Health sciences librarian competency perceptions: a survey of national community college librarians.

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to determine how community college health sciences librarians perceive their proficiencies in the essential skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary for the practice of a health information professional as defined by the Medical Library Association (MLA) Competencies for Lifelong Learning and Professional Success. A secondary objective was to determine their current level of engagement with the professional community and identify barriers to further professional development. METHODS: A survey was posted to various email discussion lists, and volunteer follow-up interviews were conducted. RESULTS: The survey was completed by seventy-five community college health sciences librarians, and seven follow-up interviews were performed. Survey results indicated that community college health sciences librarians perceived themselves as having intermediate or advanced intermediate proficiency in the six MLA competencies. Survey and interview results indicated that community college health sciences librarians were engaged with the profession and faced the same barriers to continued professional development and continued education as other academic librarians. CONCLUSION: The results affirm that community college librarians who are responsible for collections and services in the health sciences meet the MLA competencies, which fills a gap in the literature regarding how these librarians develop professional competencies and are involved in professional associations. The results suggest that community college librarians can improve their skill levels by continuing their education and following trends in the literature.

Popping up in Unexpected Places: Posing a Pop-Up Library to Healthcare Staff.

Pop-up libraries have been a trending form of outreach by public and academic libraries during recent years but they are still a novel concept in clinical and hospital settings. Engaging with healthcare staff in common spaces with an inviting temporary display provides an opportunity to proactively raise awareness of library resources and services to non-library users while also piquing interest in a timely topic or special theme. Mayo Clinic librarians describe how a pop-up library was implemented as a unique form of outreach at the Rochester, Minnesota campus in early 2020.

Longitudinal observations of expected and actual library resource usage and barriers experienced by public health students.

OBJECTIVE: This longitudinal observational study explored relationships between actual and expected usage of library resources as well as anticipated and encountered barriers to that usage among public health affiliates over the course of a semester. METHODS: School of Public Health master's degree students were sent questionnaires monthly throughout a semester that asked about usage of and barriers to library resources to examine changes over time. RESULTS: Most students utilized library resources less often than they predicted at the beginning of the semester and did not have accurate expectations about which library resources they would use. Although most students encountered no difficulties using library resources, those who did often had multiple problems and seldom sought library assistance. CONCLUSION: As School of Public Health master's students had unrealistically high expectations of library resource usage, librarians may need to manage students' expectations and assist in overcoming difficulties. Further studies across health sciences disciplines are needed to determine differences between different populations of users.

"What's happening over there?": a study of the current state of services, challenges, and prospects in Nigerian medical libraries.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the current state of service delivery, collections, and challenges in Nigerian medical libraries. METHODS: We employed a descriptive mixed method research design using a cross-sectional quantitative survey of Nigerian medical librarians and qualitative interviews with heads of selected Nigerian medical libraries. RESULTS: Respondents indicated that the US National Library of Medicine classification scheme is most commonly used to organize the resources of medical libraries in Nigeria. Respondents indicated that library users have a high understanding about the library but exhibit low usage of library services. Nigerian medical libraries have social media accounts but use them infrequently. Most medical librarians do not provide specialized services to health care professionals, and monographs are the major information resources in their collections. Most medical librarians in Nigeria have beginner-level knowledge of systematic reviews and evidence-based medicine and rarely organize training for library users. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that services offered by medical libraries in Nigeria are still evolving. Identified skill deficits among medical librarians need to be addressed. The country's library associations and international programs in developing countries should focus on providing continuing education and training of Nigerian medical librarians to enhance their support for medical education and practice in Nigeria.

Services and staffing practices in academic health sciences libraries serving college of osteopathic medicine programs: a mixed methods study.

