the holy crap moment

I am in awe. It doesn't seem approriate somehow to be in awe of one's own research and process, but I am in awe.

Not so much about my research findings but more so about the process. I read all of the research articles for my research and I've read them all at least 3 or 4 times by now, if not more often. I thought I had a good grip on how authors' were defining competency but...I didn't. The difference between reading and coming to some kind of a decision about what they say is a very different elephant than repeatedly analysing what the authors' say and don't say, along with reflecting over how they construct these definitions and how I as a researcher approach all of the above.

The holy crap moment came when I realized the injustice I do the LIS field and my workplace when I read LIS literature and formulate opinions, approaches, etc. for implementation without truly settling in to evaluate and assess that literature. Yeah, ok sometimes we're too busy, it isn't
that critical and issue, etc. which are all good reasons for a more facile approach.

I have touted the importance of research and giving back to the LIS field, but now I truly understand why research is important to the field. I believe it is safe to say that those who don't do research will never be giving back to the profession in the same qualitative way those who do research will, for those who do research and publish in the field are constructing the field at a more fundamental and rigorous level than those who just practice.