The Benton Report as research - Buildings, Books, and Bytes: Perspectives on the Benton Foundation Report on Libraries in the Digital Age

Library Trends, Summer, 1997 by Bryce Allen

INTRODUCTION

The report Buildings, Books, and Bytes (Benton Foundation, 1996) presented ideas about the role and function of public libraries in a period during which digital information is becoming increasingly important, with a view to influencing the direction in which public library services will evolve in the future. Any report that seeks to influence the evolution of public libraries, or to contribute to the ongoing debate about the role and function of public libraries, must present ideas that are credible and persuasive. One way to achieve credibility and persuasiveness is to base the ideas presented on sound research. The use of rigorous and accepted research techniques helps to assure the reader that the ideas presented are based on fact rather than speculation and on careful observation of the real world rather than on unsupported opinion.

Although new research methods are sometimes introduced, scientific research has gradually developed a body of research methods that maximize the validity of the results obtained, minimize the probability of error, and enhance the reliability of the ideas generated. This is the understanding of research and the body of knowledge that can be found explicated in textbooks on research methods, or in the many research methods courses taught in schools of library and information science. Research conducted using accepted methods provides a foundation for the credibility and persuasiveness of the findings of research and for the ideas that are associated with those findings.

It should be noted parenthetically that research is not the only way to obtain credible and persuasive ideas. Some people are persuaded by the revelations of scripture. Some believe the horoscope to be a reliable and credible predictor of future events. Others trust intuition or the speculation of pundits to direct their thinking. In the long-term debate about the evolving nature of public libraries, however, appropriate research must play an important role. Just as the Public Library Inquiry report (Berelson, 1949) provided a basis for the development of contemporary library services, so today's research may suggest persuasive and credible options for future roles and services in public libraries.

Research is defined as a systematic investigation of some phenomenon. In considering the Benton Report from the perspective of research, the first question that must be addressed is: Is the Benton Report a research report? In other words, does this report present ideas that are based on the systematic investigation of phenomena? The second question that must be addressed, and which follows from the first, is: If the Benton Report is based on research, is it based on good research? In other words, should the research methods used inspire confidence in the reliability and validity of the results obtained and thus lend credibility, persuasiveness, and influence to the ideas generated?

RESEARCH IN THE BENTON REPORT

There is internal evidence that the authors of this report understood it to be a research report or at least to contain research. The first sentence of the preface refers to the document as "this study", and the terms "study" and "findings" are repeated throughout the preface and the executive summary. Further, one specific aspect of the report, the public opinion poll, is specifically labeled "research" twice on page 3. It is interesting to note that the term "research" is used throughout the document to refer to the public opinion poll, but it is never used to refer to the process of gathering opinions from Kellogg grantees or to the focus group. This pattern of language use may suggest that the authors held different opinions about the various components they were assembling, accepting the public opinion poll as research while relegating the remaining elements to some other status.

On the basis of this internal evidence, it appears that there is adequate reason to proceed under the assumption that this report was intended to be read, in whole or in part, as presenting research. This assumption provides justification to proceed to the second question and to examine the nature of the research methods employed. Before examining those research methods, however, it is necessary to identify the research questions addressed in the Benton Report. In research, as in the Mikado's justice, one must "let the punishment fit the crime." The research methods used must be appropriate to the research questions asked. Unfortunately, the report does not explicitly present its research questions. As Hernon and Metoyer-Duran (1993) and Metoyer-Duran and Hernon (1994) noted, the omission of a clear research question is not an uncommon phenomenon in library and information science research. In the case of the Benton Report, it is possible to infer the research questions from the text of the preface and the executive summary.

One of the purposes of this report was to inform Kellogg grantees "about where the public supports--or fails to support--libraries as they confront the digital world" (p. 1). Stripped of its rhetoric, this statement becomes the simple research question, Does the public support libraries? One further emendation, altering the too-general term "libraries" to the more accurate term "public libraries," produces a plausible first research question for this report: