Facilitators, which are essentially resources, may be actual people. Facilitators often include colleagues, librarians and clinical experts in the field. These people provide valuable input and guidance to practitioners, directing them to research, reference tools and related literature. Human facilitators play an important role in evidence-based practice, since they interact and engage with practitioners as the latter collect and analyze evidence. They oversee, but also provide feedback and answer questions, to practitioners during critical stages of research.
Human facilitators are also useful for building culture. Evidence-based practice is constantly evolving, as evidence undergoes change, revision and supplementation. Importantly, facilitators such as librarians, reference assistants, experienced practitioners and other experts enable a culture that values evidence and that always strives for currency by creating an organizational structure in which new and experienced practitioners collaborate to promote the profession. People at different levels in education and practice work together to improve practice.
Facilitators in general --- human or otherwise --- also improve the behavior of practitioners at all levels, and thus, of the profession as a whole. Facilitators increase knowledge, teach new skills and introduce new methods and theory of practice that recommend the profession. When practitioners meet with advisers and teams (other facilitators), or when practitioners consult other resources and reference materials, knowledge is shared and expanded in the professional community, and all benefit.
Facilitators tend to promote what is new in the field. Often, new theories and methods of practice radically disrupt traditional ideologies or patterns. Facilitators, then, compel students and practitioners to acknowledge new values, philosophies or ideas that have potential to significantly impact the field. Facilitators require professionals to adapt methods and practices to keep up with the evidence, rather than rely on established, outdated methods or practices that research has challenged.