Impact, Reimagined: Reframing Practice-Based Research in Library and Information Work

What do we mean by impact? In this keynote, I will explore impact not only as something that happens as an outcome of practice research but through the process of inquiry embedded in everyday library and information science work. When librarians and information professionals question, adapt, and experiment in real time, they are already shaping behaviours, decisions, and outcomes across their communities. Drawing on examples from across sectors and contexts, this keynote challenges the idea that impact must be large-scale or externally validated to matter. Instead, it is an invitation to reconsider impact as something immediate, situated, and already happening, and to recognise practice-based research, research-based practice, and evidence-based librarianship not as a pathway to impact, but as impact itself.

About Clare Thorpe

Clare Thorpe is the Director, Library Services at Southern Cross University, Australia. With more than 25 years’ experience across academic and state libraries, she is recognised for advancing evidence-based library and information practice, open access, and digital innovation. As a researcher-practitioner her work has explored leadership in libraries and higher education, libraries contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals, and she is co-creator of a maturity model for evidence-based practice in libraries. A committed advocate for inclusive, evidence-informed leadership , she has led sector-level collaborations in information literacy, open educational resources (OER), and third space research, contributing to both scholarly discourse and tangible institutional change.

Why research? Why now? The importance of research in a library career

For many library and information professionals, formal research doesn’t form part of regular professional practice. In academic libraries, librarians are more likely to support researchers than to conduct research themselves. Throughout my career, practice-based research has played an important role, whether through Design Thinking to improve library spaces, conducting user research to develop digital services, or evaluating new approaches to library practice. More recently, stepping into a university librarian role has brought into sharp focus the important role that original LIS research has to play in the sector. My own recent research examines the evolution of information services provided by Australian university libraries over the past twenty years in relation to changes to student experience in higher education policy and practice. Drawing on experiences from across my career, this keynote explores the many forms that research can take in professional practice and the value it can bring at different career stages. I invite attendees to reflect on their own relationship with research and to consider why research-in-practice matters for the future of library and information professionals. 

About Jeffery Cruz

Jeffery Cruz is the University Librarian at the University of Queensland (UQ). Jeff has over twenty years of experience in the library sector, with a career in academic, public and special libraries in Australia, the United States and Spain. He is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Educational Research at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, researching the intersection of information services, the student experience and higher education policy and practice. He has previously published on equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries. In addition to a BA and MA in Spanish, Jeff holds a Master in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Melbourne.

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