OBJECTIVE: This study describes and assesses services, staffing practices, and trends in academic health sciences libraries that serve accredited college of osteopathic medicine (COM) programs in the United States. METHODS: The study was conducted in three phases. In phase one, the investigators collected data on library services and staffing through the publicly facing websites of the COM libraries. In phase two, thirty-five COM library directors were invited to complete a survey regarding their services, staffing, supported programs, and students served. In phase three, seven COM library directors participated in phone interviews regarding services that increased their visibility, their motivation to offer expanded services, adequacy of staffing, and competencies required for new librarian roles. The investigators incorporated the Medical Library Association (MLA) competencies as a framework to structure the results. RESULTS: Phase one identified 35 COM libraries serving between 162 and 8,281 students. In phase two, 30 out of a possible 35 survey respondents indicated that the top services offered or considered by COM libraries were in the MLA competency areas of "Instruction & Instructional Design" and "Evidence-Based Practice & Research." In addition, we discovered that COM libraries had a median of 10 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff per 1,000 students. Phase three data revealed that library directors attributed their libraries' success to the skills and talents of their staff, the wide range of resources and services they offered, and the desirability of their physical spaces. Library directors identified skills in the same MLA competency areas as phase two, as well as in the MLA competency areas of "Information Management" and "Leadership & Management," as being desirable for new staff. CONCLUSION: The study results provide information for medical school administrators and library directors to help identify trends across US osteopathic medical schools in order to justify the need for additional services and staffing. These results can assist medical and library leadership in COM schools in planning for their future academic health sciences libraries. Finally, the findings could assist programs in library and information sciences in redesigning their curriculums based on the MLA competencies for students who seek future careers in academic health sciences libraries.

Reflective practice and health sciences librarians: engagement, benefits, and barriers.

OBJECTIVE: Reflective practice is common in nursing and other professions. In the published literature, there is very little about librarians' use of reflective practice and no studies of health librarians' use of reflective practice. This study examined the use of reflective practice among health sciences librarians, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers to use. METHODS: This cross-sectional study replicated the 2014 study by Greenall and Sen, using a version of their questionnaire. The research population in this study was health sciences librarians who were members of the MEDLIB-L email discussion list, Medical Library Association (MLA) chapter email discussion lists, and/or MLA section email discussion lists. RESULTS: There were 106 librarians who completed the questionnaire, ranging from those new to the profession through midcareer to longtime librarians. While a high percentage of respondents considered themselves to be reflective practitioners (77%), a larger percentage (87%) reported that they consciously spent time reflecting. Respondents selected a wide variety of benefits of reflective practice, while barriers tended to center on lack of time, knowledge, skills, or experience. CONCLUSION: The diversity of benefits that respondents selected suggests that reflective practice can play an important positive role in librarians' professional development. Reported barriers to reflective practice suggest that there is a need for educational opportunities to develop skills.

How Medical Students Discover and Use Medical Information Tools.

Many studies have examined how medical faculty and fourth-year medical students use information tools. Few studies have investigated how first, second, and third-year medical students discover and use information tools. In fall 2018, first, second, and third-year medical students received emails describing a study, which included a three-question survey and four interview questions. Of the 525 students, 122 completed the survey and 18 completed interviews. Results showed that clinical students most frequently use UpToDate, but preclinical students use multiple information tools. This report shows librarians can positively influence how preclinical students use information tools during medical school.

Benchmarking veterinary librarians' participation in systematic reviews and scoping reviews.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to benchmark roles that veterinary librarians at universities and colleges play in systematic reviews (SRs) and scoping reviews that are conducted by faculty and students at their institutions, to benchmark the level of training that veterinary librarians have in conducting SRs, to identify barriers to their participation in SRs, and to identify other types of literature reviews that veterinary librarians participate in. METHODS: Sixty veterinary librarians in universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand were surveyed online about their roles and training in conducting SRs, barriers to participation in SRs, and participation in other types of literature reviews. RESULTS: Veterinary librarians' highest participation was at an advising level in traditional librarian roles as question formulator, database selector, search strategy developer, and reference manager. Most respondents reported pretty good to extensive training in traditional roles and no or some training in less traditional roles. Sixty percent of respondents received few or no requests to participate in SRs, and only half of respondents had participated in SRs as a review team member. Sixty percent of respondents stated that their libraries had no policies regarding librarian roles and participation in SRs. CONCLUSIONS: The surveyed veterinary librarians participated in SRs to a lesser degree than human health sciences librarians, experienced low demand from veterinary faculty and students to participate in SRs, and participated as review team members at significantly lower rates than human health sciences librarians. The main barriers to participation in SRs were lack of library policies, insufficient training, and lack of time.

Not All Library Analytics are Created Equal: LibAnswers to the Rescue!

The reasons for implementing and the advantages of switching to the Reference Analytics system, a part of the Springshare LibAnswers platform, for collecting reference statistics at a three-campus university library are described. The benefits of using this web-based product are highlighted based on the comparison with the previously used analytical tools and the annual statistical data. Transitioning to Reference Analytics allowed librarians to take advantage of such features, as seamless access to reference transactions, easy customization, cross-tabulation, and data visualization, proving beneficial for overall library reference services.

