Healthcare librarians and the delivery of critical appraisal training: attitudes, level of involvement and support

Background: Although healthcare librarians are undertaking training in critical appraisal skills, what is not so clear is the impact of the training on the understanding and dissemination of these skills. Objectives: This study aims to examine the attitudes of healthcare librarians towards delivering critical appraisal training and their level of involvement. Methods: A questionnaire survey of 57 library services across 48 NHS Trust Library Services in north‐west England followed up with 21 semi‐structured interviews. Results: Seventy‐three per cent of respondents felt that they ought to be involved in delivering critical appraisal training, however less than a third (29%) are actually involved. Librarians are involved in critical appraisal facilitation at various levels. Conclusions: Debate continues over the extent of librarian involvement in delivering critical appraisal training. As long as healthcare librarians recognise their own capabilities and identify the boundaries within which they feel comfortable then there is no reason why they should not be involved in delivering critical appraisal training.     

Healthcare librarians and the delivery of critical appraisal training: barriers to involvement

Background: Many healthcare librarians are undertaking training in critical appraisal but a significant number are not cascading the training to their end‐users. Objectives: To examine the barriers to healthcare librarian involvement in delivering critical appraisal training. Methods: A questionnaire survey of 57 library services across 48 NHS Trust Library Services in north west England followed up with 21 semi‐structured interviews. Results: Two types of barriers were noted: extrinsic barriers (organisational, environmental, training, role expectations) and intrinsic barriers (knowledge, skills, attitude). Conclusions: These barriers are not mutually exclusive and by overcoming one of them it does not necessarily follow that healthcare librarians will engage in delivering critical appraisal skills training. The challenge lies in developing strategies to deal effectively with these barriers to encourage and support healthcare librarians in the delivery of critical appraisal training at a level at which they feel confident and able.     

Evaluating clinical librarian services: a systematic review

Background: Previous systematic reviews have indicated limited evidence and poor quality evaluations of clinical librarian (CL) services. Rigorous evaluations should demonstrate the value of CL services, but guidance is needed before this can be achieved. Objectives: To undertake a systematic review which examines models of CL services, quality, methods and perspectives of clinical librarian service evaluations. Methods: Systematic review methodology and synthesis of evidence, undertaken collaboratively by a group of 8 librarians to develop research and critical appraisal skills. Results: There are four clear models of clinical library service provision. Clinical librarians are effective in saving health professionals time, providing relevant, useful information and high quality services. Clinical librarians have a positive effect on clinical decision making by contributing to better informed decisions, diagnosis and choice of drug or therapy. The quality of CL studies is improving, but more work is needed on reducing bias and providing evidence of specific impacts on patient care. The Critical Incident Technique as part of a mixed method approach appears to offer a useful approach to demonstrating impact. Conclusions: This systematic review provides practical guidance regarding the evaluation of CL services. It also provides updated evidence regarding the effectiveness and impact of CL services. The approach used was successful in developing research and critical appraisal skills in a group of librarians.     

美国专业图书馆员职业能力标准的内容分析

[目的/意义] 通过解析6个美国专业图书馆员职业能力标准的内容,为国内图书馆员职业能力标准建设提供参考。[方法/过程] 在简介6个美国专业图书馆员职业能力标准的基础上,比较分析美国专业图书馆员职业能力标准的要素及其条款。[结果/结论] 美国专业图书馆员职业能力标准基本包含职业素养、交流能力、专业学科知识、领导与倡议、评估能力、信息机构/组织管理、信息资源管理、信息技术管理、计划管理、教学能力、信息服务、参考咨询与研究12个要素,这些要素定义的不同能力条款可为国内图书馆界提供借鉴和参考。     

Advancing nursing students' transition to scholarship: embedding a librarian into the Advanced Nursing Research course

Background:Nursing students often prioritize learning clinical skills rather than research skills, possibly inhibiting their growth as scholars. Supporting nursing students'' learning of information literacy skills has been shown to impact nurses'' involvement with research after graduation. This suggests a need for developing innovative information literacy teaching strategies that can enable nursing students to better understand the process of research and how to apply research to practice.Case Presentation:This article describes the implementation of the embedded librarian project at the course level at the University of Memphis. A librarian was integrated into the Advanced Nursing Research course, a semester-long course for graduate nursing students, for the fall 2020 semester. This case shares the embedded librarian project''s implementation and evaluation strategies.Conclusions:The embedded librarian project aided students'' acquisition of information literacy skills at the University of Memphis. Students reported that the embedded librarian project helped them complete assignments for their research course. Using an embedded librarian service within the graduate nursing curricula model may enhance scholarship among future nurses.     

国内外数据馆员能力要求比较研究

[目的/意义]随着数字化科研的不断发展,科学研究开始向数据密集型科研转变,数据馆员成为国内外图书馆的一个新型焦点主题。通过对国内外数据馆员能力要求进行分析比较和归纳总结,对我国数据馆员的人才培养提供参考和借鉴。[方法/过程]对国内外高校图书馆招聘信息进行调研,采取网络调查法和内容分析法从应聘者知识背景、综合素质、岗位职责、职业技能和特殊技能五个方面深度解析数据馆员需要具备的职业能力。[结果/结论]总结国内外数据馆员能力,明确国内数据馆员角色定位,对国内图书馆开展数据管理服务、培养数据馆员提供参考借鉴意义。     

Health Literacy's Influence on Consumer Libraries

Health literacy has been redefined in recent years to move beyond an individual’s own communication skills to include the skills of persons working within health care organizations, including librarians. Provision of consumer health services and resources, while a long-standing practice in hospital libraries, has also been redefined. As definitions of health literacy have evolved, so too have hospital librarian services as they embrace their role within health literacy. Many hospital medical and consumer health librarians have developed programs, services, and collaborations to further health literacy awareness, education, and initiatives for consumers, health care professionals, and their parent organizations.     

Taking Chances: A New Librarian and Curriculum Redesign

As technology becomes ubiquitous in designing and delivering medical school curricula, health sciences librarians can embrace emerging opportunities for participation in curriculum design. A new medical librarian at Michigan State University Libraries engaged her user base outside of established duties, learned new skills, and challenged preconceived notions about librarians’ roles. In the process, she became a partner in copyright education, amended license agreements for enhanced curricular multimedia use, and facilitated curriculum mapping through taxonomy building. These projects helped create the informational foundation for a novel hybrid medical education curriculum and introduced new curricular roles for the librarian.     

Expediting the transfer of evidence into practice: building clinical partnerships

A librarian/clinician partnership was fostered in one hospital through the formation of the Evidence-based Practice Committee, with an ulterior goal of facilitating the transfer of evidence into practice. The paper will describe barriers to evidence-based practice and outline the committee's strategies for overcoming these barriers, including the development and promotion of a Web-based guide to evidence-based practice specifically designed for clinicians (health professionals). Educational strategies for use of the Web-based guide will also be addressed. Advantages of this partnership are that the skills of librarians in meeting the needs of clinicians are maximized. The evidence-based practice skills of clinicians are honed and librarians make a valuable contribution to the knowledge-base of the clinical staff. The knowledge acquired through the partnership by both clinicians and librarians will increase the sophistication of the dialogue between the two groups and in turn will expedite the transfer of evidence into practice.     

Developing evidence-based librarianship: practical steps for implementation

Evidence-based librarianship (EBL) is a relatively new concept for librarians. This paper lays out a practical framework for the implementation of EBL. A new way of thinking about research in librarianship is introduced using the well-built question process and the assignment of librarian research questions to one of six domains specific to librarianship. As a profession, librarianship tends to reflect more qualitative, social sciences/humanities in its research methods and study types which tend to be less rigorous and more prone to bias. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) do not have to be placed at the top of an evidence 'hierarchy' for librarianship. Instead, a more encompassing model reflecting librarianship as a whole and the kind of research likely to be done by librarians is proposed. 'Evidence' from a number of disciplines including health sciences, business and education can be utilized by librarians and applied to their practice. However, access to and availability of librarianship literature needs to be further studied. While using other disciplines (e.g. EBHC) as a model for EBL has been explored in the literature, the authors develop models unique to librarianship. While research has always been a minor focus in the profession, moving research into practice is becoming more important and librarians need to consider the issues surrounding research in order to move EBL forward.     

The role of expert searching in the Family Physicians' Inquiries Network (FPIN).

