provided.