Making Better Decisions: Incorporating Evidence into your

Practice

Denise Koufogiannakis

University of Alberta Libraries

OLA Superconference -- February 1, 2008

What is EBL?

“Evidence-Based Librarianship (EBL) is an approach to information science that promotes the collection, interpretation and integration of valid, important and applicable user-reported, librarian observed, and research-derived evidence. The best available evidence, moderated by user needs and preferences, is applied to improve the quality of professional judgements”.

A. Booth

The need for evidence

History1995 – M. Haines –Evidence-based Purchasing – “evidence based

information practice”1997 - Article in Hypothesis, Research Section of MLA2000- MLA/CHLA, Vancouver; ICML, London; LIANZA, New Zealand2000 – conceptual framework devised – applied to health sciences

librarianship2001- First EBL Conference, Sheffield, UK2002 - Collaborative articles begin to appear2003 - 2nd EBL Conference, Edmonton, Canada2004 - Evidence Based Practice for Information Professionals book

(March)2005 - 3rd conference, Australia2005 – EBLIG group of CLA formed2006 - Evidence Based Library and Information Practice journal

founded2007 – 4th conference, USA – now called EBLIP

EB Process

Ask

Apply

Assess

Acquire

Appraise

Ask

Should I teach students in lecture style or hands-on with small groups

this fall?

“To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to

getting it answered” (John Ruskin)

The Well-Built Question

• Setting – in what context are you addressing the question– University

• Perspective – who are the users/potential users of the service– First year students

• Intervention – what is being done to them/for them– small group instruction in a computer lab

• Comparison – what are your alternatives– lecture style

• Evaluation – how will you measure whether the intervention succeeded– improved information literacy skills

Your Question

Among first year university students, does small group instruction in a computer lab, versus lecture style instruction, result in improved information literacy skills?

Acquire

What type of question are you asking?– Domains – ie: Collections, Education,

Reference, etc.

Search for an answer

Appraise

• 3 main aspects– Validity– Reliability– Applicability

• Critical appraisal tools

Apply

• Directly applicable

• Needs to be locally validated

• Improves understanding

Assess

• Determine impact

• Evaluate the process

• What improved? What did you learn?

EB Process

Ask

Apply

Assess

Acquire

Appraise

Challenges

• Quality of the evidence - what is the knowledge base? • Dispersion of evidence sources (e.g. education,

management, marketing, computer science, other) • Skills in conducting research • Skills in disseminating research • Skills in interpreting research • Time

Putting theory into Practice

Model for Evidence Based Collection Management

Assessment of projects

Changing collection needs

INNOVATIVE

CORE

Cycle

Implementation

core Implementation

core Example

innovative Implementation

innovative Example: Patron’s Choice

How can I make my practice more evidence-based?

• Remember – it’s not all or nothing – start small

• When you have a problem, consult the research literature

• When there is no solution found in pre-existing literature, do the research, and share it with others

How can I make my practice more evidence-based?

• Start a discussion group to talk about issues and solutions / best practices

• Ask your colleagues what they are basing their decisions on – question current practices

• Managers: encourage research as part of everyday practice

Wisdom means acting with knowledge while doubting what

you know.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton