*Note: The following is from our archived collection of older documents, and may not reflect the most current information.
A Survey to Support 'Evidence-Based Practice' in Special Libraries Serving Fire Service Personnel and Researchers in Public Safety and Homeland Security Areas - 2003 Goldspiel Grant
Full Report (MS Word)
The 2003 Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant was awarded to Dr. Linda C. Smith and Ms. Lian Ruan for their project "A Survey to Support 'Evidence-Based Practice' in Special Libraries Serving Fire Service Personnel and Researchers in Public Safety and Homeland Security Areas."
What impact have special libraries made on information use by fire professionals in their decision-making? According to inFIRE (the international network for Fire Information and Reference Exchange, an international fire library consortium, there are approximately eighteen fire libraries in the United States. These fire libraries represent, for firefighters and researchers, the most accessible and professionally organized resource for library programs and information services. Since most fire libraries have solo librarians and do not routinely conduct evaluations of their services, a system for measuring outcomes and program evaluation needs to be devised. There are no established quality assurance procedures in fire libraries either. Assessment techniques used in other library settings are either inappropriate when applied to fire libraries or provide little insight into the effect of library services on fire professionals.
Focusing on evidence-based research, the goal of this proposed study is to expand our knowledge about the value and impact of information services provided by special libraries and the special librarians who manage them for firefighters and researchers in the fire service. One objective is to demonstrate critical roles in public safety and homeland security played by special librarians. The evidence of value and impact as applied to information use by firefighters and researchers in the fire service will be provided. Another objective is to encourage fire libraries to develop methods of analyzing user services. To perform this impact study, the primary goals and objectives, as they relate to the SLA Research Agenda, will focus on seeking to determine aspects of a system for measuring outcomes and program evaluation and questionnaires to measure the impact of library-supplied information on practical decision-making and applied research. This SLA research study is different from many other attempts to evaluate the impact of library services because it focuses on measuring the impact of information provided by special libraries on users in the public sector rather than the private sector.
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