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1.
Lana V. Ivanitskaya Kaitlyn A. Hanisko Julie A. Garrison Samantha J. Janson Danielle Vibbert 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2012,100(4):277-283
Objective:
The research identified the skills, if any, that health preprofessional students wished to develop after receiving feedback on skill gaps as well as any strategies they intended to use to address these gaps.Methods:
A qualitative approach was used to elicit students'' reflections on building health information literacy skills. First, the students took the Research Readiness Self-Assessment instrument, which measured their health information literacy, and then they received individually tailored feedback about their scores and skill gaps. Second, students completed a post-assessment survey asking how they intended to close identified gaps in their skills on these. Three trained coders analyzed qualitative comments by 181 students and grouped them into themes relating to “what skills to improve” and “how to improve them.”Results:
Students intended to develop library skills (64% of respondents), Internet skills (63%), and information evaluation skills (63%). Most students reported that they would use library staff members'' assistance (55%), but even more respondents (82%) planned to learn the skills by practicing on their own. Getting help from librarians was a much more popular learning strategy than getting assistance from peers (20%) or professors (17%).Conclusions:
The study highlighted the importance of providing health preprofessional students with resources to improve skills on their own, remote access to library staff members, and instruction on the complexity of building health literacy skills, while also building relationships among students, librarians, and faculty.Highlights
- After receiving feedback on skill gaps, most preprofessional health students intend to develop their information literacy skills.
- Some students report that a trip to the library is a barrier to using library resources.
- Students see the need to build their information evaluation skills, knowledge of citations and plagiarism, and library skills, which they differentiate from Internet skills.
- Students are more likely to identify librarians as sources for assistance in finding information than faculty or peers after receiving individual feedback explaining the role of libraries and library staff members.
Implications
- Students'' health information competencies can be built through assessment and feedback that reveals skill gaps, highlights misconceptions, and offers ideas on how to improve.
- Access to professionally designed self-study resources is needed for students who intend to develop health information competencies on their own.
2.
Ruth Holst Carla J. Funk Heidi Sue Adams Margaret Bandy Catherine Mary Boss Beth Hill Claire B. Joseph Rosalind K. Lett 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2009,97(4):285-292
Objectives:
The research objectives were to (1) describe the current and future roles of hospital librarians and the challenges they face and (2) find evidence supporting the hypothesis that librarians are essential to hospitals in achieving the organizations'' mission-critical goals.Method:
The authors used results from a previous research study that identified the five organizational mission-critical goals important to hospital administrators and then searched the literature and solicited examples from hospital librarians to describe the librarian''s role in helping hospitals achieve these goals.Results:
The literature supports the hypothesis that hospital librarians play important roles in the success of the hospital. Librarians support quality clinical care, efficient and effective hospital operations, continuing education for staff, research and innovation, and patient, family, and community health information needs.Conclusion:
Hospital librarians fulfill many mission-critical roles in today''s hospital, providing the right information at the right time in a variety of ways to enhance hospital and medical staff effectiveness, optimize patient care, improve patient outcomes, and increase patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services. Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.Highlights
- A review of the literature supports the hypothesis that services of the professional librarian result in:
- enhanced staff effectiveness,
- optimized patient care,
- improved patient outcomes, and
- increased patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services.
Implications
- Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.
3.
Objective:
A discourse analysis was conducted of peer-written blogs about the chronic illness endometriosis to understand how bloggers present information sources and make cases for and against the authority of those sources.Methods:
Eleven blogs that were authored by endometriosis patients and focused exclusively or primarily on the authors'' experiences with endometriosis were selected. After selecting segments in which the bloggers invoked forms of knowledge and sources of evidence, the text was discursively analyzed to reveal how bloggers establish and dispute the authority of the sources they invoke.Results:
When discussing and refuting authority, the bloggers invoked many sources of evidence, including experiential, peer-provided, biomedical, and intuitive ones. Additionally, they made and disputed claims of cognitive authority via two interpretive repertoires: a concern about the role and interests of the pharmaceutical industry and an understanding of endometriosis as extremely idiosyncratic. Affective authority of information sources was also identified, which presented as social context, situational similarity, or aesthetic or spiritual factors.Conclusions:
Endometriosis patients may find informational value in blogs, especially for affective support and epistemic experience. Traditional notions of authority might need to be revised for the online environment. Guidelines for evaluating the authority of consumer health information, informed by established readers'' advisory practices, are suggested.Highlights
- Endometriosis patients who blog about the illness may determine authority of information sources through both cognitive and affective methods.
