Academic Library Instruction, Evidence-Based Practice, and Social Workers: An Exploratory Survey

Abstract

When social work students graduate and move into their professional practice, they also move into a vastly different information landscape than that of the academic environment. To better understand the use of evidence-based practice (EBP) and information sources in practice, the authors performed a national survey of social workers. This survey provides a snapshot of how frequently social workers employ EBP, their use of research articles and other information resources, and their prior library instruction. The researchers make recommendations for increased consideration of the practice environment in library instruction, open access advocacy, and outreach to the field.

Fostering Information Literacy

“…There is a small but growing body of research concerning information literacy instruction specific to social work education (Bingham et al, 2016;Doney, 2018;Magliaro & Munro, 2018;Pendell & Kimball, 2020). At the heart of these inquiries exists a growing consensus around three recurrent themes: in aggregate, incoming social work students lack the information literacy skills required for graduate level education; the provision of ILI in schools of social work is primarily reliant on individual relationships between librarians and social work instructors; and formal social work education would benefit from a broad inclusion of ILI at critical junctures in the curricula designed and implemented in collaboration with information literacy specialists (librarians) on the local level.…”

“…Lastly, there is recent focus on life-long learning and related professional behavior among social work practitioners (Jivanjee et al, 2015;Pendell, 2018;Pendell & Kimball, 2020). In a turn that at the least seems short-sighted and at worst is undermining, the transition from student to professional is frequently accompanied by losing access to scholarly literature necessary to support research-informed practice.…”

“…Stemming from their librarian/social work educator collaboration, Pendell and Kimball (2020) report on a national survey of social work professionals assessing their use of EBP models, of research literature as well as other information sources, and their exposure to ILI during their graduate studies. Respondents (n=123) ranked the use of peer-reviewed research a close second (out of nine) of the most important information sources but only 60% of the cohort reported adequate access to it, citing cost as the primary obstacle.…”

“…Reale (2018) laments this failure of departmental faculty to use academic librarians as genuine partners in education rather than as providers of one-off instructional sessions. Likewise, Pendell and Kimball (2020) note the dearth of discussion specifically in the social work literature concerning ILI. This instructor-reliant trend presents a number pedagogic obstacles.…”

Dissemination of applied research to the field: attitudes and practices of faculty authors in social work

“…We found that practitioners rely heavily on research articles but are unable to access those to the extent needed. 2 To examine the flip side of this problem, in this study we explored the research dissemination practices of social work researchers based on data from a nationwide survey and follow-up qualitative interviews. We inquired about faculty attitudes and practices towards reaching non-academic audiences, gold and green open access (OA), research dissemination in the context of promotion and tenure, and impact in the practice field.…”