International trends in health science librarianship Part 8: the UK and the Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland

This is the 8th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship with a focus on the UK and Ireland in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Future issues will track trends from Scotland and Wales. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship part 11: Japan and Korea

This is the 11th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship. The previous article in this series looked at the Far East (Greater China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). The current issue surveys developments in Japan and Korea. The next issue will explore trends in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). Next year all four issues will be devoted to trends in four regions in Africa (Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa and North Africa. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship: Part 6 Central Europe series

This is the 6th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship with a focus on Central Europe in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Hungry, Poland and Czech Republic. Future issues will track trends the Middle East and then the Far East. JM     

International Trends in Health Science Librarianship Part 14: East Africa (Kenya,Uganda, Rwanda)

This is the 14th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. This is the second of four articles pertaining to different regions in the African continent. The present issue focuses on countries in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda). The next feature column will investigate trends in West Africa. JM     

International Trends in Health Science Librarianship Part 18: The Middle East (Iran,Qatar and Turkey)

This is the 18th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. The focus of the present issue is the Middle East (Iran, Qatar and Turkey). The next feature column will investigate trends in the Balkan States JM     

International trends in health science librarianship. Part 5 Latin America and the Caribbean

This is the 5th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in Latin America and the Caribbean in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Argentina, Bermuda and Mexico. Future issues will track trends in Central Europe and the Middle East. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship part 13: Southern Africa (South Africa,Tanzania and Zimbabwe)

This is the 13th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. It is the first devoted to four different regions in the African continent. The present issue focuses on countries in Southern Africa – South Africa and Zimbabwe. The next issue will examine East Africa.     

International trends in health science librarianship part 15: West Africa (Ghana,Nigeria, Senegal)

This is the 15th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. It is the third of four articles pertaining to different regions in the African continent. The present issue focuses on countries in West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal). The next feature column will investigate trends in North Africa. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship: Part 4 – Four Southern European countries

This is the fourth in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in four Southern European countries in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Future issues will track trends in Latin America and Central Europe. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship: Part 2--Northern Europe

This is the third in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors were asked to reflect on developments in their country--viz. Austria, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Future issues will track trends in the Nordic countries, Southern Europe and Latin America. JM.     

International trends in health science librarianship part 20: Russia

This is the last in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. The focus of the present issue is Russia. The next feature column will initiate a new series entitled New Directions in Health Science Librarianship. The first contribution will be from Australia. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship: part 1 - the English speaking world

This is the second in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors were asked to reflect on developments in their country - viz. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Future issues will track trends in Northern Europe, the Nordic countries, Southern Europe and Latin America. JM.     

International trends in health science librarianship: part 3 - the Nordic countries

This is the third in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors carried out a survey of librarians in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland to identify common developments in their countries. A focus on pedagogy was seen as the most important trend. Future issues will track trends in Southern Europe and Latin America. JM.     

International Trends in Health Science Librarianship Part 20: The Balkan States (Serbia and Slovenia)

This is the 20th 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 (Serbia and Slovenia). The next regular feature will look at Russia and the Ukraine. JM     

International trends in health science librarianship Part 10: The Greater China area

This is the 10th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship. This issue describes developments in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The next issue will report on Japan and South Korea. JM     

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     

Time gap analysis by the topic model-based temporal technique

This study proposes a temporal analysis method to utilize heterogeneous resources such as papers, patents, and web news articles in an integrated manner. We analyzed the time gap phenomena between three resources and two academic areas by conducting text mining-based content analysis. To this end, a topic modeling technique, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to estimate the optimal time gaps among three resources (papers, patents, and web news articles) in two research domains. The contributions of this study are summarized as follows: firstly, we propose a new temporal analysis method to understand the content characteristics and trends of heterogeneous multiple resources in an integrated manner. We applied it to measure the exact time intervals between academic areas by understanding the time gap phenomena. The results of temporal analysis showed that the resources of the medical field had more up-to-date property than those of the computer field, and thus prompter disclosure to the public. Secondly, we adopted a power-law exponent measurement and content analysis to evaluate the proposed method. With the proposed method, we demonstrate how to analyze heterogeneous resources more precisely and comprehensively.     

Health information practice: integrating,inspiring and innovating

The 2017 virtual issue of the Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) is published to link to the 12th International Congress on Medical Librarianship and the 2017 EAHIL Workshop taking place in Dublin, Ireland on 12–16 June 2017. The conference title is Diversity in Practice: integrating, inspiring and innovative and it is exploring how health science librarianship, in all its diversity, is integrating, inspiring and innovating practice. These themes have been used to compile this virtual issue, which contains published articles selected from HILJ from the June 2014 issue through to September 2016. The virtual issue mirrors the format of a regular issue of HILJ, namely a review article, six original articles and our three regular features: ‘Dissertations into Practice’, ‘International Perspectives and Initiatives’ and ‘Teaching and Learning in Action’. All articles included in this virtual issue are available free online.     

International trends in health science librarianship part 12: South Asia (India,Pakistan and Sri Lanka)

This is the 12th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship. This issue describes developments in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century in South Asia. The three contributors report on challenges facing health science librarians in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There is consensus as to the need for education, training and professional development. Starting in the next issue, the focus will turn to Africa, starting with countries in southern Africa. JM     

New Directions in Health Sciences Libraries in Canada: Research and Evidence based Practice Are Key

This article is the second in a new series in this regular feature. The intention of the series is to look at important global developments in health science libraries. These articles will serve as a road map, describing the key changes in the field and exploring factors driving these changes. The present article by two Canadian librarians identifies important national developments which are shaping the profession such as the centralisation of health care services, the challenge of providing consumer health information in the absence of a national strategy, government recognition of the need to recognise and respond to the health needs of indigenous peoples and the growing emphasis on managing research data. Although their profession is strong, health science librarians must find ways of providing enhanced services with fewer staff and demonstrate value to organisations. JM