Critical thinking is one of the most important elements in making the right decision in every profession. Evidence based practice shows potential to empower the critical thinking skills of practitioners. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of evidence-based information management and practice (EBIMP) training course on the promotion of medical librarians’ critical thinking. This study is a randomized double-blind educational trial in the form of a parallel trial. A sample of 60 librarians were recruited nationwide in the study through the volunteer enrollment to the evidence-based information management and practice training course. Intervention group received a 10-module virtual course focusing on evidence-based information management. But the control group received a basic course of evidence-based medicine. The courses were delivered through virtual learning system and data was collected through California Standard Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire Form B (CCTST). Data were analyzed with Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA), Chi-square (χ²), Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levin tests, and t-test, using SPSS 25. The findings showed that the critical thinking skills of participants after training of the information management and evidence-based practice (EBIMP) had significant improvement in the intervention group compared with the control group regarding the “inference” (4.86 ± 1.94 vs 4.20 ± 1.32), “assessment” (7.90 ± 1.77 vs 5.90 ± 1.70), “Inductive reasoning” (8.67 ± 2.32 vs 6.37 ± 1.87), “deductive reasoning” (6.47 ± 2.04 vs 5.77 ± 1.97) subskills. Education of evidence-based information practice could be effective in promotion of critical thinking skills of medical librarians. This study suggests evidence-based information practice to be added to the curriculum of medical library and information science fields. Trial registration: This study was registered with number 9000.1v1 in Registry of Efficacy and Effectiveness Studies (REES).

Background: Evidence-based practice is competency required by librarians to provide quality services in today’s rapidly growing world of information. This study aimed to instructional desianing and implementing of an evidence-based information management and practice course based on ADDIE Model.Methods: This action research was conducted based on ADDIE Model in 2019 in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The Analysis,Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation was performed accordingly. The course was offered virtually through the Learning Mangement System of one of the top ranked universities in Iran. course evalouation was done based on Kirkpatrick’s model. A Likert-based satisfaction evaluation questionnaire was developed, which included three open-ended questions about strengths and weaknesses of the course and an open-end question for recommendations. After psychometric analysis, the questionnaires were distributed among the participants. The data were analyzed in SPSS 19 and reported by descriptive statistics (mean and SD).Results: After three sessions of focus group discussion, 10 lessons was determined inclouding: evidence-based practice in clinical medicine, critical thinking and mind map, searching and retrieving evidence, systematic reviews, critical appraisal of evidence, systematic search, levels of evidence, systematic questions, and meta-analysis. The syllabuses was categorized in 5 modules based on 5 steps of evidence-based practice guidline.The overall satisfaction about the training was reported excellent (83.52 ± 16.27), and addressed the highest satisfaction with the support services (94.52 ± 29.68).Conclusions: This syllabus is appropriate for short course education of evidence-based approach in librarianship as a branch of medical librarianship and information sciences. It also is suitable for professional continuing education of librarians.