Library involvement in health informatics education for health professions students and practitioners: a scoping review

Objective:The purpose of this scoping review is to evaluate the extent of library or librarian involvement in informatics education in the health domain.Methods:We searched eight databases from their inception to 2019 for reports of informatics educational activities for health professionals or health professions students that involved library staff or resources. Two reviewers independently screened all titles/abstracts (n=2,196) and resolved inclusion decisions by consensus. From the full text of the 36 papers that met the inclusion criteria, we extracted data on 41 educational activities.Results:The most frequent coded purposes of activities were “teaching clinical tools” (n=19, 46.3%) and “technology” (n=17; 41.5%). Medical students were the most frequent primary audience (34.1%), though 41.5% of activities had multiple audiences. Evaluation was reported for 24 activities (58.5%), only a few of which assessed short or post-activity impact on attitudes, knowledge, or skills. The most common long-term outcome was applying skills in other courses or clinical experiences. Thematic analysis yielded three areas of outcomes and issues for the library and organizational partners: expanded opportunities, technology and resource issues, and value demonstration.Conclusions:Limited published examples of health informatics educational activities provide models for library roles in informatics education. More librarians should report on their informatics educational activities and provide sufficient details on the interventions and their evaluation. This would strengthen the evidence base about the potential impact of libraries within informatics education.     

Trends of infodemiology studies: a scoping review

Introduction

The health care industry is rich in data and information. Web technologies, such as search engines and social media, have provided an opportunity for the management of user generated data in real time in the form of infodemiology studies. The aim of this study was to investigate infodemiology studies conducted during 2002–2016, and compare them based on developed, developing and in transition countries.

Methods

This scoping review was conducted in 2017 with the help of the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar, Wiley and Springer databases were searched between the years 2002 and 2016. Finally, 56 articles were included in the review and analysed.

Results

The initial infodemiology studies pertain to the quality assessment of the hospital's websites. Most of the studies were on developed countries, based on flu, and published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Conclusion

The infodemiology approach provides unmatched opportunities for the management of health data and information generated by the users. Using this potential will provide unique opportunities for the health information need assessment in real time by health librarians and thereby provide evidence based health information to the people.

     

Teaching the teachers to teach information literacy: A literature review

As part of the ongoing debates over the best methods for teaching information literacy, some librarians have argued for a “teach the teachers” strategy. In this approach, librarians concentrate some of their instructional energies on teaching disciplinary faculty to teach information literacy. In this paper, multiple examples of “teach the teachers” efforts are reviewed, in order to provide insight into the impact that taking this approach might have on librarians, faculty, and students. Results indicate that the “teach the teachers” approach shows promise as one method by which librarians can support the integration of information literacy into the curriculum, but that more assessment is needed to determine the long-term impact of such initiatives on faculty teaching practices and students' information literacy development.     

Health literacy and consumer health information

The rigours of the past few years have demonstrated the importance of good health literacy levels with the imperative of being able to obtain and interpret information to maintain and improve one's health never more apparent. With this in mind, this issue is focused on consumer health information, the gender and population group differences that exist in information seeking behaviour, the challenges of understanding medical explanations and terminology, and existing criteria to assess and ultimately produce better consumer health information.     

Rigour in phenomenological and phenomenography studies: A scoping review of library and information science research

This scoping review investigates rigour from phenomenological and phenomenographic orientations and their appropriate fit into the discourses identified by researchers. The scoping review addresses the following central research question: Do phenomenological and phenomenographic studies in published library science research share the same criteria of rigour? Library and information science (LIS) multi-disciplinary bibliographic databases were searched. Basic keyword searching was conducted in databases and conference proceedings were hand-searched to ensure that no articles were missed because of indexing lags. The review found that there are 18 explicitly stated phenomenological orientations and six phenomenographic orientations across LIS. Specific frameworks were applied to each method while strategies from positivism were used interchangeably. There must be a balance between generalizability, reliability, and validity, rather than an over-reliance on one of these pillars. Furthermore, LIS researchers must familiarize themselves with different phenomenological and phenomenographic orientations to apply their methodologies appropriately.     

Reference Librarians and Technical Services Librarians:

The relationship between reference librarians and technical services librarians has often been strained. In our changing technological and organizational environment, it is imperative that reference librarians and technical services librarians share responsibility for improving this relationship. One way for this to take place is for individuals to become more "accountable" to their colleagues. This article provides accountability guidelines for both reference and technical services librarians which, if followed, can result in increased communication and a better understanding of the roles, concerns, and needs of both reference and technical services librarians.     

A Virtual Library for Librarians:

The Joint Academic Network (JANET) in Ihe United Kingdom supports electronic communication, access to online library catalogs, and access to fee-based information services, maintaining services and resources targeted specifically at librarians. This paper focuses on one such service, the Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL), and the professional development resources it provides for librarians involved with electronic networking. These include current awareness services, full texts of publications related to networking, training materials, and other resources relevant to libraries and the networked world.     

