B5: Recommendations
In the light of this review, we recommend that:
- the commissioners of future value and impact research should ensure that all decisions about research funding in this area should be based on an adequate understanding of the concepts of value and impact
- commissioners of such research should be wary of any suggestions that national surveys of LIS processes/activities can contribute to our understanding of value and impact
- researchers be expected to specify clear and achievable objectives in relation to value and impact and to propose ways of carrying out the research that will directly and continuously address these objectives
- commissioners of future value and impact research should ensure that any steering groups appointed to funded projects should have access to adequate understanding of the concepts of value and information and of how these concepts might be successfully investigated
- commissioners of such research should consider appointing an appropriately qualified and experienced research consultant to monitor ongoing large-scale funded research projects to ensure that issues of value and impact are directly and continuously addressed (in addition to the internal monitoring role currently undertaken by Re:source staff)
- all concerned with gauging the impact of services should be aware that this focus can lead to neglecting other equally important questions such as the comparative effectiveness of different approaches to service delivery, hence the need for comparative controlled studies in this area (as urged by advocates of evidence-based practice).
DRS; SM
Information Management Associates
April 2002; revised May 2002.
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