For those outside academia, the word research can offer a scary image. People often picture a scientist in a lab surrounded by test tubes or a historian pouring over ancient documents which can seem miles away from the daily role of a cataloguer. However as the Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston says in the quote above, research is really just a formal way of being curious. It offers a chance to find out about something following a defined set of guidelines. Given that cataloguers are known problem solvers who enjoy following rules, workplace research is a great fit for their skill set.

This article will look at how cataloguers can fit research into their role, what they can investigate and showcase some different ways they can communicate their results to the wider world.