Discussions of the Nature of Science and Research
Proposal Writing, Report Writing, and Critical Reading
Selected Journals that Report Research in Library and Information Science
Busha, Charles H., ed. A Library Science Research Reader and Bibliographic Guide. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited; 1981. 201 p. ISBN:0-87287-237-8; LC:80-22507.
Busha, Charles H.; Harter, Stephen P. Research Methods in Librarianship: Techniques and Interpretation. New York, NY: Academic Press; 1980. 417 p. ISBN:0-12-147550-6; LC:79-8864.
Butler, Pierce. An Introduction to Library Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1961. 118 p.
Carnovsky, Leon. Methodology in Research and Applications. Library Trends.1957 October; 6(2):234-246.
Chen, Ching-Chih, ed. Quantitative Measurement and Dynamic Library Service. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press; 1978. 312 p. ISBN:0-912700-17-3.
Gilovich, Thomas. How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Free Press; 1991. 216 p. ISBN:0-02-911705-4.
Goldhor, Herbert. An Introduction to Scientific Research in Librarianship. Urbana, IL: Graduate School of Library Science, Univ. of Illinois; 1972. 203 p. ISBN:0-87845-036-X; LC:79-631732.
Lynch, Mary Jo. Research and Librarianship: An Uneasy Connection. In: Lynch, Mary Jo, editor. Research in Librarianship. Library Trends. 1984 Spring; 32(4):367-383. ISSN:0024-2594.
Milgram, Stanley. The Perils of Obedience. Harper's. 1973 December.
Nagel, E. The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, and World; 1961.
Piel, Gerard. The Proper Study of Mankind. In: Kone, E. H., and Jordan, H.J., eds. The Greatest Adventure: Basic Research That Shapes Our Lives. New York, NY: Rockefeller University Press; 1974. 266-274.
Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. New York, NY: Morrow; 1974. [Especially relevant is Chapter 9.]
Potter, Roseanne B. Women and Computing: A Case in Point. Journal of Thought. 1985 Fall; 20(3):196-204.
Webb, Eugene J.; Campbell, Donald T.; Schwartz, Richard D.; Seechrest, Lee. Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally; 1966. 225 p. LC:66-10806.
Williams, Roger J. You Are Extraordinary. New York, NY: Pyramid Books; 1971. 272 p. ISBN:0-515-02333-X.
Williams, Roger J.; Davis, Donald R. Recognizing Individuality--The Key to Human Understanding. Austin, TX: [draft version published by the authors]; 1984. 125p.
Aczel, Amir D. Probability 1: Why There Must Be Intelligent Life in the Universe. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace; 1998. 240 p. ISBN: 0-151-00376-9 .
Asimov, Isaac. The Roving Mind. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books; 1997. 350 p. ISBN:1-57392-181-5.
Baldwin, Neil. Edison: Inventing the Century. New York, NY: Hyperion; 1995. 531 p. ISBN:0-7868-8119-4.
Barnes, Barry; Bloor, David; Henry, John. Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1996. 230 p. ISBN:0-226-03731-2.
Bernstein, Peter L. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. New York, NY: Wiley; 1998. 383 p. ISBN:0-471-29563-9
Berry, Adrian. Galileo and the Dolphins: Amazing but True Stories from Science. New York, NY: Wiley; 1996. 288 p. ISBN:0-471-18365-2.
Bolles, Edmund B., ed. Galileo's Commandment: An Anthology of Great Science Writing. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman; 1997. 485 p. ISBN:0-7167-3035-9.
Bronowski, Jacob. Science and Human Values. New York, NY: Harper & Row; 1972. 119 p. ISBN:0-06-097281-5. [Other editions also extant.]
Bronowski, Jacob. The Ascent of Man. Boston, MA: Little, Brown; 1973. 448 p. ISBN:0-316-10930-4.
Bronowski, Jacob. The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 1978. 144 p. ISBN:0-300-02409-6.
Burke, James. Connections. Boston, MA: Little Brown; 1995. 304 p. ISBN:0-316-11672-6.
Burke, James. The Day the Universe Changed. Boston, MA: Little Brown; 1995. 352 p. ISBN:0-316-11704-8.
