I can think of two main differences between performing research in an iSchool context versus performing research in other disciplines: namely, iSchool students are being trained to be information professionals and iSchools are necessarily interdisciplinary. By referring to a couple of suggestions that Luker (2010) mentions in her research guide, I will discuss the significance and benefits of these differences. To begin, I argue that there is an overlap between being trained as an information professional and befriending a librarian, as Luker suggests (2010), because many of the benefits achieved by wooing a librarian may be manifest by learning the skills of and acting like a librarian. For example, the iSchool provides workshops taught by librarians to teach students how to search databases like Scopus--see screenshot above. The mention of Scopus is a not so subtle transition into a discussion of the second benefit of being a student in an iSchool, more specifically, iSchool students are immersed in an environment were interdisciplinary pursuits are encouraged. I am finding this particular aspect of the iSchool helpful in the research I am doing for the SSRHC program of work assignment. To illustrate, in my research thus far I have only found a few articles of interest in Library and Information Science database and instead found a large amount of interesting interdisciplinary articles when I performed the same search in the Scopus database. In general, I think that being educated in an iSchool encourages students to think broadly and provides students with the skills necessary to research broadly.
References
Luker, K. (2010). Salsa dancing into the social sciences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Elsevier. (2013). Scopus. http://www-scopus-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/results/
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