The relative citation ratio: what is it and why should medical librarians care?

Bibliometrics is becoming increasingly prominent in the world of medical libraries. The number of presentations related to research impact at the Medical Library Association (MLA) annual meeting has been increasing in past years. Medical centers have been using institutional dashboards to track clinical performance for over a decade, and more recently, these institutional dashboards have included measures of academic performance. This commentary reviews current practices and considers the role for a newer metric, the relative citation ratio.

Roles for librarians in systematic reviews: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: What roles do librarians and information professionals play in conducting systematic reviews? Librarians are increasingly called upon to be involved in systematic reviews, but no study has considered all the roles librarians can perform. This inventory of existing and emerging roles aids in defining librarians' systematic reviews services. METHODS: For this scoping review, the authors conducted controlled vocabulary and text-word searches in the PubMed; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts; and CINAHL databases. We separately searched for articles published in the Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, the Journal of the Canadian Heath Libraries Association, and Hypothesis. We also text-word searched Medical Library Association annual meeting poster and paper abstracts. RESULTS: We identified 18 different roles filled by librarians and other information professionals in conducting systematic reviews from 310 different articles, book chapters, and presented papers and posters. Some roles were well known such as searching, source selection, and teaching. Other less documented roles included planning, question formulation, and peer review. We summarize these different roles and provide an accompanying bibliography of references for in-depth descriptions of these roles. CONCLUSION: Librarians play central roles in systematic review teams, including roles that go beyond searching. This scoping review should encourage librarians who are fulfilling roles that are not captured here to document their roles in journal articles and poster and paper presentations.

Negotiating concepts of evidence-based practice in the provision of good service for nursing and allied health professionals.

OBJECTIVE: The principles of evidence-based medicine have been critiqued by the 'caring' professions, such as nursing and social work, and evidence-informed medicine has been proposed as a more client-centred, integrative approach to practice. The purpose of this study was to explore how Canadian health science librarians who serve nurses and allied health professionals define good service and how they negotiate evidence-based principles in their searching strategies. METHOD: Twenty-two librarians completed a 30 minute, semi-structured phone interview about strategies for providing good service and supporting evidence-based services. Participants were also asked to respond to three challenging search scenarios. Analysis of results used grounded theory methods. RESULTS: Participants' definitions of good service and strategies for supporting evidence-based practice involved discussions about types of services provided, aspects of the librarian providing the service and aspects of the information provided during the service. Analysis of search scenarios revealed four justifications librarians rely upon when providing evidence that is in opposition to what their patron hopes to receive (evidentiary, ethical, practice-based and boundaries of the profession). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that health science librarians are both constrained and enabled by the principles of evidence-based medicine and especially by understandings of 'best evidence'.

Implementing a 3D printing service in a biomedical library.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is opening new opportunities in biomedicine by enabling creative problem solving, faster prototyping of ideas, advances in tissue engineering, and customized patient solutions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library purchased a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer to give scientists a chance to try out this technology. To launch the service, the library offered training, conducted a survey on service model preferences, and tracked usage and class attendance. 3D printing was very popular, with new lab equipment prototypes being the most common model type. Most survey respondents indicated they would use the service again and be willing to pay for models. There was high interest in training for 3D modeling, which has a steep learning curve. 3D printers also require significant care and repairs. NIH scientists are using 3D printing to improve their research, and it is opening new avenues for problem solving in labs. Several scientists found the 3D printer so helpful they bought one for their labs. Having a printer in a central and open location like a library can help scientists, doctors, and students learn how to use this technology in their work.

Research data services in veterinary medicine libraries.

OBJECTIVE: The study investigated veterinary medicine librarians' experience with and perceptions of research data services. Many academic libraries have begun to offer research data services in response to researchers' increased need for data management support. To date, such services have typically been generic, rather than discipline-specific, to appeal to a wide variety of researchers. METHODS: An online survey was deployed to identify trends regarding research data services in veterinary medicine libraries. Participants were identified from a list of contacts from the MLA Veterinary Medical Libraries Section. RESULTS: Although many respondents indicated that they have a professional interest in research data services, the majority of veterinary medicine librarians only rarely or occasionally provide data management support as part of their regular job responsibilities. There was little consensus as to whether research data services should be core to a library's mission despite their perceived importance to the advancement of veterinary research. Furthermore, most respondents stated that research data services are just as or somewhat less important than the other services that they provide and feel only slightly or somewhat prepared to offer such services. CONCLUSIONS: Lacking a standard definition of "research data" and a common understanding of precisely what research data services encompass, it is difficult for veterinary medicine librarians and libraries to define and understand their roles in research data services. Nonetheless, they appear to have an interest in learning more about and providing research data services.