Burke, James. The Pinball Effect. Boston, MA: Little Brown; 1996. 310 p. ISBN:0-316-11610-6.
Cardwell, Donald. The Norton History of Technology. New York, NY: W. W. Norton; 1995. 565 p. ISBN:0-393-31192-9.
Casti, John L. Paradigms Lost: Tackling the Unanswered Mysteries of Modern Science. New York, NY: Avon Books; 1989. 565 p. ISBN: 0-380-71165-6.
Christianson, Gale E. Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1995. 420. p. ISBN:0-226-10521-0.
Cohen, I. Bernard. Revolution in Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1985. 711 p. ISBN:0-674-76778-0.
Conot, Robert. Thomas A. Edison: A Steak of Luck. New York, NY: Da Capo; 1979. 565 p. ISBN:0-306-80261-9.
Coveney, Peter; Highfield, Roger. Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World. New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine; 1995. 462 p. ISBN:0-449-91081-4.
Cromer, Alan. Connected Knowledge: Science, Philosophy, and Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997. 221 p. ISBN:0-19-510240-1.
Cromer, Alan. Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of Science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1993. 240 p. ISBN:0-19-509636-3.
Dawkins, Richard. Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin; 1998. 337 p. ISBN:0-395-88382-2.
Dyson, Freeman J. The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions. New York, NY: New York Public Library and Oxford University Press; 1999. 124 p. ISBN:0-19-512942-3.
Dyson, George B. Darwin among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. Reading, MA: Perseus Books; 1997. 286 p. ISBN:0-7382-0030-1.
Ferris, Timothy. Coming of Age in the Milky Way. New York, NY: Anchor; 1989. 495 p. ISBN:0-385-26326-0.
Feynman, Richard; Leighton, Ralph. 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?': Further Adventures of a Curious Character. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell; 1992. 225 p. ISBN:0-553-34784-5.
Feynman, Richard; Leighton, Ralph; Hutchings, Edward (ed.). 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!': Adventures of a Curious Character. New York, NY: W. W. Norton; 1997. 350 p. ISBN: 0-393-31604-1.
Flowers, Charles. A Science of Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery. New York, NY: William Morrow; 1998. 316 p. ISBN:0-688-15106-5.
Geison, Gerald L. The Private Science of Louis Pasteur. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 1995. 378 p. ISBN:0-691-03442-7.
Gleick, James. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. New York, NY: Pantheon; 1992. 532 p. ISBN:0-679-40836-3.
Gould, Stephen J. Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press; 1996. 244 p. ISBN:0-609-80140-6.
Gould, Stephen J. Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History. New York, NY: Harmony Books; 1998. 422 p. ISBN:0-609-60141-5.
Gould, Stephen J. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. New York, NY: W. W. Norton; 1989. 347 p. ISBN:0-393-30700-X.
Hackerman, Norman; Ashworth, Kenneth. Conversations on the Uses of Science and Technology. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press; 1996. 107 p. ISBN:1-57441-015-6.
Hirshfeld, Alan W. Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos. New York, NY: Henry Holt; 2001. 314 p. ISBN:0-8050-7133-4.
Horgan, John. The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. New York, NY: Broadway Books; 1997. 322 p. ISBN:0-553-06174-7.
Huber, Peter W. Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom. New York, NY: BasicBooks; 1993. 274p. ISBN:0-465-02624-9.
Israel, Paul. Edison: A Life of Invention. New York, NY: Wiley; 1998. 552 p. ISBN:0-471-52942-7.
Josephson, Matthew. Edison: A Biography. New York: Wiley; 1992. 511 p. ISBN:0-471-54806-5.
Kevles, Daniel J. The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Science, Politics, and Character. New York, NY: W. W. Norton; 1998. 509 p. ISBN:0-393-04103-4.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1977. ISBN:0-226-45806-7.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1996. 212 p. ISBN:0-226-45808-3
Leakey, Richard; Lewin, Roger. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. New York, NY: Doubleday; 1995. 271 p. ISBN:0-385-42497-3.
Mackay, James A. Alexander Graham Bell: A Life. New York, NY: Wiley; 1997. 320 p. ISBN:0-471-24045-1.
Maddox, Brenda. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. New York, NY: HarperBooks; 2002. 380 p. ISBN:0-06-018407-8.