Implications
- Because patients with chronic illnesses might have different authority criteria than medical librarians do, it could be useful to carefully incorporate electronic patient discussion forums, medical blogs written by laypeople, and other nontraditionally authoritative resources into consumer health information selection policies. Standard biomedical resources are certainly important to recommend to consumers, but they do not convey the complete picture of a chronic illness and its related experience.
- Patients with chronic illnesses and caregivers can benefit from sources such as blogs and online discussion lists that provide social and emotional support as well as accounts of “lived experience.”
- An understanding of the patient''s potential epistemological community can make the librarian''s recommendations more appropriate for the individual user.
4.
Mary R. Simons Michael Kerin Morgan Andrew Stewart Davidson 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2012,100(4):291-296
Question:
Can information literacy (IL) be embedded into the curriculum and clinical environment to facilitate patient care and lifelong learning?Setting:
The Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM) provides competence-based programs incorporating patient-centred care and lifelong learning. ASAM librarians use outcomes-based educational theory to embed and assess IL into ASAM''s educational and clinical environments.Methods:
A competence-based IL program was developed where learning outcomes were linked to current patients and assessed with checklists. Weekly case presentations included clinicians'' literature search strategies, results, and conclusions. Librarians provided support to clinicians'' literature searches and assessed their presentations using a checklist.Main Results:
Outcome data showed clinicians'' searching skills improved over time; however, advanced MEDLINE searching remained challenging for some. Recommendations are provided.Conclusion:
IL learning that takes place in context using measurable outcomes is more meaningful, is enduring, and likely contributes to patient care. Competence-based assessment drives learning in this environment. 相似文献5.
Objective:
The research studied the status of hospital librarians and library services to better inform the Medical Library Association''s advocacy activities.Methods:
The Vital Pathways Survey Subcommittee of the Task Force on Vital Pathways for Hospital Librarians distributed a web-based survey to hospital librarians and academic health sciences library directors. The survey results were compared to data collected in a 1989 survey of hospital libraries by the American Hospital Association in order to identify any trends in hospital libraries, roles of librarians, and library services. A web-based hospital library report form based on the survey questions was also developed to more quickly identify changes in the status of hospital libraries on an ongoing basis.Results:
The greatest change in library services between 1989 and 2005/06 was in the area of access to information, with 40% more of the respondents providing access to commercial online services, 100% more providing access to Internet resources, and 28% more providing training in database searching and use of information resources. Twenty-nine percent (n = 587) of the 2005/06 respondents reported a decrease in staff over the last 5 years.Conclusions:
Survey data support reported trends of consolidation of hospitals and hospital libraries and additions of new services. These services have likely required librarians to acquire new skills. It is hoped that future surveys will be undertaken to continue to study these trends.Highlights
- Data support reported trends in the decrease in the number of hospitals and hospital libraries.
- About 44.0% of hospitals had some level of onsite library service in 1989, compared with between 33.5% and 29.1% of hospitals in 2005/06.
- More electronic services and resources, such as Internet access and online materials, are being offered by hospital libraries, in addition to more traditional services
- Library staffing appears to be more unstable today than in 1989, with more libraries reporting a decrease in the number of staff.
Implications
- Hospital libraries continue to change in response to changes in the health care environment as health care administrators respond to financial pressures, library staff are downsized, degreed librarian positions are eliminated, and reporting structures change.
- MLA must continue to track the status of hospital librarians and libraries in light of the changing environment with surveys and other means, in partnership with others such as the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.
6.
7.
