1. Choose your own adventure: standing out with evidence-based practice
Today is mostly ‘hands on’ and is about exploring the evidence-based practice process with real life scenarios.
Hopefully help you to see how evidence-based practice is relevant and needs to be incorporated day to day. EBP is not a ‘one off’ thing we do.
Also hope to inspire curiosity – questions, follow up.
The activities will be quick, there is no perfect solution – much like real life!
Alisa Howlett
Coordinator, Evidence Based USQ Library
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

2. Today’s aims:
Explore the evidence-based practice process with real-life scenarios
Help you to see how evidence-based practice can be incorporated into day-to-day work (not a ‘one-off’)
Inspire curiosity

3. What is evidence-based practice?
a structured process of articulating questions or problems, collecting, interpreting and applying valid and reliable evidence to support decision making and continuous service improvement in professional practice.
Evidence-based practice in library and information science started to gain traction in the early 2000’s. Much discussion and empirical research has followed in order to adapt the framework from its medical origins to the realities of library and information professional practice.
Library and information science is not the only profession to promote evidence-based practice as an approach to continuous improvement. Evidence-based practice can also be found in government, social work and education.
Evidence-based practice is important for a number of reasons.
We practice and deliver services in an evidence-based way to:
use our resources in ways that meet client needs effectively
ensure we are constantly responding and adapting to keep relevant in an ever-changing environment
continuously improve our practice and services, and
ensure we deliver services aligned with institutional goals
Evidence based practice is about being critical and reflective of what informs out work. More often than not, we don’t take the time to stop and think about how we do things. Practicing in an evidence based way makes you stand out because you demonstrate curiosity, you’re actively looking around to find what works and what doesn’t, and seeking to understand the context and what users need.
Howlett and Thorpe, 2018

4. Professional knowledge
Research evidence
Professional knowledge
Local evidence
What is evidence?
Research evidence
Books
Journal articles
Conference papers
Systematic reviews
Benchmarks and standards
Professional knowledge
Expertise
Professional experience
Tacit knowledge
Input from colleagues
What other libraries do
Intuition
Non-research literature (blogs, commentaries, tweets)
Local evidence
Statistics
Client feedback
Surveys & evaluation forms
Policy and procedure documents
Observations and anecdotal evidence
Budgets and staffing numbers
All are valid sources and most importantly, no one type of evidence stands alone.
As we will see, the type of evidence you use is going to depend on the question/problem you are considering and the need for information.
re-created from Koufogiannakis, D Considering the place of practice- based evidence within Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP). Library and Information Research, 35(111),

5. What does EBP look like? Usually not a linear process
Interpreting our context; understanding our community (Koufogiannakis, 2015)
A mindset, a ‘way of being’ a professional, looking outward and around (Partridge et al, 2010; Wilson, 2013; Gillespie, 2014)
Being strategic and critical of what informs our work and what tells the story

6. Activity 1: Evidence gathering
(7 minutes)
For scenario 1:
Read the scenario and consider the evidence.
Consider what the question or problem might be.
Agree on the question or problem needing investigation.
Read the scenario
Consider the evidence
Identify ‘best available’ evidence to meet the need in your scenario
Time to start exploring!
You have 7 minutes for this exercise.
What is ‘best available’?
Be wary of the evidence before you. What does it say? What doesn’t it say? How reliable is it? How relevant is it to your need?
Set the timer!

7. Activity 2: Applying evidence
(7 minutes)
Review the evidence you have identified might inform your scenario.
Identify your next steps to:
collect other evidence
make a decision
share your story with stakeholders
take other action
For Scenario 1 = what evidence are you going to gather to answer your question?
For Scenario 2 = what decisions are you going to make about staff training?
For Scenario 3 = How are you going to communicate your performance? To whom?
For Scenario 4 = What action are you going to take next?
Set the timer!
The workshop does not include a report back at the end of Activity 2, but if you have time, you could incorporate this next step to ignite further discussion among your team.

8. Your backpack: Resources
Workshop materials, including presentation slides and activities: acrystelle.com
Other useful resources:
Koufogiannakis, D., & Brettle, A. (Eds.). (2016). Being evidence based in library and information practice. London England: Facet Publishing.
Gillespie, A., Miller, F., Partridge, H., Bruce, C., & Howlett, A. (2017). What Do Australian Library and Information Professionals Experience as Evidence? Evidence Based Library & Information Practice, 12(1), doi:
Grieves, K. (2017). Generating bespoke value and impact evidence to inform a thought-leadership approach to service engagement. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries, Oxford.

9. Your backpack: Practical tips
Analyse and interpret your data/evidence! Ask ‘what stands out here?’
Pull your question or need apart – identify key stakeholders and what you are asking as this will inform your method (eg. survey questions)
Explore and consider other possible evidence sources (eg. is a survey the best way to gather what you need?)
It is okay to go back and forth in the EBP process – it is not linear in reality!

10. alisa.howlett@usq.edu.au / @acrystelle / acrystelle.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
For more information:
Alisa Howlett
/ acrystelle.com