Maddox, John. What Remains to be Discovered: Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, the Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race. New York, NY: Free Press; 1998. 434 p. ISBN:0-684-82292-X
McElheny, Victor K. Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land. Reading, MA: Perseus Books; 1998. 510 p. ISBN:0-7382-0009-3.
McGrayne, Sharon B. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel; 1998. 451 p. ISBN:0-8065-2025-6.
Meadows, Jack. The Great Scientists: The Story of Science Told through the Lives of Twelve Landmark Figures. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1987. 256 p. ISBN:0-19-520815-3.
Padmanabhan, T. After the First Three Minutes: The Story of Our Universe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1998. 215 p. ISBN:0-521-62972-1.
Pennock, Robert T. Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2000. 429 p. ISBN:0*262-16180-X.
Quinn, Susan. Marie Curie: A Life. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; 1995. 509 p. ISBN:0-201-88794-0.
Rothman, Tony; Sudarshan, George. Doubt and Uncertainty: The Celebrated Academy Debates on Science, Mysticism, Reality, in General on the Knowable and Unknowable, with Particular Forays into Such Esoteric Matters as the Mind Fluid, the Behavior of the Stock Market, and the Disposition of a Quantum Mechanical Sphinx, to Name a Few. Reading, MA: Perseus Books; 1998. 320 p. ISBN:0-7382-0006-9.
Sagan, Carl. Broca's Brain. New York, NY: Ballantine Books; 1980. 398p. ISBN:0-345-28823-8.
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. New York, NY: Random House; 1995. 457 p. ISBN:0-394-53512-X.
Weinberg, Steven. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York, NY: Vintage; 1994. 340 p. ISBN: 0-679-74408-8.
Weinberg, Steven. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2001. 304 p. ISBN:0-674-0064-X
Wheeler, John Archibald; with Ford, Kenneth. Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics. New York, NY: W. W. Norton; 1998. 380 p. ISBN:0-393-04642-7. [John Archibald Wheeler, who was the physicist son of Joseph Lewis Wheeler, the foremost public-library director of the first half of the 20th century, wrote this autobiography after serving for over a decade as the Ashbel Smith and Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor of Physics at UT-Austin, where he was also a good friend to the I-School.]
Barass, Robert. Scientists Must Write: A Guide to Better Writing for Scientists, Engineers and Students. London, U.K.: Methuen; 1978. 190p.
Katzer, Jeffrey. Understanding the Research Process: An Analysis of Error.In: Busha, Charles H., ed. A Library Science Research Reader and Bibliographic Guide. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited; 1981. 51-71. ISBN:0-87287-237-8; LC:80-22507.
Lefferts, Robert. Getting a Grant: How to Write Successful Grant Proposals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1978. 160p.
Sides, Charles H. How to Write Papers and Reports about Computer Technology.Philadelphia, PA: ISI Press; 1984. 142 p. ISBN:0-89495-036-3; LC:84-12951. [Contents include: "Chapter 14: How to Write Proposals".]
Arney, William Ray. Understanding Statistics in the Social Sciences. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman; 1990. 524 p. ISBN:0-7167-2006-X; LC:89-11943.
Bartholomew, D. J.; Bassett, E. E. Let's Look at the Figures: The Quantitative Approach to Human Affairs. Baltimore, MD: Penguin; 1971.
Berinstein, Paula; Bjørner, Susanne (ed.). Finding Statistics Online: How to Locate the Elusive Numbers You Need. Medford, NJ: Information Today; 1998. 356 p. ISBN 0-910965-25-0. [A useful resource for locating statistical data and searching online databases. To deal with the obvious problem of keeping up to date with the constantly changing World-Wide Web, the author makes available updates and a statistical site directory at the Berinstein Research Website.]
Cobb, George W.; Witmer, Jeffrey A.; Cryer, Jonathan D. An Electronic Companion to Statistics. New York, NY: Cogito Learning Materials; 1997. 356 p. ISBN:1-888902-40-X [Includes a CD-ROM with programs and data. The combination of book, programs, and data provides an easily understandable and graphically rich introduction to basic social statistics.]
