Coding Your Results

Coding Your ResultsQUALITATIVE METHODS IN THE LIBRARY, PART 3JANUARY 2017

CELIA EMMELHAINZ – ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARIAN – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY

Image: contextualresearch.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-ethnographic-research-cycle.png

Stages of qualitative research:

Develop an anthropological questionLit review and conversations for focusChoose a methodChoose a sampling strategyCollect data ethicallyAnalyze data by coding for themesShare results and apply in your communities

Isaacs (2014) “An Overview of Qualitative Research Methodology for Public Health Researchers,” p. 318-21

Outline: 1. Assess the purpose you’re coding towards2. Options for coding3. Practice hand-coding4. Preview of computerized coding

Think of your goal: Assessment

If your goal is assessment, you want to be able to report on the outcomes and impact of your work processes:

Students get 25% better at searching after flipped instruction;Donors are more engaged when we feature student stories;

Readers can’t find the VPN in drop-down menus.

Think of your goal: DescriptionMost library research results fall at the level of describing a group or perception of a situation:

Users avoid the maps library because of narrow rooms; Patrons feel sense of community at Ethnic Studies events;

Librarians use nonverbal negotiation to avoid unbalanced task-loads on committees. We usually stop here.

Research goal: Uncover relationshipsUse textual data to explore how connected two factors are:

The size and rarity of library collections is linked to administrative perception of library value.

Personable emails from library leadership increase library engagement, if related to librarians’ core motivations.

Uncover relations between factors in context

Research goal: Type or concept-building

Extend or challenge existing theories, develop new typologies, connect concepts, or build a whole new framework:

Surface acting leads to higher burnout among front-line staff, due to less recovery time ‘off-stage.’

Students perceive the library as a) a focused study space, b) a site of suffering, and c) a social space.

What’s Your Goal?

Note whether your goal is assessment, description, relationship,

or concept building, and what you hope to uncover.

(three minutes)

Coding is a: “Systematic way to condense extensive data into smaller analyzable units through the creation of categories & concepts derived from the data.”

– Lockyer 2004

““

Two broad approaches: Deductive: test a clear hypothesis or question

◦“Which factors build student confidence in accessing archives?

Inductive: generate ideas from exploring data

◦ Exploratory survey of Kazakh librarians – themes emerged of “falling into librarianship” and “librarianship as calling”

In the grounded theory approach, code for: ■ Relevant text ■ Repeating ideas ■ Themes you notice ■ Theoretical constructs you’ve seen in literature ■ Your research concerns

Auerbach and Silverstein (2003, p. 35)

Options for Coding

#1. Coding on paper

Image: from Summer Starling – QDA with MaxQDA presentation for the D-Lab, UC Berkeley

2. #hashtags in a document

#3. excel columns

Image: Pappas, Seale, and Emmelhainz – forthcoming chapter on emotional labor in librarianship

#4. qualitative software

Try it! Hand-coding

Hand-code the interview or the survey for themes or topics.

(five minutes)

Follow-up group discussion

Based on the survey or interview responses, what additional

questions would you ask of these people?

(five minutes together)

Walkthrough of Atlas.ti Software

When to use CAQDAS software: Reasons to use

• Build complex codes • Test relationships• Handle large data• Good for teams

Reasons not to use

• Cost• Learning curve• Simple or few

interviews

Qualitative analysis software can:

Use text, PDF, image, video

View codes in margin

Import demographics

Export coded quotations Add memos Run searches

(X and Y, near)

Using the free Atlas.ti 8 trial http://atlasti.com/free-trial-version/ No limits on time, limits on size 10 primary documents of any size100 quotations 50 codes, 30 memos, 10 network views

Steps in analysisa. Memos: Start with a close reading and note interesting

points or starter ideas. b. Coding: Mark texts systemically with the topics you

observe, moving into specific concepts.c. Explore: your codes in relation to each other or to

respondent demographics or situations.d. Share: Use evocative quotations to illustrate your

findingsKuckartz and McWhertor (2014) Qualitative Text Analysis, p.5, 9

1. Reflect with memosAt the project level: Capture changing thoughts Note issues and your decisions Memo ideas to follow up onOn documents, codes, quotes: Reflect on an idea Note connection to related ideas

Coding: tag recurring topics or concepts

Highlight and drag code over OR right-click to add a code

Grouping codes into families

Exploring relationships with queries Look at quotations in relation to multiple codes

◦ job market OR relocation (broadens)◦ job market AND relocation (narrows)◦ job market NOT relocation◦ student debt WITHIN cost of MLS◦ successful hire FOLLOWS experience (within a paragraph)

Use Scope to search only some documents Save resulting quotations under a new Super Code

AND / OR / ONE OF (not both) / NOT

Part 3: Questions & Feedback