The research‐practice spiral

Abstract

This article describes a partnership between the Information Management Research Institute, Northumbria University and the Durham and Teesside Health Libraries Alliance which aims to put research into practice, conduct practitioner focussed research and develop the research capacity of NHS librarians. The work of the partnership is illustrated by looking at how the Alliance has used the findings of one of IMRI’s research projects “Partnerships in Health”. The Alliance has used these findings to inform their work plan, but in addition they have amended the project’s models in the light of their experiences of implementation and of NHS changes. These amendments in their turn generate new research questions and new research projects. Thus a research‐practice spiral is produced. The partnership is one example of evidence‐based librarianship in practice.