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Information-seeking behaviors of medical students: a classification of questions asked of librarians and physicians.

To solve a problem, a person often asks questions of someone with more expertise. This paper reports on a study of the types of questions asked and how the experts are chosen. In the study, sixty-three first-year medical students responded to clinical scenarios, each describing a patient affected by a toxin and asking questions concerning the identity of the toxin and its characteristics. After answering those questions, the students were asked to imagine that they had access to a medical reference librarian and an internist specializing in toxicology. The students then generated two questions for each expert about each clinical scenario. Each question was categorized according to the type of information requested, and the frequency of each type of question was calculated. The study found that students most often asked for the identification of the toxin(s), references about the scenario, or the effects of the toxin; an explanation of the patient's symptoms; or a description of the appropriate treatment. Students were more likely to address questions on the identity of the toxin and references to the hypothetical librarian; they were more likely to ask the internist for explanations of the symptoms and descriptions of the treatment. The implications of these results for the design of information and educational systems are discussed.

Humans↗

Impact of information technology on the role of health sciences librarians.

Information technology is transforming the nature of health sciences information and its management, thereby altering the traditional responsibilities of health sciences librarians. As a result, the traditional educational preparation for librarianship is no longer entirely relevant, and there is a real possibility that information management will be taken over by individuals with different educational backgrounds and skills. This paper explores four topics relevant to this issue: the emergence of new forms of health sciences information, the impact of technology on the practice of health sciences librarianship, the interaction of technology and the practice of health sciences librarianship, and the relationship among these three topics and the educational preparation of health sciences librarians.

Curriculum↗

Librarian participation in meta-analysis projects.

Meta-analysis is an epidemiological and statistical tool used to combine the results of independent studies and synthesize their conclusions for the purpose of evaluating therapeutic effectiveness, determining procedural efficacy, or providing a basis for development of treatment protocols. Meta-analysis also may be described as "studying the studies." The process, however defined, requires access to a large quantity of medical literature and presents new opportunities for medical librarians to use their data gathering skills. At Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, a librarian assists with the identification, location, and review of literature in support of meta-analysis projects done by the Technology Assessment Program. Comprehensive literature searches are performed and references with abstracts, indexing terms, and other elements of the unit record are downloaded, converted, and presented as records in a database program. References are then analyzed, decisions are made about their relevance, and article copies are acquired for further analysis.

Librarians↗

Medical education and faculty development: a new role for the health sciences librarian.

This paper describes the roles and responsibilities of the associate director for medical education at the Primary Care Resource Center (PCRC), School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). The PCRC was established to increase the number of UB medical school graduates who selected graduate medical education in the generalist disciplines. The associate director, who is a health sciences librarian, has established collaborative working relationships with primary care physicians in the clinical departments of family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine with the goal of improving the teaching effectiveness of faculty and residents. Another goal is to incorporate the use of computerized information technologies into clinical practice by training physicians and residents, at specially equipped ambulatory training sites, in how to access and manage information for the purpose of providing quality medical care. This has been accomplished in part through the provision of highly personalized instruction to participants. In addition to describing these activities, this paper examines how the duties of the associate director reflect the potential for long-term change in the roles and responsibilities of health sciences librarians, whether they work in a traditional or nontraditional setting.

Computers↗

The librarian as a partner in nursing education.

Welch Medical Library has explored new roles for librarians in knowledge management instruction programs throughout the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing curricula. These programs have created roles for library staff as both instructors and knowledge management experts. By fostering strong communication and attention to quality instruction, librarians achieved their vision of a program in knowledge management integrated into the curriculum, where they are partners working with nursing faculty to define the students' knowledge management needs and decide how these needs can be met.

Baltimore↗

Hospital librarians and the Medical Library Association.

Hospital librarians have been active participants in and contributors to the Medical Library Association since it was founded. This article reviews the history of the Hospital Libraries Section and provides some personal observations on the contributions the association has made to hospital librarians and their growing influence on the association.

Canada↗

Becoming ADEPT (Applying Diagnosis, Etiology, Prognosis, and Therapy Programme): delivering distance learning on evidence-based medicine for librarians.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) brings new challenges and opportunities for librarians. However, their ability to respond to this agenda is constrained by their difficulties in acquiring the requisite new skills and techniques while continuing to work in a busy information practice setting. The authors describe a joint initiative, between a specialist evidence-based healthcare information unit and a regional library network, to deliver training materials using a mixed workshop and distance learning format. The Applying Diagnosis, Etiology, Prognosis, and Therapy filters (ADEPT) Programme draws upon research conducted at McMaster University, Canada and, using techniques adapted from the teaching evidence-based medicine paradigm, seeks to equip health care librarians with the skills and techniques required to support evidence-based practice locally. The authors describe the thinking behind the programme, its main features, the extensive evaluation mechanisms incorporated into the course, the results of the evaluation and the lessons learnt. They conclude with a description of the way forward for participants on the programme who are adapting their newly acquired knowledge to their work situations. Further planned developments from the course's designers are also outlined briefly.

