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Foreword by Carol Tenopir

Amid overall falling enrollment figures for higher education, the growing success of STEM programs bucks the trend. Ensuring that these programs flourish has become a priority for administrators at the provost level and above. But this emphasis on STEM poses challenges for academic libraries, many of which have instead historically focused on the humanities and social sciences. This primer helps to fill that knowledge gap, demystifying the scientific teaching and research processes for LIS students and current academic librarians alike. Regardless of their background or level of experience, readers of this guide will

• gain an overview of the contemporary STEM teaching and research enterprise by learning about the roles and needs of STEM community members such as program administrators, tenure track principal investigators (PIs), non-tenure track teaching faculty, research staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students;
• become familiarized with the “research group,” the organizational structure through which these different personas come together to advance the university research enterprise;
• get pointers on building teaching and learning programs that enhance student success and designing research support services that integrate into STEM researchers' actual workflows;
• receive proven outreach strategies for engaging STEM communities;
• learn approaches for incorporating AI (artificial intelligence) and LLMs (large language models) into information literacy programs for scientists and engineers; and
• discover how library leaders can support both nascent and established STEM librarians to advance STEM education and research at their local institutions.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in academic librarianship is embedded in the way we approach our work. An EBP project might be a yearlong study with many types of evidence collected or a simple assessment that helps you make a small adjustment to your work. Large or small, EBP is a way of operating day-to-day.
 
Everyday Evidence-Based Practice in Academic Libraries: Case Studies and Reflections collects excellent, thorough examples of EBP across functional areas of academic libraries and includes many evidence types in a variety of contexts. Five sections explore:

• Understanding Users
• Leadership and Management
• Instruction and Outreach
• Collections
• Open Initiatives 

Chapters include studies on how to understand the experiences and needs of diverse student populations; interviewing faculty to build scholarly partnerships; evidence-based strategic planning; incorporating intersectionality in information literacy instruction; conducting a diversity audit; and assessing open educational resources initiatives. The conclusion calls for librarian reflection to be incorporated into evidence-based decision-making, as reflection is key to understanding the ways that a librarian chooses to embody librarianship.
 
Everyday Evidence-Based Practice in Academic Libraries offers high-quality evidence from a variety of perspectives and inspires a commitment to evidence-based practice in your day-to-day work and library culture.