Evidence Based Librarianship

Introduction:  This paper will present a study that explores the way in which librarians in Turkey use their knowledge and evidence upon which to base their decision making.
Method: One method is to carry out a questionnaire of literature on the subject. The other method is to use analytical data by interviewing library managers.
Analysis: The problem of the lack of recognition of the Evidence-Based Library Management (EBLM) concept in Turkey can result particularly in Library managers making uninformed decisions based on on-trend practices.
Results:. This study has found that managers and executives of Turkish libraries have inadequate knowledge of the EBLM concept. Library managers need to consider and plan for practical steps that could be taken to introduce the concept of evidence based practice in their decision-making process. 
Conclusion: Library managers will have to be able to learn to change from a culture of institution-based decision making to an evidence-based decision making process based on analytics and concrete results.

Librarians working in healthcare in the late 1990s had the considerable privilege, and indeed pleasure, of witnessing and participating in, a revolutionary paradigm which was to place information management, its associated skills and technologies in centre stage in the delivery of appropriate and effective care. That paradigm, variously identified as "evidence based medicine", "evidence based healthcare" or "evidence based practice" placed a premium on the retrieval of rigorous and reliable evidence to inform clinical decision making.

This statement explores the potential role of librarians in the development of information literacy and research integrity in higher education. We contextualise this in a critical reflection of our own professional careers and practice, within continually changing information, social and political landscapes. We illustrate our development through a critique of our core public work, Enhanced pedagogy for improved information literacy, and a number of other smaller but significant previous public works. We also examine some of the narratives which surround the ‘Google Generation’, academia and librarianship and demythologise the context in which we operate.

To inform the future development of our professional role we investigate information literacy concepts and models, the obstacles to the wider adoption of information literacy in higher education curricula, the skills and attributes that the librarian of the future can bring to its achievement and how the public works are a continuous response to change. Our insight and understanding are further informed by the opinions of academic colleagues following a series of in-depth interviews. We consider their views and the implications these have for our own learning and the development of our professional identity, within both higher education and our own university.

Throughout this statement we show how our previous and core public works have influenced and informed our thinking, our practice and the recommendations that we make.

This statement explores the potential role of librarians in the development of information literacy and research integrity in higher education. We contextualise this in a critical reflection of our own professional careers and practice, within continually changing information, social and political landscapes. We illustrate our development through a critique of our core public work, Enhanced pedagogy for improved information literacy, and a number of other smaller but significant previous public works. We also examine some of the narratives which surround the ‘Google Generation’, academia and librarianship and demythologise the context in which we operate. To inform the future development of our professional role we investigate information literacy concepts and models, the obstacles to the wider adoption of information literacy in higher education curricula, the skills and attributes that the librarian of the future can bring to its achievement and how the public works are a continuo...

Librarians working in healthcare in the late 1990s had the considerable privilege, and indeed pleasure, of witnessing and participating in, a revolutionary paradigm which was to place information management, its associated skills and technologies in centre stage in the delivery of appropriate and effective care. That paradigm, variously identified as "evidence based medicine", "evidence based healthcare" or "evidence based practice" placed a premium on the retrieval of rigorous and reliable evidence to inform clinical decision making.

The attempt to establish a unified taxonomy for the field of Information Ethics is both unattainable and unwarranted. The categorization of Information Ethics as a defined discipline, an applicable practice, a philosophy and a worldview remains constantly in flux due to, what Luciano Floridi terms, ‘philosophical naturalism’. As such, a broadening understanding of the field will only serve to further collapse categorization. The following paper will outline, using a discourse analysis methodology, how the nature of the field of Information Ethics at a foundational level must necessarily defy classification. The assumptions behind the current classifications of the field will be questioned. Beginning with the history of the inception of the field through Librarianship and Cybernetics and questioning the yet unresolved ontological debates between information philosophers such as Rafael Capurro and Floridi, this paper will explicate how any such attempt to develop an agreed upon taxonomy will and should always remain incomplete.

