Experience,Challenges, and Opportunities of Being Fully Embedded in a User Group

Embedded librarian models can assume different forms and levels, depending on patron needs and a library’s choice of delivery services. An academic health sciences library decided to enhance its service delivery model by integrating a librarian into the College of Pharmacy, approximately 250?miles away from the main library. This article describes the embedded librarian’s first-year experience, challenges, and opportunities working as a library faculty in the college. The comparison of one-year recorded statistics on preembedded and postembedded activities demonstrated the effectiveness and impact of such an embedded librarian model.     

Experiences as an Embedded Librarian in Online Courses

Embedded librarianship gives librarians a prime opportunity to have a direct, positive impact in a clinical setting, classroom setting, or within a working group by providing integrated services that cater to the group's needs. Extending embedded librarian services beyond the various physical settings and into online classrooms is an exceptional way for librarians to engage online learners. This group of students is growing rapidly in numbers and could benefit greatly from having library services and resources incorporated into their classes. The author's services as an embedded librarian in fully online courses at a medium-sized university will be discussed, as will strategies, lessons learned, and opportunities for engaging in this realm. To develop a foundation of knowledge on embedded librarianship, an overview of this topic is provided.     

The Systematic Review Team: Contributions of the Health Sciences Librarian

While the role of the librarian as an expert searcher in the systematic review process is widely recognized, librarians also can be enlisted to help systematic review teams with other challenges. This article reviews the contributions of librarians to systematic reviews, including communicating methods of the review process, collaboratively formulating the research question and exclusion criteria, formulating the search strategy on a variety of databases, documenting the searches, record keeping, and writing the search methodology. It also discusses challenges encountered such as irregular timelines, providing education, communication, and learning new technologies for record keeping. Rewards include building relationships with researchers, expanding professional expertise, and receiving recognition for contributions to health care outcomes.     

Learning Instruction: How an Academic Librarian Transitioned to a Health Sciences Environment

This guest column details the experience of an early career academic librarian learning how to instruct and assist students in health sciences programs. It includes information on mentoring, peer coaching, formal and informal trainings, and proficiencies needed for reference and instruction services. The author shares sources of specific knowledge and skills that empowered her to transition to health sciences librarianship.     

Creating a Role for Embedded Librarians Within an Active Learning Environment

In 2013, the librarians at a small academic health sciences library reevaluated their mission, vision, and strategic plan to expand their roles. The school was transitioning to a new pedagogical culture and a new building designed to emphasize interprofessional education and active learning methodologies. Subsequent efforts to implement the new strategic plan resulted in the librarians joining curriculum committees and other institutional initiatives, such as an Active Learning Task Force, and participating in faculty development workshops. This participation has increased visibility and led to new roles and opportunities for librarians.     

Establishing a New Clinical Informationist Role in an Academic Health Sciences Center

The concept of clinical informationists is not new, but has recently been gaining more widespread acceptance across the United States. This article describes the lessons and challenges learned from starting a new clinical informationist service targeted to internal medicine residents in a large academic medical center. Lessons included the need for becoming immersed in evidence-based practice fundamentals; becoming comfortable with the pace, realities, and topics encountered during clinical rounds; and needing organizational commitment to both the evidence-based practice paradigm and clinical informationist role. Challenges included adapting to organizational culture, resident burnout, and perceptions of information overload.     

Creating Interactive Online Instruction: The McGoogan Library Experience

Online instruction is a hot topic at academic medical centers. Seizing the opportunity to join the online movement at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the McGoogan Library created an open access course made up of six learning modules. The modules addressed three issues: 1) supplementing one-shot library instruction, 2) offering opportunity for instruction when a librarian is not embedded in a course, and 3) showcasing the library as an online instruction supporter. This article discusses the planning process, technology used, how the modules were received, and how this initial project increased McGoogan Library's involvement in the UNMC online movement.     

When Life Hands You Lemons: Overcoming Obstacles to Expand Services in an Embedded Librarian Program

ABSTRACT

Having launched a pilot program of embedding librarians in faculty Blackboard courses, a team of university regional campus librarians reviewed their library services to faculty teaching online, off-campus, and traditional courses, and returned for Round 2. Just as the library services offered in this collaborative effort were taking off, conditions worsened. A storm of staff reductions, budget cuts, and administrative reorganization hit. Despite the climate of uncertainty and challenges, the embedded librarians persevered as they are convinced of the value of collaborating with faculty in Blackboard as active academic research consultants to further students’ information literacy skills. Project Information Literacy's findings validate this strategic solution. Consequently, the embedded librarians assessed users and implemented sustaining practices to the program to maximize its impact. Moving in the right direction is essential and doable, no matter the difficulties.     

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education: Implications for Health Sciences Librarianship

The Association of College and Research Libraries is developing a new framework of information literacy concepts that will revise and replace the previously adopted standards. This framework consists of six threshold concepts that are more flexible than the original standards, and that work to identify both the function and the feelings behind information literacy education practices. This column outlines the new tentative framework with an eye toward its implications for health sciences libraries, and suggests ways the medical library community might work with this new document.     