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the contributions of medical librarians, as members of the Family Physicians' Inquiries Network (FPIN), to the creation of a database of clinical questions and answers that allows family physicians to practice evidence-based medicine using high-quality information at the point of care. The medical librarians have contributed their evidence-based search expertise and knowledge of information systems that support the processes and output of the consortium. METHODS: Since its inception, librarians have been included as valued members of the FPIN community. FPIN recognizes the search expertise of librarians, and each FPIN librarian must meet qualifications demonstrating appropriate experience and training in evidence-based medicine. The consortium works collaboratively to produce the Clinical Inquiries series published in family medicine publications. RESULTS: Over 170 Clinical Inquiries have appeared in Journal of Family Practice (JFP) and American Family Physician (AFP). Surveys have shown that this series has become the most widely read part of the JFP Website. As a result, FPIN has formalized specific librarian roles that have helped build the organizational infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: All of the activities of the consortium are highly collaborative, and the librarian community reflects that. The FPIN librarians are valuable and equal contributors to the process of creating, updating, and maintaining high-quality clinical information for practicing primary care physicians. Of particular value is the skill of expert searching that the librarians bring to FPIN's products.     

Leveraging Librarian Liaison Expertise in a New Consultancy Role

This paper presents a case study of an advisory role that librarians successfully developed with faculty editors to increase the visibility and readership of an open access scholarly publication. The study represents an example of how expertise among liaison librarians and other library service professionals can be leveraged in new consultancy roles in support of evolving library service models. It also depicts local application of a hybrid model for librarianship that combines the functional specialist and subject librarian liaison roles in implementing advisory activities and recommendations. The liaison librarians successfully used their knowledge of scholarly communications and applied innovative bibliometric analysis to help enhance the discoverability and user experience of an online journal publication. The librarians made specific recommendations for optimizing journal website content organization, search functionality, metadata standards and marketing opportunities that were subsequently implemented by the editors and platform managers. The faculty editor places a high value on these recommendations, and the librarian advisory role continues to develop. Our study also outlines many of the essential considerations that scholar-editors and librarian advisors can use to help implement open access scholarly publishing projects successfully.     

Impact of embedded librarianship on undergraduate nursing students’ information skills

Background:One-shot library sessions have numerous drawbacks; most notably, they rarely have a long-term impact on students’ research behavior or skill sets. Library literature notes that when students interact with an embedded librarian, their skills improve. While close partnerships with subject faculty are important, librarians must also assess students’ skill sets to determine the impact of these teaching efforts.Case presentation:During the course, the embedded librarian used various activities and assignments to teach information-seeking skills, with the expected outcome of increased skill sets. This IRB-approved research project focused on measuring and assessing students’ information-seeking abilities before and after interacting with the embedded nursing librarian. Changes in students’ information fluency skills were measured using pre- and post-tests.Conclusions:The study results provide evidence of the benefits of the embedded librarianship model. Continued measurement of students’ skills acquisition is important to enable librarians and library administrators to show the positive impacts the library has on student learning and success.     

网络环境下对学科馆员的再思考

从两个方面论述学科馆员在图书馆所扮演的重要角色。在网络环境下学科馆员不仅充当着联络馆员、咨询馆员和采访馆员的 角色,他们同时还以学科研究员的身份研究新形势下学科的变化趋势。另外,认为学科馆员的建设不仅需要学科馆员提高自身的素质, 改变服务理念,国家也应采取相应的运行模式来促进学科馆员的制度建设。     

高校图书馆员工绩效考核指标体系的构建

目的：构建科学、合理、规范的高校图书馆员工绩效考核指标体系,使馆员能够自我调整工作行为,提高服务质量,提升图书馆的整体绩效水平。方法：通过文献研究和实地考察,了解目前图书馆的绩效考核现状,采用德尔菲法和层次分析法确定考核指标和权重。结果：构建了一套三级指标体系,包括4个一级指标、10个二级指标和59个三级指标,同时给出了各指标的权重和分值。结论：该考核指标体系能有效提高图书馆员工在科研创新、管理或社会工作等方面的积极性。     

Impact of librarians in first-year medical and dental student problem-based learning (PBL) groups: a controlled study

