How do Evidence Summaries Impact Library Practice? A New Tool for Assessment

Objective

Since 2006, the open access journal, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice has published over 200 evidence summaries. As with clinical evidence summaries which attempt to bridge the gap between clinical research and healthcare practice, these summaries, consisting of structured abstracts and critical appraisals of original research, attempt to bridge the gap between research and information practice. This study investigates the impact of evidence summaries on librarians’ knowledge and practice by developing and validating an impact assessment tool.

Methods

This mixed methods study began by developing and testing a survey questionnaire to assess impact of evidence summaries on librarians’ knowledge, practice, and user communities. The survey was subsequently disseminated to 153 readers of the journal who were asked to respond with reference to a specific incident in order to determine the types of impact that the evidence summaries may have in areas such as practice improvement, learning, reassurance, and confirmation for decision making. Survey results were collected from 86 participants and follow-up in-depth interviews were conducted with a subsample of 20 participants to expand on the survey’s findings and to determine the validity of the assessment tool.

Results

With a focus on results from the health sector, we will draw upon the feedback of evidence summary readers in order to determine the ways in which evidence summaries are being used. This information will allow us to group data and determine types of impact that the evidence summaries may have. It will provide insights regarding the usefulness of evidence summaries and the potential ways they may be improved.

Conclusion

This study will provide unique insight into whether evidence summaries are an effective means of bridging the research-practice gap. These results can then be applied to the health library community and its scholarly communication channels. The validated impact assessment tool may also be applied to other sources of information in library and information practice.  Overall implications for health librarians will be considered.