Introduction: This paper will present a study that explores the way in which librarians in Turkey use their knowledge and evidence upon which to base their decision making. Method: One method is to carry out a questionnaire of literature on the subject. The other method is to use analytical data by interviewing library managers. Analysis: The problem of the lack of recognition of the Evidence-Based Library Management (EBLM) concept in Turkey can result particularly in Library managers making uninformed decisions based on on-trend practices. Results: . This study has found that managers and executives of Turkish libraries have inadequate knowledge of the EBLM concept. Library managers need to consider and plan for practical steps that could be taken to introduce the concept of evidence based practice in their decision-making process.  Conclusion: Library managers will have to be able to learn to change from a culture of institution-based decision making to an evidence-based decision ...

This ongoing study explores the perception of academic librarians as researchers according to librarians and non-librarian faculty. Surveys were sent to faculty members at six Canadian universities, and were triangulated with a pilot study in which two academic librarians were interviewed about their
perceptions of themselves as researchers. Additional interviews with librarians and non-librarian faculty will be conducted as the study progresses, complementing the existing data. Findings to date indicate that academic librarians engage in research regularly, but that non-librarian faculty are unaware that
librarians conduct research. There is a tension between the service aspect of librarianship and the research aspect, though librarians identify research as essential to good service. Librarians are in a unique position to bring necessary skills and act as bridges in collaborative, interdisciplinary research.
Both librarians and non-librarian faculty expressed high levels of interest in participating in such research. Despite the importance of librarian research, results indicate a systematic lack of support for librarians who wish to conduct research. This is reflected in the collective agreements governing academic librarians, which were analysed in this study, and which often lump research and other duties together, associating nothing specifically with research duties, thereby allowing for the possibility that librarians not conduct research at all. Lack of support or acknowledgement of librarian research hinders
such research, despite its value to librarians and non-librarian faculty alike. This session will present current findings and lay out the future trajectory of the study.

Text upozorňuje na propast mezi akademickým výzkumem a praxí v knihovnách. Představuje tři teoreticko-metodologické rámce pro překonávání této propasti – na důkazech založené knihovnictví, akční výzkum a designové myšlení. Jádrem článku je systematické porovnání uvedených přístupů – jejich charakteristik, procesu a typických metod, které k výzkumu používají. Autorka navazuje na Hjørlandův koncept praxe podložené výzkumem a tento text formuluje jako příspěvek do debaty o tomto konceptu. Klíčová slova: na důkazech založené knihovnictví, akční výzkum, designové myšlení, knihovnictví, informační věda.

Text draws attention to the devide between academical research and library practise. It represents three theoretical a methodological frameworks for overcoming this devide – evidence-based librarianship, action research and design thinking. The core of the article is a systematic comparison of the approaches – its characteristics, typical processes and methods that are used for research. The author follows the Hjørlands concept of research based practice and the text formulated as a contribution to the debate on this concept.

Although they are non-profit making organisations, the main aim of libraries is to satisfy their customers, that is, the library users. This aim is achieved as long as the needs and expectations of the users are met. For this reason, the libraries must know their users very well and must provide a service which fulfils their needs and expectations. Therefore, rather than following fashionable or popular approaches which are discussed in the literature, libraries should carry out their own analyses and develop an evidence-based service policy for their users. In this study, it is stressed that the users of the library, who form one of the basic elements of the library, are not now necessarily divided into 2 distinct groups of " digital natives " and " digital immigrants " , as stated in the literature, but are, in fact, mostly " digital hybrids ". The study also examines how to user group of " digital hybrids " has an effect on the management procedures of the library and how this element affects the management of the other elements. The aims of this study are to demonstrate using an evidence-based approach, that university students in Turkey, like the university libraries which serve them, display hybrid patterns of behaviour in their approach to accessing information; and to emphasise that it is necessary, when providing service, to analyse the target group and to take an approach which is not opinion-based, but evidence-based.

Librarians working in healthcare in the late 1990s had the considerable privilege, and indeed pleasure, of witnessing and participating in, a revolutionary paradigm which was to place information management, its associated skills and technologies in centre stage in the delivery of appropriate and effective care. That paradigm, variously identified as "evidence based medicine", "evidence based healthcare" or "evidence based practice" placed a premium on the retrieval of rigorous and reliable evidence to inform clinical decision making.