Joanne Gard Marshall Julia Sollenberger Sharon Easterby-Gannett Lynn Kasner Morgan Mary Lou Klem Susan K. Cavanaugh Kathleen Burr Oliver Cheryl A. Thompson Neil Romanosky Sue Hunter 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2013,101(1):38-46
Objective:
The research conducted a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library and information services on patient care.Methods:
The study used: (1) 2 initial focus groups of librarians; (2) a web-based survey of physicians, residents, and nurses at 56 library sites serving 118 hospitals; and (3) 24 follow-up telephone interviews. Survey respondents were asked to base their responses on a recent incident in which they had sought information for patient care.Results:
Of the 16,122 survey respondents, 3/4 said that they had definitely or probably handled aspects of the patient care situation differently as a result of the information. Among the reported changes were advice given to the patient (48%), diagnosis (25%), and choice of drugs (33%), other treatment (31%), and tests (23%). Almost all of the respondents (95%) said the information resulted in a better informed clinical decision. Respondents reported that the information allowed them to avoid the following adverse events: patient misunderstanding of the disease (23%), additional tests (19%), misdiagnosis (13%), adverse drug reactions (13%), medication errors (12%), and patient mortality (6%).Conclusions:
Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.Highlights
- Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.
- Electronic access to information resources from multiple locations has increased the ability of health professionals to use these resources for improved patient care.
- The roles of librarians are diversifying to include management of electronic resources, user instruction and support, specialized research and clinical information search services, and involvement in institution-level quality improvement.
- It is possible to conduct a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library services on patient care.
Implications
- Ongoing studies of the value and impact of library and information resources will be important for advocacy and quality improvement.
- Community-Based Participative Research methods hold promise as a way of ensuring the relevance of future research.
8.
9.
A. Tyler Nix Jeffrey T. Huber Robert M. Shapiro II Andrea Pfeifle 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2016,104(2):131-137
Objective
This study investigated responsibilities, skill sets, degrees, and certifications required of health care navigators in order to identify areas of potential overlap with health sciences librarianship.Method
The authors conducted a content analysis of health care navigator position announcements and developed and assigned forty-eight category terms to represent the sample''s responsibilities and skill sets.Results
Coordination of patient care and a bachelor''s degree were the most common responsibility and degree requirements, respectively. Results also suggest that managing and providing health information resources is an area of overlap between health care navigators and health sciences librarians, and that librarians are well suited to serve on navigation teams.Conclusion
Such overlap may provide an avenue for collaboration between navigators and health sciences librarians. 相似文献10.
Shaheen Majid Schubert Foo Brendan Luyt Xue Zhang Yin-Leng Theng Yun-Ke Chang Intan A Mokhtar 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2011,99(3):229-236
Objective:
Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides nurses with a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to a specific population. The objective of this study was to explore nurses'' awareness of, knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In addition, information sources used by nurses and their literature searching skills were also investigated.Method:
A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.Results:
More than 64% of the nurses expressed a positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring by nurses with EBP experience would encourage them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles. For literature searching, nurses were using basic search features and less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.Conclusion:
Although nurses showed a positive attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for building EBP competencies through proper training. Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active role in developing adequate information literacy skills among the nurses.Highlights
- Nurses in Singapore, as in other countries, support the idea of evidence-based practice (EBP) but have limited skills in the area of literature searching and understanding evidence, which limits their use of evidence-based practice.
- Only a small number of nurses were able to pick an appropriate search strategy for a given topic, indicating a lack of basic literature searching skills.
- Sufficient literature searching knowledge is essential to retrieve current, relevant, and accurate evidence. However, a majority of nurses do not know how to properly use Boolean and proximity operators, indexing, truncation, or limits.
Implications
- Librarians need to be part of providing ongoing training for clinical nurses in searching the evidence, especially in hospitals promoting EBP or seeking Magnet status.
- Training is needed for clinical nurses to be able to achieve the use of EBP, and librarians can support this goal by teaching the search strategies portion of an EBP skills course.
- This study''s instrument could be used by librarians as a needs assessment tool to measure their own clinical nurses'' information literacy skills, if justification is needed locally.
11.
Dixie A Jones Jean P Shipman Daphne A Plaut Catherine R Selden 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2010,98(3):243-249
Objectives:
The Medical Library Association (MLA)/National Library of Medicine (NLM) Joint Electronic Personal Health Record Task Force examined the current state of personal health records (PHRs).Methods:
A working definition of PHRs was formulated, and a database was built with fields for specified PHR characteristics. PHRs were identified and listed. Each task force member was assigned a portion of the list for data gathering. Findings were recorded in the database.Results:
Of the 117 PHRs identified, 91 were viable. Almost half were standalone products. A number used national standards for nomenclature and/or record structure. Less than half were mobile device enabled. Some were publicly available, and others were offered only to enrollees of particular health plans or employees at particular institutions. A few were targeted to special health conditions.Conclusions:
The PHR field is very dynamic. While most PHR products have some common elements, their features can vary. PHRs can link their users with librarians and information resources. MLA and NLM have taken an active role in making this connection and in encouraging librarians to assume this assistance role with PHRs.Highlights
- A variety of personal health records (PHRs) exist with some tied to medical health records and others offered as standalone products.
