Noeleen Schenk 

Biography - Noeleen has over fifteen years experience of working in the information sector as a practitioner, researcher and consultant. During the past seven years Noeleen has been working as an Information and Knowledge Consultant, specialising in projects related to the information sector, specifically the effective management and utilisation of information, the issues surrounding the implementation of an effective information management system, and the user interface with that information, including access and retrieval issues.

Abstract - Informing and communicating research – who's responsibility?

Research carried out last year as the ‘Interactions’ project sought to examine the knowledge transfer between academic researchers and LIS and archive practitioners, focusing on the ways research is conducted, communicated, accessed and utilised. The research discovered widespread support for research in all its forms, from ‘blue skies’ to that specifically focused on developing services. There continues to exist, however, a ‘culture gap’ between academics and practitioners in terms of research. Common areas of difference between the two groups are: relevance of research; what ‘counts’ as research; appropriate dissemination and communication of research findings. Practitioners complain of research that is not relevant, that academic journals are dry and impenetrable: they want research results to be translated for them. They sometimes fail to see what they do as part of service development as ‘research’, and therefore are often reluctant to make the time to share it by writing for professional or research journals. Academics claim they are pressured to publish for RAE purposes (i.e in the top refereed journals), yet the RAE definitions themselves do not support this. This is not new – indeed, it is a depressingly regular finding of similar projects .