Hacken, Richard D. Statistical Assumption-Making in Library Collection Assessment: Peccadilloes and Pitfalls. Collection Management. 1985 Summer; 7(2):17-32. ISSN:0146-2679.
Hays, William L. Statistics. 5th edition. Fort Worth, TX; Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1997. 1,112 p. ISBN:0-03-0074467-9.
Hinton, Perry R. Statistics Explained: A Guide for Social Science Students. New York, NY: Routledge; 1995. 322 p. ISBN:0-415-10286-3.
Katzer, Jeffrey: Cook, Kenneth H.; Crouch, Wayne W. Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill; 1998. 297 p. ISBN:0-07-034309-8. [A readable guide to the problems of doing research in the social sciences, i.e., research that can involve large numbers of observations and multitudinous possible sources of confusion and error. Katzer et al. do a good job of discussing concisely a broad range of problems: the design of experiments, bias, "noise", statistical reasoning, and the interpretation of results by authors of research and by their readers.]
Koosis, Donald J. Statistics: A Self-Teaching Guide. 4th ed. New York, NY: Wiley; 1997. 278 p. ISBN:0-471-14688-9. [As the title indicates, this is an introduction to statistics designed for the autodidact. Makes good use of plentiful short question-and-answer pairs. Includes helpful discussions of how to use Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 to carry out statistical calculations.]
Roscoe, John T. Fundamental Research Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences.2nd edition. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1975. 483 p. ISBN:0-03-091934-7; LC:74-14795.
Stephens, Larry J. Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Beginning Statistics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1998. 480 p. ISBN:0-0706-12595-5. [Contains a large number of "Solved Problems," i.e., exercises with answers]
Williams, Frederick. Reasoning with Statistics: How to Read Quantitative Research. 4th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch; 1992. 220 p. ISBN:0-03-053158-6. [A readable guide to statistical techniques, including some topics often omitted from introductions to statistics: e.g., cluster analysis, factor analysis, and discriminant analysis.]
Alreck, Pamela L.; Settle, Robert B. The Survey Research Handbook: Guidelines and Strategies for Conducting a Survey. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: Irwin; 1995. 470 p. ISBN:0-7863-0358-1 (hardback); ISBN:0-256-10321-6 (paperback).
Bennion, Bruce C. Some Hazards and Nonhazards of Mailed Questionnaire Surveys.Public Library Quarterly. 1982 Winter; 3(4):57-68.
Fast, Julius. Body Language. New York, NY: Pocket Books; 1971. 183 p. ISBN:0-671-81299-8; LC:72-106592.
Hall, Edward T. The Hidden Dimension. New York, NY: Doubleday; 1966. 217p.
Hall, Edward T. The Silent Language. New York, NY: Doubleday; 1959. 240p.
Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York, NY: Harper and Row; 1974. 224 p. ISBN:0-06-012938-7; LC:71-138748.
Murphy, Jerome T. Getting the Facts: A Fieldwork Guide for Evaluators and Policy Analysts. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear; 1980. 214 p. ISBN:0-8302-3383-0; LC:79-20989. [A guide to the practical details of collecting data by "intensive interviewing, transient observation, and document analysis".]
Pagell, Ruth A.; Lusk, Edward J. An Experimental Design to Test Sponsorship and Dating Effects in Library Questionnaire Design. College & Research Libraries. 1984 November; 45:493-495. ISSN:0010-0870.
Schonlau, Matthias; Fricker, Ronald D.; Elliott, Marc N. Conducting Research Surveys Via E-Mail and the Web. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corp.; 2002. 118 p. ISBN:0-8330-3110-4.
Wheeler, Michael. Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: The Manipulation of Public Opinion in America. New York, NY: Liveright; 1976. 300 p. ISBN:0-87140-621-7; LC:76-6886.
Aslib Proceedings
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
College & Research Libraries
Information Processing and Management
The Information Scientist
Information Technology and Libraries
The International Information & Library Review
Journal of Academic Librarianship
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
The Journal of Documentation
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
Law Library Journal
Libraries & Culture
Library Journal
The Library Quarterly
Library & Information Science Research
Library Resources & Technical Services
Library Trends
Libri
RQ
Go to Guide
to Course Materials for LIS 397.1
Go to Wyllys Webpage
Last revised 2002 Nov 8