- Librarians can be connected to PHR users through inclusion of an assistance statement in PHRs.
- PHRs offer librarians another means of providing consumers with quality health information.
Implications
- PHR user support is a new role for medical librarians.
- Medical librarians need to be proactive in their communities to educate consumers about PHRs.
- Given the dynamic nature of this market, medical librarians should make a concerted effort to stay abreast of trends in this area.
12.
13.
Cynthia A. Olney Joyce E. B. Backus Lori J. Klein 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2010,98(1):65-72
Objectives:
Through interviews with the National Library of Medicine''s MedlinePlus Go Local collaborators, an evaluation team sought to identify process characteristics that are critical for long-term sustainability of Go Local projects and to describe the impact that Go Local projects have on sponsoring institutions.Methods:
Go Local project coordinators (n = 44) at 31 sponsor institutions participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences developing and maintaining Go Local sites. Interviews were summarized, checked for accuracy by the participating librarians, and analyzed using a general inductive methodology.Results:
Institutional factors that support Go Local projects were identified through the interviews, as well as strategies for staffing and partnerships with external organizations. Positive outcomes for sponsoring institutions also were identified.Conclusions:
The findings may influence the National Library of Medicine team''s decisions about improvements to its Go Local system and the support it provides to sponsoring institutions. The findings may benefit current sponsoring institutions as well as those considering or planning a Go Local project.Highlights
- Many project coordinators said they underestimated the level of work their National Library of Medicine (NLM) MedlinePlus Go Local projects would require, but most expressed dedication to the project and optimism about project sustainability.
- An institutional record of community service or outreach and a director who was supportive of the project were important factors in the progress and sustainability of Go Local projects.
- Go Local projects brought recognition to some sponsoring institutions from their parent institutions or their communities and provided opportunities to establish better relations with other libraries and institutions.
- Go Local projects ran more smoothly when a person, even a temporary hire, with dedicated time for the project was in charge during the initial building phase. Volunteer assistance has been difficult to motivate and sustain.
Implications
- NLM''s Go Local proposal guidelines accurately identify the factors that institutions should pay close attention to when planning a Go Local project.
- NLM should emphasize continuity plans to address project coordinator turnover.
- NLM should develop a more formal orientation plan for new project coordinators to assist program continuity at the sponsoring institutions.
14.
Suzanne F Grefsheim Susan C Whitmore Barbara A Rapp Jocelyn A Rankin Rex R Robison Candace C Canto 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2010,98(2):147-156
Background:
To encourage evidence-based practice, an Annals of Internal Medicine editorial called for a new professional on clinical teams: an informationist trained in science or medicine as well as information science.Objectives:
The study explored the effects of informationists on information behaviors of clinical research teams, specifically, frequency of seeking information for clinical or research decisions, range of resources consulted, perceptions about access to information, confidence in adequacy of literature searches, and effects on decision making and practice. It also explored perceptions about training and experience needed for successful informationists.Methods:
Exploratory focus groups and key interviews were followed by baseline and follow-up surveys conducted with researchers and clinicians receiving the service. Survey data were analyzed with Pearson''s chi-square or Fisher''s exact test.Results:
Comparing 2006 to 2004 survey responses, the researchers found that study participants reported: seeking answers to questions more frequently, spending more time seeking or using information, believing time was less of an obstacle to finding or using information, using more information resources, and feeling greater satisfaction with their ability to find answers. Participants'' opinions on informationists'' qualifications evolved to include both subject knowledge and information searching expertise.Conclusion:
Over time, clinical research teams with informationists demonstrated changes in their information behaviors, and they valued an informationist''s subject matter expertise more.Highlights
- Informationist involvement in traditional team activities—going on rounds and searching and critically evaluating the literature—increased over time.
- As the relationship between a clinical team and informationist developed, activities expanded to include projects such as development of wikis, databases, and websites.
