Evidence-based Library and Information Practice Workshop: Walking the Walk. Andrew Booth

April 26, 2010

Glasgow

Andrew Booth, a feature editor for the Health Information Libraries Journal, presented a day workshop on Evidence-based Library & Information Practice (EBLIP) techniques for librarians in all sectors to use for their services. Part of the objectives was for participants to consider implementation of EBLIP into their teams, whether by Journal Clubs, Guidelines or digests. One attendee stated at the end she would ‘have to READ more!’ which was something that resonated with lots of people. For health sector staff we can talk the talk teaching Critical Appraisal skills, whilst perhaps not actually being so critical of our own science’s literature.

I recall the editor of HILJ saying at Peebles Conference last year that we should write up papers more often for our professional literature so that we can use these tools to help us - not only to appraise our research - but also to create our evidence-base which is not yet adequate! Therefore, research methodology should become part of our daily routine in LIP. The aim is to implement our particular service developments on the basis of the research evidence. Obviously we can use this set of tools to bid for funds, impress our employers and improve our service. Since we ask doctors and other professionals to prove their case by research it does make sense for us to do the same.

Another participant’s observation was ‘We do this naturally anyway’. However, we may only take some of the steps in the process...do we really go the whole hog, and truly ‘WALK THE WALK’ in terms of only using strictly appraised and reliable evidence for our decisions? Perhaps we can do better.

Tools included: EBL Critical Appraisal checklists, i.e. Checklists for assessing a research paper in Library & Information Science.

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  • Checklist for appraising Information needs Analysis using 3 broad issues 1. Validity, 2. Reliability and 3. Applicability. Detailed questionnaire checklist copies are available from me or Catriona Denoon.
  • Useful acronymic techniques –
    • THE FIVE A’S; SPICE ;SCOPE;PIE

  Participation in small groups throughout the day ensured a thorough grounding in EBL for example; critical appraisal took place using one of the checklists on model articles.

  The day was a condensed version of a two-day event ran elsewhere around the world. Andrew’s presentation was excellent and covered all the matters relevant to the topic. It was a lively event with enthusiastic appreciation of the delegates, some of whom had attended from the Highlands, Ayrshire as well as Central and West Scotland.

  WHAT WORKS IN YOUR EBLIP?

  Is it generally a bit like ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ – Phone a friend, 50-50, for example:

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    • How do you search for evidence now? E.g. LISTSERV – who are the respondents to your query? Answer, people with strong opinions- potentially skewed! We need averages sometimes as evidence. A soundbite I particularly liked was: ‘...Evidence is not about creating certainty; it’s about reducing uncertainty and being clear about that uncertainty...’
    • As library and information practitioners we may rely too much on anecdotal evidence. Currently, there are only 20 completed randomized trials. Systematic Reviews are even more thin on the ground (1?) and there’s not much in the way of meta-analyses in LIP.

  DEFINITIONS OF EBLIP

  BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTING EBLIP

  In workshop of small groups , we explored some barriers.

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    • Lacks
    of: time; structural barriers; critical appraisal skills; access to the literature, and knowledge about the evidence sources. For example, very few of the attendees had heard of LISTA – a source for Library and Information Science Technology Abstracts.

  THE PROCESS OF EBL

  THE FIVE A’S

  We tried out the Five A’s by investigating a specific service improvement: Extending opening hours.

  THE FIRST A – ASK A FOCUSED QUESTION

  The workshop then worked through an example of a case study with another helpful tool SPICE! And for all the girls out there yes he did the song, I’LL TELL ya what I want what I really really want...The reference interview takes wings... The anthem is actually:

  ‘USE SPICE NOT PICO.’(PATIENT, INTERVENTION, COMPARISON, OUTCOME) - Our usual method for forming the search-question. So what is SPICE? Here is the definition as applied to our case study- whether to change the library opening hours.

  SPICE

  S -SETTING

  - WHAT IS THE CONTEXT FOR THE QUESTION? – UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

  P - PERSPECTIVE

  –Who are the users/potential users? - STUDENTS

  I - INTERVENTION

  – What is being done to them/for them? – PROVISION OF INCREASED HOURS

  C - COMPARISON

  – What are your alternatives? – CURRENT PROVISION

  E - EVALUATION

  – How will you measure whether the intervention has succeeded? – COST-BENEFIT

  THE SECOND A – ACQUIRE THE EVIDENCE

  Most research in LIS is done by postgraduate students, so abstracts and dissertations need to be searched. We need to develop our evidence base as stated earlier i.e. write and publish papers.

  THE THIRD A – APPRAISE THE STUDIES

  See case study below, use checklists for critical appraisal of studies.

  THE FOURTH A - APPLY THE EVIDENCE

  Ideally we want evidence that is directly applicable. However, we usually need to validate this by local information perhaps via a survey or audit. Another technique for assessing applicability is

  The acronym SCOPE:

  THE FIFTH A – ASSESS THE IMPACT... AND YOUR OWN DEVELOPMENT

  • Identify what you need to measure, what data you need to measure it and methods for measuring.
  • Do changes support organisational goals?
  • Compare changes to deliverables or outcomes in original plan
  • Quantify extent of changes
  • Have changes resulted in customer service improvement?
  • Have any further questions arisen?
  • Evaluate your EBLIP performance
  • Have I followed the stages of EBLIP process?
  • Have I improved my professional skills?
  • Has the process revealed any personal or professional strengths or weaknesses?

  CASE STUDY

  Workshop members split into 3 groups to practice critical appraisal on 2 separate types of article using 2 different types of checklist tool. Copies are available from Catriona Denoon.

  After the whole process is completed, it is useful to note that a ‘Spiral’ can occur, that is, after one series of the process another series can be generated. And so start again with the 5 A’S.

  FINDING THE EVIDENCE

  Sources: LISA, LISTA :

  • Ask

www.libraryresearch.com

(Free from EBSCO)

Expanding the search by using Management and marketing databases e.g. ABI

Inform, ERIC, computing abstracts, Social sciences sources.

Useful resources:

BioMed Central, BUBL; For Grey literature SIGLE

Burning questions ,current issues

Asking the question – as easy as PIE:

Christine CatherKnowledge Services Advisor (Access and Inclusion)NHS Education for Scotland, Knowledge Services Group, One Clifton House, Clifton Place, Glasgow 0141 352 2891christine.cather@nes.scot.nhs.uk