Biomedical subjects
Andrew Booth
Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Booth.
'and even evidence-based librarianship'?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Clear-cut?: facilitating health librarians to use information research in practice.
In 1999, staff at the universities of Sheffield and Oxford commenced an unfunded project to examine whether it is feasible to apply critical appraisal to daily library practice. This aimed to establish whether barriers experienced when appraising medical literature (such as lack of clinical knowledge, poor knowledge of research methodology and little familiarity with statistical terms) might be reduced when appraising research within a librarian's own discipline. Innovative workshops were devised to equip health librarians with skills in interpreting and applying research. Critical Skills Training in Appraisal for Librarians (CRISTAL) used purpose-specific checklists based on the Users' Guides to the Medical Literature. Delivery was via half-day workshops, based on a format used by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Two pilot workshops in Sheffield and Oxford were evaluated using a brief post-workshop form. Participants recorded objectives in attending, their general understanding of research, and whether they had read the paper before the workshop. They were asked about the length, content and presentation of the workshop, the general format, organization and learning environment, whether it had been a good use of their time and whether they had enjoyed it. Findings must be interpreted with caution. The workshops were enjoyable and a good use of time. Although the scenario selected required no clinical knowledge, barriers remain regarding statistics and research methodology. Future workshops for librarians should include sessions on research design and statistics. Further developments will take forward these findings.
Collective decisions.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A quest for questionnaires.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Using research in practice.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Working together: supporting projects through action learning.
Recent years have seen tremendous growth in knowledge management projects within the NHS. Project staff must acquire rapidly a wide range of task-related skills. Conventional training courses may be inappropriately timed or unavailable to project staff. Action learning provides a group-based means of meeting skills deficits associated with project management and delivery. This paper describes an action learning set for project staff on five knowledge management projects within Trent Region. A brief evaluation aimed to identify most and least useful and most and least enjoyable features of the action learning set. Comments on the facilitation and the content of the action learning sessions are analysed. Action learning is feasible in meeting the training needs of project staff. It may also provide a means of meeting the shared learning needs of communities of practice within a virtual environment. Knowledge management does not merely involve management and delivery within innovative projects but also requires exploiting shared learning across projects.
Using research in practice.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Mirage or reality?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Libraries without walls still need windows.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
On a cautious adoption of innovative projects.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
From EBM to EBL: two steps forward or one step back?
The author employs his vantage point as a contributor to Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) and Evidence-based Librarianship (EBL) in the United Kingdom to anticipate obstacles to be overcome by the emerging EBL paradigm. After reviewing and synthesizing three proto-definitions of EBL, he discusses issues around the potential domains to be populated by research findings. He then briefly considers the contribution that critical appraisal skills can make to an evidence-based profession. In concluding that "evidence-based librarianship" is a self-limiting "label," he encourages health information professionals instead to promote the contribution of librarianship to evidence-based practice, a role for which they are uniquely qualified.