Observation: A Complex Research Method

As an ethnographic research method, observation has a long history. The value of observation is that it permits researchers to study people in their native environment in order to understand “things” from their perspective. Observation requires the researcher to spend considerable time in the fi eld with the possibility of adopting various roles in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the people being studied. A variety of techniques are used to collect data. Gaining access to the group and leaving the fi eld are two important factors that need consideration. Other areas of concern involve ethical problems, as well as validity and reliability issues. Until recently, few library and information science (LIS) studies have included this method; however, observation is gaining favor as LIS researchers seek to understand better the role of information in people’s everyday lives. Introduction As an ethnographic research method, observation seems to have no specifi c beginning. While some researchers found indications of its use in ancient times, others have pointed to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when anthropologists starting “collecting data fi rsthand” (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994, p. 249). Describing it as the “bedrock source of human knowledge” about the “social and natural world,” Adler and Adler (1994) stated that Aristotle used observational techniques in his botanical studies on the island of Lesbos and that Auguste Comte, the father of sociology, listed observation as one of the “four core research methods” (p. 377). Observation: A Complex Research Method