1 - Introduction

Summary

This book brings together recent theory, research and case studies from practice environments across the broad field of librarianship to illustrate how librarians can incorporate the principles of evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) into their work. EBLIP is an approach to professional decision making; however, we wish to emphasize an overall approach to practice that is about being evidence based, which is not limited only to decision making. Being evidence based involves:

• questioning our practice:

— are we doing things in the best way, and is there a better way?

— do we have the information we need to do our jobs?

— do we have the evidence we need to make well-informed decisions?

— why are we making the decisions that we are making?

• gathering or creating the evidence (through research or evaluation) if we don't have it already

• using information or evidence wisely:

— to make decisions about our own practice

— to improve our practice by testing out new ideas and implementing them based on the evidence we find

— to make decisions about our services

— to help others make decisions about our services (by demonstrating our effectiveness, value, impact or worth)

• using our professional skills to help others (often to make their own evidencebased decisions).

This book develops and rethinks the original EBLIP model. It takes an open and inclusive approach to exploring EBLIP and the ways in which it can improve the practice of librarianship. Since EBLIP's inception in 1997 the understanding of what evidence is, as well as how and why librarians use evidence, has grown more mature. Correspondingly, this book puts forward a model and approach to evidence that has evolved but is more realistic and practical for librarians in their everyday work.

This book builds upon the seminal work of Booth and Brice (2004b) by incorporating recent research and practice- based examples to illustrate the natural progression of EBLIP since Booth and Brice's work was published. This book seeks to provide librarians with an accessible new reference point for how they can use and create evidence within their practice to better meet the needs of their communities. It is organized into two sections; the first is structured around Koufogiannakis’ revised framework for EBLIP (Koufogiannakis, 2013), which embraces a wider breadth of evidence sources and understanding of how librarians use evidence.