Let Us Stop Apologizing for Qualitative Research

For too long, qualitative research on aca demic libraries has been marked with a negative definition—for example, nonquantitative handling of unstructured data. These terms carry a tone of apology and often mean impressionistic analysis of messy data. When compared to quan titative research, qualitative research is perceived as being less rigorous, prima rily because it may not include statistics and all the mumbo jumbo that goes with extensive statistical analysis. Qualitative and quantitative research methods in li brarianship and information science are not simply different ways of doing the same thing.