SLA Research
Contributed Papers
The best-kept secrets at SLA Annual Conferences are the contributed paper sessions, which feature SLA members sharing their research and scholarship with their colleagues and peers. For more information about contributed papers, click here.
- 2022 Contributed Papers
- 2021 Contributed Papers
- 2020 Contributed Papers
- 2019 Contributed Papers
- 2018 Contributed Papers
- 2017 Contributed Papers
- 2016 Contributed Papers
- 2015 Contributed Papers
- 2014 Contributed Papers
- 2013 Contributed Papers
Grants
The following studies were funded by SLA Research Grants. Note: The Stephen I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant Funds were incorporated into the SLA Research Fund in 2007.
- Understanding the Value of Corporate Libraries in Competitive Intelligence Practices, 2011
- Experimenting Outside the Information Center: Non-Traditional Roles for Information Professionals in Biomedical Research, 2010
- Models of Embedded Librarianship: Final Report, 2007 (see also Models of Embedded Librarianship: Addendum, published in 2011, and Librarians in Biomedical Research: New Roles and Opportunities, published in the Oct-Nov 2010 issue of Information Outlook)
- A Survey to Support ‘Evidence-Based Practice’ in Special Libraries Serving Fire Service Personnel and Researchers in Public Safety and Homeland Security Areas, 2003
Reports and Studies
These reports were published by SLA in conjunction with industry partners.
- The Evolving Value of Information Management, Financial Times (2013)
- Information Pricing Survey, Outsell (2012)
- Information Benchmarks, Outsell (2011)
Task Force on Value Metrics
In January 2013, then-SLA President Deb Hunt created a task force to respond to a letter to the editor from SLA member Deanna Morrow Hall (Information Outlook, Nov/Dec 2012, p. 3). Hall’s letter referenced five studies of corporate library value that SLA had funded in previous years and concluded that “… if corporate libraries are still unable to measure and communicate their value to top management, it is not for lack of definition as to how to do it. Rather, it is the result of a failure of SLA, as their professional organization, to assimilate what is already known, and from this, to create standard templates from which corporate librarians may choose the method(s) most applicable to their individual situations.”
The task force developed a report that highlights the methods used in determining the value of information services in the five studies.
- The Search for the Value of the Corporate Library: A Compendium of SLA-Funded Studies, SLA Corporate Libraries Metrics Task Force (2013)
The five value studies that served as the basis of the task force’s report are as follows:
- Valuating Information Intangibles: Measuring the Bottom-Line Contribution of Librarians and Information Professionals, Frank H. Portugal (2000)
- Valuing Special Libraries and Information Services: Summary and Technical Report of a Project for the Special Libraries Association, Paul B. Kantor and Tefko Saracevic (1999)
- The Value of Corporate Libraries: Findings from a 1995 Survey of Senior Management, James M. Matarazzo and Laurence Prusak (1995)
- Special Libraries: Increasing the Information Edge (SLA Research Series #9), José-Marie Griffiths and Donald W. King (1993)
- Valuing Corporate Libraries: A Survey of Senior Managers, James M. Matarazzo, Laurence Prusak, and Michael R. Gauthier (1990)