Preliminary Program

POST CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS:

1. Implementing Evidence-based Library and Information Practice

2-day Workshop; May 10-11; 9am - 4:30pm ($200; box lunch included)

Andrew Booth, Director of Information Resources & Senior Lecturer in Evidence Based Healthcare Information, School of Health & Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, UK
Anne Brice, Director of the Library, Informatics and Knowledge Centre, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford, UK

Training in EBLIP to date has tended to focus on the technical processes, such as critical appraisal and evidence based summaries, at the expense of issues of implementation. The paradigm is now sufficiently mature to sustain efforts to implement EBLIP locally into mainstream library and information practice. Experience from EBLIP workgroups, such as the Central Coast Health Library Services team in Australia (1), suggests that small group, project-based approaches are a likely route to successful implementation. In addition, wider experience from Evidence Based Healthcare intensive workshops (2) attests to the value of focused multi-perspective small group work as a vehicle for teaching and as a springboard for subsequent assimilation into practice.

This workshop will provide a first opportunity to replicate these processes in a protected and safe environment. Over a two day period participants will work in common interest groups (e.g. collection development, digital libraries, information skills training, enquiry services, library outreach, and quality management) each comprising 5 or 6 participants. Each group will follow a semi-structured process, prompted by “trigger” scenarios over the course of an extended case study, allowing modification and ownership of the chosen topic. Each session will begin with a plenary lecture by an acknowledged expert in the field, providing an overview of the relevant stage of the EBLIP process. It will be followed by intensive group work, applying principles from the lecture to the groups’ specific interest topics, with support materials provided by the instructors. It will conclude with plenary feedback allowing all groups to benefit from both observations on the process itself and from the specific findings from each group.

Andrew Booth and Anne Brice are both among the most experienced facilitators of small group teaching within a European library context. They will employ a vast array of problem based learning approaches to provide variety and stimulation from the collective learning experience over the two days of the course. By the end of the course each participant will have acquired practical experience of tackling significant implementation issues in a topic of interest to them and their employing organisations. In addition they will have gained insights from considering both the perspectives of those leading implementation and those who are (perhaps unwilling) recipients at the pointed end of the change process.

1 Booth, A (2006) Australian supermodel?—A practical example of evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP). Health Information & Libraries Journal 23 (1), 69-72.

2 Crites GE, McDonald SD, Markert RJ (2002). Teaching EBM facilitation using small groups. Med Teach. Jul; 24(4):442-4.

2. How to Assess the Evidence: A Critical Appraisal Tool

1/2-day workshop; May 10; 9a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ($60)

Lindsay Glynn, Instruction Coordinator, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

With the amount of research evidence available, it sometimes can be difficult to know if the research we are using to inform decision-making is good research. There can be a gap between research and practice that can be bridged by critical appraisal. Critical appraisal is the process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, applicability and appropriateness before using it to inform a decision.

Lindsay Glynn has created a critical appraisal tool for Evidence Based Librarianship. As an exhaustive tool, it is more than just a series of questions: it includes a checklist divided into sections (Population, Data Collection, Study Design, and Results) as well as calculations for section validity and overall validity. Lindsay will begin with an overview of what critical appraisal is and how it can be used in library and information practice. She will then present the critical appraisal tool, with a brief lecture on the components of the critical appraisal checklist, including what they mean, what information is required to answer the checklist questions, and why the questions are relevant. Workshop participants will then be involved in a hands-on exercise. They will divide into groups and apply the critical appraisal model to published research and present the results to all participants. Findings will be discussed.

3. Meta-analysis: Searching, Evaluating and Synthesizing the Evidence

1/2-day workshop; May 10; 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. ($60)

Kalyani Ankem, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University
Anne Linton, Director, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, George Washington University

This half-day workshop aims to help participants in efficiently and effectively searching for evidence, evaluating retrieved literature, and combining precise and reliable evidence on a topic found in the literature by employing meta-analytic methods. The first part, covered by Anne Linton, will focus on search techniques that emphasize comprehensive, evidence-based retrieval on a topic. The second part, presented by Kalyani Ankem, will cover evaluating and synthesizing the evidence retrieved from the literature. The workshop is designed for educators in research universities, as well as for practitioners in all types of libraries and information centers who are interested in gathering and statistically synthesizing precise evidence to inform practice. Health information professionals who support evidence-based healthcare by searching and evaluating literature will also find the workshop to be informative.

Goals of the Workshop

1. Formulating a focused research question and selecting resources;
2. Comprehensive searching for the research literature on a topic, with emphasis on the evidence pyramid and techniques for various question types;
3. Learning the structure of comprehensive searches by reviewing samples in the evidence-based medical literature;
4. Evaluating retrieved articles to determine relevance and quality;
5. Gathering data from the retrieved literature;
6. Conducting homogeneity tests to account for dissimilar data; and
7. Aggregating results retrieved by applying meta-analytic techniques and utilizing SPSS software.

Participant Preparation for Workshop

Participants who are interested in discussing their research questions are invited to attend the workshop with a research statement. The research statement must be submitted to the workshop instructors prior to the workshop. Consultation will be provided during the last half hour of the workshop for the submitted research statements.

Example of a research statement: A meta-analysis of effective methods of information giving for positive patient outcomes in cancer. [The example is based on a systematic review conducted by McPherson, Higginson, and Hearns (2001).]
Other participants are welcome to attend the workshop without a submitted research statement. All participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussion of research statements.

4. Performance Measurement in Academic Libraries

1-day Workshop; May 11; 9am - 4:30pm ($120; box lunch included)

Martha Kyrillidou, Director, ARL Statistics and Service Quality Programs

Steve Hiller, Library Assessment Coordinator, University of Washington Libraries

Jim Self, Director, Management Information Services at the University of Virginia Library

This full day workshop will focus on understanding developments in library assessment in academic libraries. Participants will learn about the New Measures Initiatives of the Association of Research Libraries and how it has led to the establishment of the StatsQUAL™ service which includes assessment protocols like LibQUAL+®, DigiQUAL™, and MINES for Libraries™. Participants will be explore how they can start thinking about assessment at their own institutions. Seasoned assessment practitioners will discuss how they are implementing assessment at their institutions and lessons learned from the ‘Effective, Sustainable and Practical Assessment’ service currently operated by ARL. The presenters will attempt to chart a vision for the future of academic libraries and how assessment can help us realize that vision.

Goals:

1. Understand how libraries are changing the way they describe their performance
2. ARL’s role in performance measurement for academic and research libraries
3. Explore the relationship between performance measurement and user assessment
4. Explore how the balanced score card can help you with your assessment efforts
5. Learn about alternative assessment methods
6. 2020 vision for libraries

Currently Martha, Steve and Jim work together on the ‘Effective, Sustainable and Practical Assessment’ service. The goal is to establish a process for helping libraries develop sustainable assessment efforts. The service provides libraries with the knowledge and understanding to make wise selection and application of measurement techniques and use of assessment data in sound management practices. A paper, co-authored by the workshop leaders, “Assessment in North American research libraries: a preliminary report card” Performance Measurement and Metrics: The International Journal for Library and Information Services, 7 (2), 2006: 100-106, is especially germane to this workshop.