Alison Brettle

Biography

Alison is an information specialist and researcher undertaking research in relation to information and evidence based practice.  She has a particular interest in the effectiveness and evaluation of information skills training.  Alison also provides specialist information support on systematic reviews and other health related research projects, undertakes information skills training and develops training materials within the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Salford.  Alison has recently undertaken systematic reviews on the effectiveness of information skills training and the evaluation of information skills training and co-authored a book aimed at health practitioners on literature searching for evidence based practice.

Abstract - Made to measure: developing a template to assess the effectiveness of information skills training

Background:   Many health librarians deliver information skills training and spend a large amount of time and resources in doing so.   In an era that is driving us to be evidence based and provide a value for money and quality service, it is essential that librarians demonstrate that their training is effective.   A recent systematic review (Brettle, 2003a), concluded that users value training, but there was insufficient evidence to determine whether information skills training is effective.   It was also recommended that more objective rather than subjective measures are used to demonstrate whether training actually makes a difference.   A further review and survey (Brettle, 2003b) established that there were limited objective measures available and those that were, had not been sufficiently tested and were not always feasible to use.   Developing a measure that can be used by librarians to demonstrate the effectiveness of their training is therefore a worthwhile exercise.

Aim: To review and discuss current methods of assessing the effectiveness of literature searching training.    To identify the relevant skills and appropriate methods of measuring them in order to design a template for the development of new objective measure. It is hoped that the workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to generate an agenda for future research as well as gain knowledge about how they might assess the effectiveness of their own literature searching training programmes.

Methods: The interactive workshop will have three parts.   First the facilitators will review current methods for assessing the effectiveness of literature searching training and highlight their strengths and weaknesses.   Participants will then be organised into small groups to discuss some of the following issues:

• What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of objective and subjective measures of the effectiveness of literature searching training?

• What key skills should be measured to demonstrate the effectiveness of literature skills training?

• Should any new measure be generic and applicable across populations, applications and databases or is there a need for more specific measures?

• What is the most appropriate format for assessing the impact of literature skills training, for example, a checklist, a searching exercise or other format?

• What factors will affect the use of objective measures in research and routine delivery or training?

Finally, the small groups will feedback to a larger group discussion on these issues and the main points will recorded for future circulation to all participants.

This page was last updated on: 6 May, 2004