- Clinical teams came to view subject knowledge as key to an informationist''s preparation; however, their expertise as information scientists was valued most highly.
- “Initiative,” approaching research staff in their workplace, was the one personal trait focus group participants agreed on as most desirable for an informationist.
- When first introduced to the concept, researchers cited customization of services to team needs as a major benefit.
Implications
- To assure a successful informationist program, libraries must be prepared to commit time and money.
- Whether informationists or not, librarians should be prepared to support users'' increased need for genetics and molecular biology information.
15.
16.
Margaret Moylan Bandy 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2015,103(1):3-13
Purpose:
The purpose of this lecture is to challenge librarians in clinical settings to leverage the opportunities presented by the current health care environment and to develop collaborative relationships with health care practitioners to provide relevant services.Discussion:
Health care organizations are under financial and regulatory pressures, and many hospital librarians have been downsized or have had their positions eliminated. The lecture briefly reviews hospital librarians'' roles in the past but focuses primarily on our current challenges. This environment requires librarians to be opportunity focused and pivot to a new vision that directs their actions. Many librarians are already doing this, and colleagues are encouraging us to embrace these opportunities. Evidence from publications, websites, discussion lists, personal communications, and the author''s experience is explored.Conclusion:
Developing interdisciplinary and collaborative relationships in our institutions and providing relevant services will mark our progress as vital, contributing members of our health care organizations. 相似文献17.
Objective:
The research sought to establish a rubric for evaluating evidence-based medicine (EBM) point-of-care tools in a health sciences library.Methods:
The authors searched the literature for EBM tool evaluations and found that most previous reviews were designed to evaluate the ability of an EBM tool to answer a clinical question. The researchers'' goal was to develop and complete rubrics for assessing these tools based on criteria for a general evaluation of tools (reviewing content, search options, quality control, and grading) and criteria for an evaluation of clinical summaries (searching tools for treatments of common diagnoses and evaluating summaries for quality control).Results:
Differences between EBM tools'' options, content coverage, and usability were minimal. However, the products'' methods for locating and grading evidence varied widely in transparency and process.Conclusions:
As EBM tools are constantly updating and evolving, evaluation of these tools needs to be conducted frequently. Standards for evaluating EBM tools need to be established, with one method being the use of objective rubrics. In addition, EBM tools need to provide more information about authorship, reviewers, methods for evidence collection, and grading system employed.Highlights
- Eleven of the fourteen previous evidence-based medicine (EBM) tool evaluations were based on clinicians evaluating tools based on their perception of the products'' ability to answer a clinical question.
- EBM tools'' evidence summaries are not updated as often as products claim.
- Although many EBM tools claim to be evidence based, only 74% of the 70 evaluated treatment summaries included graded evidence.
Implications
- To offer the best tools for users, medical libraries should evaluate EBM resources regularly, including the quality of the evidence provided.
- Medical librarians have a role to play in evaluating the quality of EBM products and can develop assessment tools to aid in this evaluation.
18.
Objectives:
The study updates Schloman''s 1997 study, “Mapping the Literature of Health Education.” The authors identify an updated list of core health education journals and determine the coverage of these journals by electronic indexes.Methods:
Citations from four source journals for the years 2006 to 2008 were analyzed using the established methodology of the “Mapping the Literature of Allied Health Project.” The cited journals were divided into three zones of productivity by using Bradford''s Law of Scattering.Results:
There were 19,907 citations in 602 source articles. Journal articles were the most commonly cited format type. Of the 1,896 journal titles cited, 20 (1.1%) made up the core journals. Together, the fields of medicine, health education, and psychology accounted for 85.0% of the journals in the core. Self-citation was found to be a common practice in the source journals. Scopus had the broadest journal coverage of the indexes examined.Conclusions:
The results of this study provide a new picture of the health education literature: The volume has grown significantly, cites older materials, and relies less on sexual health journals and more on psychology journals.Highlights
- Three of the four health education journals in this study showed a statistically significant increase in the number of journal articles published since 1993.
- The majority of core journals in the field are from medicine (35.0%), health education (30.0%), and psychology (20.0%), with the largest change in core journal make-up being an increase in psychology journals.
- Scopus provided the most thorough coverage of the cited journals, followed by MEDLINE, Social Sciences Citation Index, and CINAHL Plus with Full Text.
