Building useful theory - Tacit knowledge, practitioner reports, and the culture of LIS inquiry

It is asserted that a greater understanding of tacit knowledge, or the "pri vate" knowledge of experts, has the potential to transform the nature and u se of research in library and information studies (LIS). Drawing on LIS and higher education literatures, the work of a cross-disciplinary spectrum of North American and European inquirers into tacit knowledge, and building o n foundations laid by Georg Simmel and other theorists of the "stranger," t his paper addresses the neglect by practitioners of faculty research; pract itioner use of the LIS literature; the existence of LIS education and LIS p ractice as distinct tacit knowledge arenas operating with often-conflicting definitions of success; the certainty that all researchers are " strangers " in various professional contexts and the implications of this aphorism; and the character and characteristics of the effective tacit knowledge rese archer in LIS.