EBL 101
Evidence Based Librarianship Backgrounder
Su
Cleyle
Associate
University Librarian
Memorial
University of Newfoundland
St.
John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
E-mail:
scleyle@mun.ca
Julie
McKenna
Deputy
Library Director
Regina
Public Library
Regina,
Saskatchewan, Canada
Email:
jmckenna@reginalibrary.ca
Originally published in:
Evidence
Based Library and Information Practice, 3(3), 91–93. https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/4061/3329
Received: 13 April 2008 Accepted: 17 June 2008
2016 Cleyle and McKenna. This is an Open
Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the
resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one.
Evidence Based
Librarianship (EBL) is a means to improve the profession of librarianship by
asking questions, finding, critically appraising and incorporating research
evidence from library science (and other disciplines) into daily practice. It
also involves encouraging librarians to conduct research (Koufogiannakis
and Crumley, 112).
Welcome
to EBL 101! This new column is designed to offer guidance into the workings of
evidence based practice and answer that question: “How can I implement EBL in
my library?” The intent is to offer
short, simple columns on a variety of EBL topics allowing any librarian,
regardless of library type or size, to practice evidence based librarianship.
So let’s get to it, shall we?
Evidence
based practice (EBP) is a term that we have all heard. Usually it is associated
with the health professions and originated the area of clinical medicine. The
medical profession forged the way for many professions to embrace evidence
based practice (EBM.) Back in the 1990’s, Canadian doctors sought to create an
environment of lifelong learning and clinical practice that utilitized research
to answer clinical questions.
There are 5
steps to evidence based medicine:
As
you can see the concept of EBM is a simple one – gather evidence to help with
answering questions and helping patients.
For the discipline of medicine, the body of evidence is rich in these
areas and it is conceivable that most questions can be answered through use of
existing research evidence. But even
though the steps seem simple enough, a variety of skills are needed to ensure
each step is completed properly. For example, asking the right question is
crucial to finding the best evidence; evaluating the evidence is pivotal to
determining the best course of action, and so on.
Evidence Based
Librarianship (EBL)
Evidence
based practice is a practical approach to finding answers to questions and for
professionals to stay abreast of current trends and research. It is also a
useful model for contributing to the body of evidence. But will this model work in a discipline that
is not grounded in the research practices associated with the collection and
use of empirical data? The social
sciences research base is very different from that in the sciences. It is possible to apply the evidence based
practice model to social science disciplines, including librarianship?
EBP,
quite simply, can encompass original research and the evaluation and use of
existing research. Koufogiannakis,
Crumley, and Slater reviewed several content analysis reports and note the “the
variation in the interpretation of what constitutes a ‘research’ article…”
(Koufogiannakis, Crumley, and Slater 228). Of the 2664 articles reviewed from
the 2001 publishing year, 30.3% were identified as research articles. This is a
rate similar to previous content reviews for librarianship, although there are
variations in scope and definition of what “constitutes a ‘research’ article”.
Clearly, the higher percentage of articles appearing in our professional
literature is not research oriented.
Librarianship
is not primarily comprised of scholars or researchers. It is comprised of
practitioners and administrators. Thus, research has not necessarily made its
way into our professional literature and our decision making processes. Many of
us in the profession now recognize the need to formalize our research and our
decision making processes to ensure that we base our decisions on the best
possible evidence.
Based on the EBM
model, the steps for
EBL are similar:
(Booth and Brice, 2003)
The
definition of the problem, or “the question”, is pivotal to the entire process.
The next EBL 101 column will focus on asking the right question.
Works Cited
Booth,
Andrew and Anne Brice:
“Evidence Based Librarianship:
The first Steps.” 2nd International Evidence Based Librarianship
Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, June 2003. April, 2005 <http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/eblib/conf2003.htm>.
Glasziou,
Paul. Evidence Based
Medicine Workbook.
London, GBR: BMJ Publishing Group, 2003. August, 2008 <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/memorial/Doc?id=10049688&ppg=29>.
Koufogiannakis,
Denise, and Ellen
Crumley. “Evidence Based
Librarianship” Feliciter, 3 (2002): 112-4.
Koufogiannakis,
Denise, Ellen
Crumley, and Linda Slater. “A
Content Analysis of Librarianship Research.” Journal of Information Science
30.3 (2004): 227-39.