学科馆员服务从联络到嵌入的转变——南开大学图书馆的实践与思考

[目的/意义] 了解学科馆员的工作现状,对于揭示学科服务的变革过程和提高工作水平有重要意义。[方法/过程] 采用纪实方法,跟踪 2009-2013年南开大学图书馆学科服务的具体内容,通过逐年展示学科馆员的重点实践案例, 解读学科馆员服务从"联络"到"嵌入"的转变过程中的理论思考和实践探索。[结果/结论] 根据学科馆员的学科服务纪实,总结南开大学图书馆学科服务模式变革过程中的学科服务三原则、嵌入式学科服务的方式、学科馆员的角色转换等,勾勒出包括联络院系、日常咨询、学科资源建设、学科信息推送、嵌入式服务和专项高端服务等六大板块在内的行动路线图。     

Health Sciences Library Support of a University Common Reading Program: A Case Study

Common reading programs have become increasingly popular on college and university campuses as a means for increasing student engagement, retention, and success. This article describes the characteristics, goals, and benefits of common reading programs and provides examples from the literature of academic library involvement in them. Finally, an example is provided of how one academic health sciences library participated in its institution’s First-Year Summer Reading program.     

嵌入科研过程的服务模式探讨——以服务“复杂网络理论在科技期刊文献分析中的应用”课题研究为例

嵌入科研、教学过程的知识服务近年来成为图书馆员、学科馆员为之探索的新课题。文章以服务复杂网络理论在科技期刊文献分析中的应用研究项目为例,介绍学科馆员在科学研究工作生命周期中的角色定位和职责,在切实保障课题组具体需求的同时,探索知识服务与科研课题的对接方式,构建知识服务的长效机制和模式。     

Assessment of Service Desk Quality at an Academic Health Sciences Library

ABSTRACT

Due to an identified need for formal assessment, a small team of librarians designed and administered a survey to gauge the quality of customer service at their academic health sciences library. Though results did not drive major changes to services, several important improvements were implemented and a process was established to serve as a foundation for future use. This article details the assessment process used and lessons learned during the project.     

Practices of Locating Health Information in an Electronic Environment: Reflections on Conducted Health Information Skills Training

ABSTRACT

Health information skills in an electronic environment are essential to health science librarians, who serve as educators both within and outside of their health training institutions. This reflective study was conducted to examine the application of online health information skills obtained from the training provided for librarians who are working in health settings. Health sciences librarians, as future information skills educators, therefore need to possess their own health information skill sets. Capacity building is vital in order to promote the development of health information skills for health sciences librarians who can then teach and advocate the concept of health information skills on the Internet within and outside of their places of work.     

The Presence of Academic Health Sciences Libraries on Facebook: The Relationship Between Content and Library Popularity

Social networks such as Facebook allow libraries to be proactive in reaching their users. While some libraries have popular Facebook pages, it remains unclear what attracts users to these pages. This study evaluates relationships between libraries’ Facebook page content and popularity. An analysis of 72 academic health sciences libraries’ Facebook pages showed positive correlations between number of library fans and number of tabs, photos, events, and wall posts on Facebook. Libraries posting videos had significantly more fans than libraries without them. This study contributes to an understanding of correlations between content and popularity on Facebook, with implications for library outreach.     

The Future in Three Stages: Managing a Health Sciences Collection through Multiple Moves in an Urban Setting

For decades, the Health Professions Library at Hunter College served the college's health professions programs, all housed at one campus. In 2011, part of the library's collection moved to follow the public health department to a new location, and in 2015 the entire library will relocate to an interim space before moving on to its final home several years later in a shared building yet to be constructed. These moves, whether accomplished or anticipated, raise collection management issues in several areas: geographic dispersal of programs, structural reorganization of schools and departments, and collaboration with other departments or outside institutions.     

International Trends in Designing Electronic Health Information Literacy for Health Sciences Students: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The Internet has become a crucial source of health information for health sciences students. They increasingly rely on the Internet for health information to support their educational projects, academic activities, clinical practice and research. Surprisingly, it has been shown that students' health information skills for conducting research on the Internet are inadequate. Indeed, developing and improving the health information skill set of health sciences students is required in order for students to effectively locate, critically evaluate, and efficiently use online health information for the effective location, critical evaluation and efficient use of online health information. This paper undertakes a systematic review of the literature with a focus on electronic health information literacy skills with the aim of identifying the current trends, contributions to, and practices in health sciences students' education, and informing researchers in the field universally about the essential baseline for the design and development of effective course contents, pedagogy and assessment approaches. However, majority of students have limited skills for the location, evaluation and effective use of health information on the Internet. Other articles suggest that health sciences students need fully fledged health information skills programs that are integrated with their health sciences education curricula.     

Effectiveness of a Liaison Program in Meeting Information Needs of College of Pharmacy Faculty

This article describes the creation and implementation of focus groups to evaluate the effectiveness of a health sciences library's liaison program of the College of Pharmacy faculty and to better understand the faculty's information needs in order to design new and improved library services. The liaison services support the teaching and research needs of faculty and students through literature research, classroom teaching, and an extensive library collection of pharmacy literature. Focus group results demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with library liaison services and collections. Opportunities exist for expanded interaction with graduate students and greater marketing of library services to increase faculty awareness of specific library programs.     

Web-Scale Discovery in an Academic Health Sciences Library: Development and Implementation of the EBSCO Discovery Service

Funds made available at the close of the 2010–11 fiscal year allowed purchase of the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) for a year-long trial. The appeal of this web-scale discovery product that offers a Google-like interface to library resources was counter-balanced by concerns about quality of search results in an academic health science setting and the challenge of configuring an interface that serves the needs of a diverse group of library users. After initial configuration, usability testing with library users revealed the need for further work before general release. Of greatest concern were continuing issues with the relevance of items retrieved, appropriateness of system-supplied facet terms, and user difficulties with navigating the interface. EBSCO has worked with the library to better understand and identify problems and solutions. External roll-out to users occurred in June 2012.