Evidence-Based Practice and Organizational Development in Libraries

Russell, Keith W.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/9499 Copy

Description

Title

Evidence-Based Practice and Organizational Development in Libraries

Author(s)

Russell, Keith W.

Issue Date

2008

Keyword(s)

Lancaster, F. Wilfrid (Frederick Wilfrid), 1933-

Abstract

This article is written for a Festschrift for F. W. Lancaster, and it summarizes the author’s library school experiences as a student of Professor Lancaster and Professor Herbert Goldhor at the University of Illinois. Both professors instilled in students a strong inclination to use real and appropriate information in evaluating situations, making decisions, delivering information services, and managing libraries. The author suggests that this Lancaster-Goldhor approach to information, and to data-driven decision making, anticipated the current movement toward evidence-based practice (EBP) in libraries. He suggests that libraries embrace the premises, philosophy, values, and practices of organizational development (OD) as an overarching discipline that facilitates EBP in the library culture, and ultimately leads to healthier and more effective organizations. This article complements a 2004 Library Trends article on OD, and numerous recent publications on OD and related topics are cited.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/9499

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2008 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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