1. “Evidence based” products for improving
librarian decision making:
A critical analysis
Denise Koufogiannakis
July 7, 2015 | EBLIP8

2. 1.
BACKGROUND

3. What’s going on?

4. 2.
AIMS

5. Aims
This study sought to explore which
products are being promoted as
evidence based, how they are being
presented to librarians, and what types of
messages are being conveyed. Are
these new tools useful or is evidence
based terminology simply being applied
as a marketing strategy?

6. 3.
METHODOLOGY

7. Methodology
▷ Qualitative approach
▷ Discourse analysis
o content analysis
o textual analysis

8. Methods
5 LIS practitioner magazines searched:
▷ Library Journal (USA)
▷ American Libraries (USA)
▷ Feliciter (Canada)
▷ INCITE (Australia)
▷ CILIP Update (UK)
5 years of content searched: 2010-14

9. Methods
Websites & promotional brochures of
identified products
email promotion, vendor trade shows

10. 4.
FINDINGS

11. 12 texts:
▷ Library Journal
(10)
▷ CILIP (1)
▷ INCITE (1)
LIS magazine analysis
Type of content:
▷ article (5)
▷ webcast
promotion (4)
▷ ad (2)
▷ interview (1)

12. ▷ Baker & Taylor’s
collectionHQ (9 texts)
o Evidence Based
Selection Planning (2)
o Evidence Based Stock
Management (1)
▷ Innovative Interfaces
Decision Center (3)
▷ CIVIC technologies (2)
▷ EnvisionWare Enterprise
Reporter (2)
▷ Intota Assessment (2)
Products mentioned
▷ 360 Counter Service (1)
▷ Gale Analytics on
Demand (1)
▷ Bowker Book Analysis
(1)
▷ iPro Live (1)
▷ Nielsen Bookdata (1)
▷ Resources for College
Libraries (1)
▷ Ulrich’s Serials Analysis
(1)
▷ Zoho Creator (1)

13. What do these products do?
Data gathering tools for collection analysis
▷ public libraries - demographic information +
circulation information, - for management of the
collection, help with acquisition decisions
▷ academic libraries - collections related information
such as usage statistics, cost per use - for
cancellation purposes, weeding, ROI

14. Other data sources
Revealed a different type of product being marketed:
Evidence Based Acquisition method of purchasing

15. ▷ Alexander Street
Press
▷ Cambridge University
Press
▷ Elsevier
▷ Gale
▷ Greenleaf
Publishers taking this approach
▷ Oxford University
Press
▷ Palgrave Macmillan
▷ Project Muse
▷ SAGE
▷ Taylor & Francis
▷ Wiley

16. The type of sell
3 selling strategies

17. Direct
Obvious - ads, etc

18. Direct
Unintended
Not intending to sell the product

19. Direct
Stealth
hidden, deceptive
Unintended

20. Terminology used to sell
Magazines
▷ time saving
▷ makes the librarian’s job easier
▷ enables libraries to do more
▷ improves collection management
▷ used by other satisfied customers
▷ dependable
▷ have well-developed infrastructure
▷ easy to use
▷ high quality
Evidence Based Acq.
▷ smart purchasing decisions
▷ “you decide”
▷ Meet direct needs of user
base
▷ maximize budget/flexibility
▷ support decision making

21. “CHQ can extract data from any integrated
library system (ILS) and then, through a suite of
web-based modules, create a data-driven plan
to build and deploy a library’s physical
collection. CHQ makes clear what materials to
buy and in what quantity to meet patron
demand. It also makes transfers among
branches and weeding quick, evidence-based
activities.
LJ3 - Article written by LJ editor

22. “introducing this unique purchase model allows
our customers to experience the platform with
little risk and also enables them to make smart
purchasing decisions that they can feel
comfortable are meeting the direct needs of
their user base.
Gale Virtual Reference Library

23. 5.
DISCUSSION

24. Discussion
▷ Useful products? Evidence-based
products?
▷ Has EBLIP finally arrived? Have we
allowed vendors to apply “evidence-
based” without question? Does this
diminish meaning?
▷ Need to be critical.

25. Thank you!
Any questions?
dak@ualberta.ca
@dkouf

26. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made
and released these awesome resources for
free:
▷ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
▷ Photographs by Unsplash