BACKGROUND: Librarians at the University of Alberta have been involved with teaching undergraduate medical and dental education for several years. After 1 year of increased librarian involvement at the problem-based learning (PBL), small-group level, informal feedback from faculty and students suggested that librarians' participation in PBL groups was beneficial. There was, however, no real evidence to support this claim or justify the high demand on librarians' time. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to determine whether having a librarian present in the small-group, problem-based learning modules for first-year medical and dental students results in an improved understanding of evidence-based medicine concepts, the nature of medical literature, and information access skills. METHODS: One hundred and sixty-four first-year medical and dental students participated in the study. There were a total of 18 PBL groups, each with approximately nine students and one faculty tutor. Six librarians participated and were assigned randomly to the six intervention groups. Students were given pre- and post-tests at the outset and upon completion of the 6-week course. RESULTS: Post-test scores showed that there was a small positive librarian impact, but final exam scores showed no impact. There was also no difference in attitudes or comfort levels between students who had a librarian in their group and those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Impact was not sufficient to warrant continued participation of librarians in PBL. In future instruction, librarians at the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library will continue to teach at the larger group level.     

Using WebCT,Wiki Spaces,and ePortfolios for Teaching and Building Information Literacy Skills

ABSTRACT

Librarians, as service providers, are always looking for innovative ways of using technology for designing and improving information systems that allow teaching and building of information literacy skills. Online learning and teaching tools offer teacher librarians undreamed of opportunities to enhance face-to-face information literacy instruction. This paper describes the librarian's research, discoveries, and experience with using WebCT Campus Edition and Vista, ePortfolios, and Wikis to deliver online information literacy instruction as part of fully-online, Web-enhanced, or hybrid courses. Models of librarian/faculty partnership and collaboration are also illustrated.     

University Approval of Library Research Skills as Part of the General Education Curriculum Requirements

To gain university support for new proposals, librarians must become involved in campus policy and governance bodies. If we do not know where our own universities are headed, we will always be followers and never able to provide leadership. A proactive stance requires a great investment in boundary spanning activities with policy making bodies. At San Jose State University librarians engaged in an education campaign to persuade faculty and administration of the need to include bibliographic instruction in general education requirements. Librarians should strongly encourage open communication with faculty regarding student research skills. Faculty often perceive student research skills quite differently than do librarians.     

The evolving role of the librarian in evidence-based medicine.

Librarians' participation in evidence-based medicine (EBM) is rooted in past practices, most notably in clinical medical librarianship. EBM extends the librarians' role beyond identification of the literature to involvement in practicing and teaching quality filtering and critical appraisal of the literature. These activities require librarians to acquire new knowledge and develop new skills. A professional development program for librarians at the Library of the Health Sciences (LHS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is described. The program's goals are to increase librarians' skills and support the EBM curricular initiative at the UIC College of Medicine (COM). The unique program has been a collaborative effort of the LHS and the COM. The locally developed classes provide librarians with instruction in clinical study designs, statistical concepts, and critical appraisal of the literature. Other interventions such as an EBM round table are also described. The programs' success is measured by librarians' growing involvement in EBM medical curricula, journal clubs, and morning reports. Additionally, librarians gained competence in new skills and professional satisfaction from working collegially with COM students, residents, and faculty.     

OTseeker helps library and allied health professionals to find quality evidence efficiently

Background: Research is essential for evidence‐based practice yet many health professionals do not have enough time to find research. Studies relevant to occupational therapists can be particularly difficult to find. Most search engines are broad and return a large number of irrelevant articles. Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence (OTseeker) is an occupational therapy database available at http://www.otseeker.com . Developed by Australian occupational therapists, the resource aims to increase access to research and support clinical decision making. This discipline‐specific database contains pre‐appraised information from a variety of sources and decreases the time required to locate best evidence. Objectives: The aims of this paper are to: (i) describe how health librarians can use OTseeker to help allied health students, researchers and practitioners, particularly in occupational therapy, to find quality evidence; (ii) provide a teaching resource for health librarians based around the OTseeker evidence database; and (iii) highlight new features contained on the OTseeker database. Methods: A case study is provided which focuses on searching for evidence on the effectiveness of upper limb rehabilitation after stroke using OTseeker. Conclusion: This paper may increase the knowledge, skills and competencies of health librarians, helping them to access evidence‐based databases, and educate other professionals.