Implications
- Reference librarians should instruct users on more sophisticated ways to manage the growing volume of the health education literature.
- Collection development librarians may need to purchase and retain older materials to support health education research.
- Librarians should purchase and direct patrons to a variety of databases to completely cover the literature of medicine, health education, and psychology.
19.
Julie G. Kosteniuk Debra G. Morgan Carl K. D'Arcy 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2013,101(1):32-37
Objectives:
The research determined (1) the information sources that family physicians (FPs) most commonly use to update their general medical knowledge and to make specific clinical decisions, and (2) the information sources FPs found to be most physically accessible, intellectually accessible (easy to understand), reliable (trustworthy), and relevant to their needs.Methods:
A cross-sectional postal survey of 792 FPs and locum tenens, in full-time or part-time medical practice, currently practicing or on leave of absence in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was conducted during the period of January to April 2008.Results:
Of 666 eligible physicians, 331 completed and returned surveys, resulting in a response rate of 49.7% (331/666). Medical textbooks and colleagues in the main patient care setting were the top 2 sources for the purpose of making specific clinical decisions. Medical textbooks were most frequently considered by FPs to be reliable (trustworthy), and colleagues in the main patient care setting were most physically accessible (easy to access).Conclusions:
When making specific clinical decisions, FPs were most likely to use information from sources that they considered to be reliable and generally physically accessible, suggesting that FPs can best be supported by facilitating easy and convenient access to high-quality information.Highlights
- Medical textbooks were the most popular information source for family physicians'' (FPs'') clinical decision-making purposes, and medical journals were the most popular information source for the purpose of updating FPs'' general medical knowledge.
- FPs considered medical textbooks to be the most reliable (trustworthy) source, colleagues the most physically accessible, and continuing medical education the most relevant and intellectually accessible.
- The lowest ranked information sources across all four attributes were personal digital assistants, mental health professionals, pharmaceutical sales representatives, and other decision aids.
Implications
- The most popular information sources for clinical decision-making purposes among FPs were sources characterized as reliable and generally physically accessible.
- This study suggests the need for further research into interventions that target information access barriers in FPs'' practice settings and the promotion of reliable evidence for FPs'' clinical decision-making purposes.
20.
Mary Joan Tooey 《Journal of the Medical Library Association》2009,97(4):268-272
Objectives:
By the mid 2000s, reports of hospital librarians losing jobs and hospital libraries closing were rife. In 2005, Vital Pathways: The Hospital Libraries Project was established by 2005/06 MLA President M.J. Tooey, AHIP, FMLA, to assess the truth of these reports and to study and develop strategies to support hospital librarians. Throughout this long-term project, opportunities were sought to understand the issues more clearly.Methods:
A steering committee, along with three task forces, was established to carry out the work of the project. The steering committee provided oversight and had responsibility for promoting and marketing the project. The three task forces were responsible for conducting a survey on the status of hospital librarians, determining the involvement of librarians in medical education and accreditation, and researching and writing a document reviewing current and future roles for hospital librarians. Along the way, these responsibilities grew and evolved.Results:
After a little more than three years, the Task Force on Vital Pathways for Hospital Librarians Steering Committee presented a final report regarding its accomplishments to the MLA Board of Directors. A sampling of these accomplishments includes the status of hospital librarians survey, a website, a position document with an accompanying executive summary, a short promotional brochure, and a final culminating activity, this symposium.Conclusions:
Although these are difficult times for all libraries, hospital librarians and libraries seem particularly affected. In a competitive health care environment that is driven by the bottom line, influenced by real estate hunger, and affected by the belief of hospital administrators that access to health information comes from the Internet and is free, the hospital librarian seems doomed. However, even in these difficult times, there are hospital librarians who are not only surviving, but thriving. Is it because they are entrepreneurial? Opportunistic? Innovative? Flexible? All of the above? None of the above? There are no clear predictors of success or of failure. However, the Vital Pathways Project has shed light on some of the issues and identified opportunities and strategies for the future.Highlights
- This introduction serves as overview of the MLA Vital Pathways Project and its accomplishments, outcomes, and recommendations.
Implications
- This symposium will lead to increased focus on hospital librarians'' issues and future.
- Increased focus will result in conversations and actions regarding new and emerging roles for hospital librarians.