When you open Sage Research Methods—one of the new resources offered this semester by the Library—you’re greeted with the phrase “what every researcher needs.” Mouse over “Browse” at the top of the page and you’ll see how accurate the phrase is. Topics cover the concepts, philosophy, and ethics of doing research; the planning and design of research; and the collection of data and how to write about it. You can filter material by disciplines, or narrow results by format—books, videos, articles, case studies, and datasets compiled from leading academics in their fields.
If you want to know how to conduct an oral history project, for example, type “oral history” in the keyword search box. You’ll get a brief written definition of “oral history research” and a list of fully searchable encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, journal articles, cases, and Little Blue Books—part of “the largest collection of qualitative methods books available online from any scholarly publisher.”
If you’d rather watch a video featuring an experienced practitioner, uncheck “Select all” on the right sidebar to clear the preselected boxes, check the box for “Video” to narrow selections to that format. Among the videos offered is one with Professor Valerie Janesick speaking in a relaxed, conversational manner about her adventures in qualitative research: “What Are Oral History Interviews, and How Do They Differ From Other Types of Interviewing? And How Have You Used Them in Your Research?” It’s an excerpt from a longer interview that you can listen to in its entirety as she explains what qualitative research is, and why it’s interesting and important.
Sage Research Methods has 120 hours of video—60% exclusive to Sage—varying in style and complexity—as comprehensive and easy to understand as Professor Janesick’s, or requiring some advanced knowledge, depending upon your needs as a novice or seasoned researcher. While the video is playing, follow along on a searchable transcript, and afterward download a PDF, or click “Embed” to copy and paste code into a course management system where students can play the video.
When you create a personal profile, you’ll have the ability to create video clips for class presentation. You can use the “List” tool to fill folders in your profile with an extensive archive of book chapters, articles, datasets, and video clips for future reference and to share in email or on social media.
Sage Research Methods will help librarians instruct students in research; and videos and cases showing research in action may also help librarians assess service by demystifying the sometimes elusive subject of quantitative data analysis. Faculty can refer students to Sage, confident that they will spend less time teaching research methods to students, and more time teaching them the subjects they will be researching.
Sage Research Methods can be found on the Library’s website under Research, Databases A-Z.