If you are a school librarian wondering about best educational practices or a public librarian wondering about literacy efforts or even an academic librarian wondering about all those crazyeducation kits and lesson plans in your education section or school textbook libraries — The What Works Clearinghouse from the Institution of Education Sciences provides evidence about… wait for it… WHAT WORKS in education. This is a great place to find evidence-based research about literacy or pedagogical practices that your library might be taking part in or supporting with resources.
This is the process they use to determine if something “works”:
1. Define the Scope
2. Search the Literature
3. Assess the Research
4. Combine the Findings
5. Summarize the Review
— This seems real similar to systematic reviews that librarians often do, huh?
Recently, the clearinghouse did a webinar about their process and content. You can view a recording of that webinar here.
OLA_LART: Library Assessment Round Table 