Microsoft Word - News4162 Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2008, 3:4 89 Evidence Based Library and Information Practice News/Announcements How Spicy Can it Get? Librarian Meets Librarian at the 3rd International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference, Brisbane, 2005 Suzanne Lewis Gosford Hospital Library NSW, Australia E-mail: slewis@nsccahs.nsw.gov.au Ray A’court Macquarie University NSW, Australia E-mail: racourt@mq.edu.au © 2008 Lewis and A’court. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. When health librarian Lisa Cotter from NSW, Australia, set out to attend the 3rd International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference held in Brisbane in 2005, her aim was to meet Andrew Booth, EBLIP guru. Little did she know that she would meet two Andrews and go on to marry one of them three years later! Her experience prompted library colleagues of both parties to ask the following research question: How does meeting Andrew Spencer, librarian from Macquarie University, NSW, Australia, compare to meeting Andrew Booth in terms of quality of life outcomes? Colleagues of Lisa and Andrew attempted to answer this question. Their first step was to break the research question down using the SPICE methodology: Setting Third International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 2005 Perspective Librarian and EBLIP groupie Lisa Cotter Intervention Meeting Andrew Booth Comparison Meeting Andrew Spencer Evaluation Outcomes measured using quality of life indicators Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2008, 3:4 90 Action research methods, mainly observation, were used to obtain evidence. The subject, Lisa Cotter, was observed interacting with the comparison, Andrew Spencer: a cup of coffee during a break in conference proceedings; the odd glance over a poster display; excitedly relating amusing reference queries. There was a slight catch in Andrew’s voice when he talked about Lisa’s coding. It was not long before both parties were dropping the odd suggestive Boolean operator. Both Lisa and Andrew complimented each other on how evidence based their practice really was. Andrew Booth made a valiant attempt to divert Lisa’s attention by referring to her as 'an evidence based practice supermodel', but Andrew Spencer trumped this by offering Lisa the enticements of a Web 2.0 environment. Soon Lisa and Andrew were well past the stage of using a controlled vocabulary. Outcomes were measured using quality of life indicators. The outcomes of the intervention – a couple of papers published in this journal and a conference paper or two – rated far lower than the outcomes of the comparison which included a wedding on 13 September 2008, held at the State Library of New South Wales, and a baby expected in January 2009. This is evidence of the highest quality according to all critical appraisal methodology. Therefore, Lisa and Andrew’s colleagues, friends and families concluded that while the desired intervention (meeting Andrew Booth) was achieved, the comparison (meeting Andrew Spencer) resulted in high quality outcomes which were applied to everyday practice – love, happiness, family and joy. Update Thomas Paul Cotter Spencer arrived seven weeks early on Friday, 14 November 2008, weighing 4.65 pounds (2.1 kilograms). Mother, father, and baby are all doing well. Thomas is still being cared for in hospital but is making great progress and is expected to be home well before Christmas.