Being Evidence Based in Library and Information Practice

Library and Information Science is a profession that is full of people passionate about making a positive change in the world & they tend to be wildly happy about what they do. The joint term is associated with schools of library and information science (abbreviated to "SLIS"). In the last part of 1960s, schools of librarianship, which generally developed from professional training programs (not academic disciplines) to university institutions during the second half of the 20th century, began to add the term "information science" to their names. Evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) or evidence-based librarianship (EBL) is the application of the interdisciplinary approach known as evidence-based practice (EBP) to problems in the field of library and information science (LIS). This means that all practical decisions made within LIS should be based on research studies and that these research studies are selected and interpreted according to some specific norms characteristic for EBP. Typically such norms disregard theoretical studies and qualitative studies and consider quantitative studies according to a narrow set of criteria of what counts as evidence. If such a narrow set of methodological criteria are not applied, it is better instead to speak of research based library and information practice. This book, Being Evidence Based in Library and Information Practice provide evidence summaries an opportunity for librarians and other information professionals on a wide number of topics that may contribute to decision making in professional practice.