Research Guides: MD 812 Searching for Evidence: Information in Practice

Step 1: Information Literacy = Evidence Based Practice

Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.

American Library Association. (2015). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic research.

Sackett, D.L., Rosenberg, W.C., and Gray, J.A.M. (1996). Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ, 312, 71-72. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.uky.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29730277

Research as Inquiry

Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.

Novices:

Acquire strategic perspective on inquiry and a greater repertoire of investigative methods.

Experts:

See inquiry as a process that focuses on problems or questions in a discipline or between disciplines that are open or unresolved.
Recognize the collaborative effort within a discipline to extend knowledge in that field.

- American Library Association. (2015). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education..

Scholarship as Conversation

Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.

Novices:

Enter the conversation by developing familiarity with the sources of evidence, methods, and modes of discourse in the field.

Experts:

Understand that a given issue may be characterized by several competing perspectives as part of an ongoing conversation in which information users and creators come together and negotiate meaning.
Understand that, while some topics have established answers through this process, a query may not have a single uncontested answer.
Are inclined to seek out many perspectives, not merely the ones with which they are familiar.

- American Library Association. (2015). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education..