Empowering international nursing students to become effective library users.

This article summarises the research conducted for a dissertation which addressed the needs of students and academic staff of the Bachelor of Nursing International programme at St. Angela's College, Ireland. Aoife Murray completed an MSc Econ Information and Library Studies in 2015 from Aberystwyth University via distance learning. She gained a distinction for her work and has co-written the article with Hugh Preston, her dissertation supervisor. Aoife highlights the recommendations she made as a result of her research and the programme put in place to deliver those recommendations. She also reports on some early evaluations of the new programme. AM.

International collaborations in learning and teaching: perspectives from a visiting professorship.

This article provides a reflection on the outcomes of an international collaboration between health librarians and academics at York St John University and Pacific University Oregon. In particular, it describes how a month-long visiting professorship from an academic with a clinical librarian background at the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences helped to develop and inform teaching practice in the areas of information literacy and evidence-based health practice on health programmes at Pacific University. Perspectives are offered from both institutions on the rich exchange of knowledge and practice that took place during the visit and the ongoing impact it has had on teaching practices. H. S.

Patron perception and utilization of an embedded librarian program.

OBJECTIVE: The study measured the perceived value of an academic library's embedded librarian service model. SETTING: The study took place at the health sciences campuses of a research institution. METHODS: A web-based survey was distributed that asked respondents a series of questions about their utilization of and satisfaction with embedded librarians and services. RESULTS: Over 58% of respondents reported being aware of their embedded librarians, and 95% of these were satisfied with provided services. CONCLUSIONS: The overall satisfaction with services was encouraging, but awareness of the embedded program was low, suggesting an overall need for marketing of services.

International Trends in Health Science Librarianship Part 19: The Balkan States (Bulgaria and Croatia).

This is the 19th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. The focus of the present issue is the Balkan Region (Bulgaria and Croatia). The next regular feature column will investigate two other Balkan states - Serbia and Slovenia. JM.

Barriers to the use of the library service amongst clinical staff in an acute hospital setting: an evaluation.

This article reports on research into the reasons why clinical staff in an acute hospital may be reluctant to use library services. The research was conducted by Gaynor Thomas at the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli in Wales as part of the dissertation she completed for an MSc in Economics. She graduated in July 2014 from Aberystwyth University and has co-written the article with Hugh Preston, her dissertation supervisor. The article summarises the key findings from the interviews undertaken as part of the research process and lists the resulting recommendations. Gaynor also highlights the initiatives which have been put in place with the express aim of removing barriers to use and encouraging clinical staff to make the most of the library which is, she argues, a time-saving resource. AM.

Research engagement of health sciences librarians: a survey of research-related activities and attitudes.

INTRODUCTION: The extent to which health sciences librarians are engaged in research is a little-studied question. This study assesses the research activities and attitudes of Medical Library Association (MLA) members, including the influence of work affiliation. METHODS: An online survey was designed using a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions and distributed to MLA members. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, content analysis, and significance testing. The authors used statistical tools and categorized open-ended question topics by the constant comparative method, also applying the broad subject categories used in a prior study. Pearson's chi-square analysis was performed on responses to determine significant differences among respondents employed in three different institutional environments. RESULTS: Analysis showed that 79% of respondents read research articles at least once a month; 58% applied published research studies to practice; 44% had conducted research; 62% reported acting on research had enhanced their libraries; 38% had presented findings; and 34% had authored research articles. Hospital librarians were significantly less likely than academic librarians to have participated in research activities. Highly ranked research benefits, barriers, and competencies of health sciences librarians are described. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that health sciences librarians are actively engaged in research activities. Practice implications for practitioners, publishers, and stakeholders are discussed. Results suggest that practitioners can use published research results and results from their own research to affect practice decisions and improve services. Future studies are needed to confirm and extend these findings, including the need for intervention studies to increase research and writing productivity.