Fostering Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research in Adult Education

The article investigates the interdisciplinary nature of researchin adult education and suggests interactive research guides and other interactiveresources for fostering collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. The purpose is tofoster the development of a more functional literacy for information seeking asexpressed across disciplines and the thoughtful integration of such information intoacademic and practical research projects within the field of adult education. Studies ofresearcher behavior are utilized to suggest some techniques and resources that could beemployed more widely in conducting literature searches, including the creation and useof interactive resource guides. Some trends in libraries that offer promise forknowledge discovery and sharing, such as federated searching, customizable workspaces,and user-generated content, are also explored. Finally, tools and resources currentlyavailable to promote collaboration and interdisciplinary research are alsonoted