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The following analysis of library research emerged from a concern in the field, shared by Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) officers, regarding the paucity of research on public libraries and the perceived lack of a research agenda for the nation's libraries. This is not a new concern. In 1982 A Library and Information Science Research Agenda for the 1980s (henceforth, "Cuadra Report") documented a project conducted for the Department of Education, Office of Libraries and Learning Technologies, under the direction of Dr. Carlos A. Cuadra, President of Cuadra Associates. The project developed a "research agenda" through a process involving 26 researchers and practitioners, selected to represent the leadership of the field. The intention of those planning the project was that the research agenda developed would be the basis for planning of public investments in library research. The process included a three-day meeting during which the project participants identified a research agenda based on submissions from the fifteen researchers among the project participants who had each developed approximately six proposed research projects. The research agenda that resulted was thought proper to "guide and support the allocation and targeting of present and prospective research funds."
Then, in 1986-87, OERI, through the Office of Library Programs, held a series of four meetings at which field-nominated library experts identified issues they considered most important to the library profession. Office of Library Program staff then developed a list of the major issues. The resulting study, Rethinking the Library in the Information Age: Issues in Library Research -- An Agenda for the 1990s (1989), "was designed to identify researchable issues that could help libraries attain -- or maintain -- a position of leadership in the information society."
The present report was commissioned to review the match between those past priorities and the actual research conducted; determine emerging research topics, and serve as the basis for decisions concerning the establishment of a new research agenda and continued U. S. Department of Education support for library research. We have sought to inform that process by describing the two earlier efforts to establish a research agenda and comparing the priorities established at that time to research since accomplished. Because the Cuadra research agenda was completed in 1982, it was determined that we should examine research from 1983 on. We have also examined funding trends and compared those with those same priorities. Based on this data and its analysis, we have made recommendations for the U. S. Department of Education in regard to library research policy.
Table I lists the research priorities that emerged from the Cuadra Report and Rethinking the Library and notes those which are similar in each.
| Report | Priority | Common to both? |
| Cuadra (1982) | ||
| C1. | Information Generation and Provision of Information Services | |
| C2. | Information Users and Uses | (RL 9) |
| C3. | Planning and Evaluation of Library and Information Services/Systems | |
| C4. | Economics of Information and of Library and Information Services | (RL 7) |
| C5. | Education and Professional Issues | (RL 2 & RL 8) |
| C6. | Intellectual Freedom | |
|
Rethinking the Library (1989) |
||
| RL1. | Policy issues: federal, state, and local roles and responsibilities | |
| RL2. |
Education and training of librarians |
(C5) |
| RL3. | Access to information | |
| RL4. | Archives and preservation | |
| RL5. | Organizing, indexing, and retrieving materials | |
| RL6. | Role of the public services librarian | |
| RL7. | Library funding and economics | (C4) |
| RL8. | Libraries and education | (C5) |
| RL9. | Information users and needs | (C2) |
| RL10. | Library models |
The priorities developed by the two 1980s reports have been combined and coded for the purposes of this study. Table II consolidates the sixteen priorities from the two reports (Cuadra Report = C; Rethinking Library = RL) and assigns them twelve reference letters:
| a. | b. | c. | d. | e. | f. |
| C1 | C2 RL9 |
C3 | C4 RL7 |
C5 RL2 RL8 |
C6 |
| g. | h. | i. | j. | k. | l. |
| RL1 | RL3 | RL4 | RL5 | RL6 | RL10 |
This yields the following key to the consolidated priorities:
a=Information Service;
b=Information Use;
c=Information Planning;
d=Economics of Information;
e=Professional Issues;
f=Intellectual freedom;
g=Policy Issues;
h=Information Access;
i=Archives;
j=Organizing Materials;
k=Public Services;
l=Library Models
By documenting and categorizing a substantial number of Federally and privately funded projects and both published and unpublished related research, this report is intended to provide a framework for identifying trends or gaps in funded research that may be of concern to the field and to funders. It may also throw light on the policy question of whether the establishment of research priorities as attempted in the 1980s report is an adequate mechanism for shaping the nation's library research agenda.
This paper also describes the major public and private funding source sponsors for library and information science research; the primary recipients of such funding; and asks whether funded projects have met expectations concerning research priorities in contributing to the needs of this field. Finally, it recommends how the library profession and funding entities, including the federal government, philanthropic organizations, academic institutions and related organizations, might more successfully approach the development of a national agenda for library research. We believe that this information will be useful for developing strategies and programs for improving research in library and information science and for assisting Federal policy-makers in planning for Federal funding of library research.
[Key Findings -- Priorities]