Historical development of definitions of information literacy: A literature review of selected resources

This article traces the historical progression of Information Literacy (IL) definitions from 2000 to 2015 in the published literature on first-year seminar and freshman general education IL instruction in the U.S. This period roughly corresponds to the influence of the ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Standards) on the work of LIS professionals and scholars in IL and information literacy instruction (ILI), prior to the adoption in January 2016 of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework). Following a brief look at the background of IL in Library and Information Science (LIS), the chronological development of IL definitions is examined using the three major categories of IL definitions based on Addison and Meyers' (2013) framework of IL definitions, and concludes with a discussion of limitations of Addison and Meyers' (2013) framework of IL definitions. The information presented here offers one perspective of viewing the development and history of IL in U.S. higher education.     

我们需要怎样的图书馆员——以文献传递馆员为例

文章以文献传递的业务活动为例,搜集了部分图书馆对文献传递岗位的入职条件,比较了全职馆员与社会兼职人员在文献传递上的业绩差别,并分析全职馆员存在业绩差时需反思的图书馆管理问题。     

Research consultations in the academic library: A scoping review on current themes in instruction,assessment and technology

This scoping review highlights the characteristics, assessments and technologies used to describe, improve and promote one-to-one research consultations as a mode of research support and instruction in academic libraries. A search for relevant studies was conducted using LISTA, LISA, ERIC, Scopus and Web of Science, limiting to empirical evidence or studies outlining the use of technology within library practice, published from 2013 to current, in the English language. Supplemental search methods included a grey literature search, handsearching, and cited reference searching. From 2268 records, 43 studies were identified for inclusion. Of these, 17 studies described using consultations in the delivery of information literacy instruction, 33 evaluation studies reported on student, faculty, and librarian outcomes, and 15 articles discussed the use of technology. Users reported an overwhelming positive experience while mixed learning outcomes were seen in performance assessment studies. The assessment methods and uses of technology outlined in this review can be used by librarians to inform service delivery and provide evidence of the value and impact of research consultations on the academic mission of the library and its institution.     

Implementing SUSHI and COUNTER: A Primer for Librarians

Project Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) released its first code of practice in 2002. Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) was introduced in 2007 as a way of automating the harvesting of COUNTER reports. Both initiatives have been well adopted yet there is still confusion about how to implement SUSHI. This column offers a primer for library staff wanting to take advantage of the benefits of SUSHI. It starts with a quick review of both COUNTER and SUSHI, then covers options for SUSHI clients, examines SUSHI configuration requirements, demonstrates how to use SUSHI to obtain a COUNTER report and shows an example of working with a COUNTER Journal Reports in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format to create a spreadsheet with a simple cost-per-use and package analysis. By the end the reader should gain enough knowledge to configure a SUSHI client, successfully harvest COUNTER statistics and to perform some basic analysis on that usage.     

高校图书馆员亚健康状态的现状及预防对策

根据亚健康的概念，分析了高校图书馆员亚健康的现状，探讨了防范对策。     

Deconstructing proxy health information-seeking behavior: A systematic review

Seeking health-related information on behalf of or because of others is a common activity in everyday life and a topic of constant interest across multiple disciplines. The research aims to characterize recent research progress and provide a comprehensive framework of proxy health information-seeking behavior (PHISB). A total of 47 studies published after 2003 were selected, followed by structural encoding. The main contributions include 1) a summary of the key characteristics of individuals who often access health information through proxy seekers; 2) types of health information surrogates sought and sources employed; 3) a classification scheme of factors influencing PHISB; 4) a synthesis of how health information used and its subsequent outcomes; 5) a theoretical framework for proxy health information-seeking. Results point to an intellectual benchmark for future exploring related issues. The findings can shed light on public health intervention and management, especially through guiding search strategies to help people obtain relevant, helpful, and credible health information.     

A health literacy analysis of the consumer-oriented COVID-19 information produced by ten state health departments

Objective:The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the public''s need for quality health information that is understandable. This study aimed to identify (1) the extent to which COVID-19 messaging by state public health departments is understandable, actionable, and clear; (2) whether materials produced by public health departments are easily readable; (3) relationships between material type and understandability, actionability, clarity, and reading grade level; and (4) potential strategies to improve public health messaging around COVID-19.Methods:Based on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics from June 30, 2020, we identified the ten states with the most COVID-19 cases and selected forty-two materials (i.e., webpages, infographics, and videos) related to COVID-19 prevention according to predefined eligibility criteria. We applied three validated health literacy tools (i.e., Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool, CDC Clear Communication Index, and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level) to assess material understandability, actionability, clarity, and readability. We also analyzed correlations between scores on the three health literacy tools and material types.Results:Overall, COVID-19 materials had high understandability and actionability but could be improved in terms of clarity and readability. Material type was significantly correlated with understandability, actionability, and clarity. Infographics and videos received higher scores on all tools.Conclusions:Based on our findings, we recommend public health entities apply a combination of these tools when developing health information materials to improve their understandability, actionability, and clarity. We also recommend using infographics and videos when possible, taking a human-centered approach to information design, and providing multiple modes and platforms for information delivery.