Information literacy for speech-language pathologists: a key to evidence-based practice.
OBJECTIVE
In this tutorial, we review the tenets of information literacy (IL) that parallel and intersect with new American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certification standards requiring clinicians to engage in evidence-based practice (EBP).


METHODS
A review of the literature on EBP in medical and allied health areas was conducted through an online database search. The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (American Library Association, 2004) are used as a framework for outlining IL practices that will aid in EBP.


RESULTS
Current strategies are contrasted with more desirable strategies. Potential barriers to the utilization of information-literate procedures in locating sources of reliable clinical evidence are discussed together with potential solutions.


CONCLUSIONS
Suggestions for more efficient information searches by clinicians, as well as a proposed discipline-wide agenda for increasing clinicians' IL skills during and after entry-level graduate training, are provided.
Nail-Chiwetalu
Barbara J
BJ
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7011, USA. bnailchi@umd.edu
Ratner
Nan Bernstein
NB
D016235:American Speech-Language-Hearing Association; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology; D014481:United States