Cooperative Behavior↗

Teaching of formal courses by medical librarians.

Medical education should include formal course work on the use of the medical library. The formal teaching effort of medical librarians at the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences is described. Three courses on the use of the library are offered to graduate students in basic medical sciences, dentistry, and pharmacy and to undergraduate students in medical records administration. A review of the literature covering teaching by medical librarians and the results of a questionnaire survey also are reported. A 95 percent response to a questionnaire sent to 105 health-science-related school libraries was received. Of the 100 libraries responding, only 18 offered formal course work. An additional 19 reported plans for offering formal courses on the use of the library.

Curriculum↗

Community partnerships for health information training: medical librarians working with health-care professionals and consumers in Tennessee.

In Tennessee, several medical library outreach projects have involved collaborative work with health-care professionals, public librarians, consumers, faith-based organizations and community service agencies. The authors are medical librarians who worked as consultants, trainers and project directors to promote health literacy using PubMed medline and other health information resources in the several funding projects described here. We explain the programmes briefly, focusing on lessons learned and suggestions for those who follow us.

Community-Institutional Relations↗

The librarian as consultant and educator for personal file management software.

Librarians are encouraged to extend their information managing skills to include familiarity with personal file management software. Knowledge of automated solutions to overgrown manual reprint files can be valuable to the institution that a librarian serves. The capabilities of REFERENCE MANAGER, PRO-CITE, ASKSAM, and SCI-MATE are compared in a series of classes given for faculty and staff by the Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries reference staff.

Consultants↗

The use of electronic mail at the reference desk: impact of a computer-mediated communication technology on librarian-client interactions.

Commonly recognized computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools include virtual environments, bibliographic databases, listservers, newsgroups, group teleconferencing, interactive messaging systems and electronic mail. The use of these technologies in libraries has grown exponentially over the past decade. Electronic mail has emerged as an especially popular communication tool for librarians, and their colleagues and patrons. This paper explores the use of a reference department electronic mail service and its impact on reference services and librarian-client interactions. Several issues related to the implementation of CMC technologies are presented, including the maintenance and monitoring of reference electronic mail systems, the types of questions that are typically posted, and potential barriers to the implementation and use of reference e-mail.

Academic Medical Centers↗

Librarians' use of HealthWeb for reference and instruction.

HealthWeb is a selective Internet resource that links users to annotated, evaluated Internet resources in the health sciences. A collaborative effort of librarians from more than twenty academic institutions, it is a valuable tool for librarians at the Reference Desk and during instruction sessions. Contents of the Reference Resources section are highlighted, as well as an example of use of the Nursing page during a typical class.

Academic Medical Centers↗

Medical librarian 2.0.

Web 2.0 refers to an emerging social environment that uses various tools to create, aggregate, and share dynamic content in ways that are more creative and interactive than transactions previously conducted on the Internet. The extension of this social environment to libraries, sometimes called Library 2.0, has profound implications for how librarians will work, collaborate, and deliver content. Medical librarians can connect with present and future generations of users by learning more about the social dynamics of Web 2.0's vast ecosystem, and incorporating some of its interactive tools and technologies (tagging, peer production, and syndication) into routine library practice. doi: 10.1300/J115v26n01_01.

Internet↗

Creating a Web-accessible, point-of-care, team-based information system (PointTIS): the librarian as publisher.

The Internet has created new opportunities for librarians to develop information systems that are readily accessible at the point of care. This paper describes the multiyear process used to justify, fund, design, develop, promote, and evaluate a rehabilitation prototype of a point-of-care, team-based information system (PoinTIS) and train health care providers to use this prototype for their spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury patient care and education activities. PoinTIS is a successful model for librarians in the twenty-first century to serve as publishers of information created or used by their parent organizations and to respond to the opportunities for information dissemination provided by recent technological advances.

Artificial Intelligence↗

Information-seeking behavior of nursing students and clinical nurses: implications for health sciences librarians.

OBJECTIVES: This research was conducted to provide new insights on clinical nurses' and nursing students' current use of health resources and libraries and deterrents to their retrieval of electronic clinical information, exploring implications from these findings for health sciences librarians. METHODS: Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used to collect data from twenty-five nursing students and twenty-five clinical nurses. RESULTS: Nursing students and clinical nurses were most likely to rely on colleagues and books for medical information, while other resources they frequently cited included personal digital assistants, electronic journals and books, and drug representatives. Significantly more nursing students than clinical nurses used online databases, including CINAHL and PubMed, to locate health information, and nursing students were more likely than clinical nurses to report performing a database search at least one to five times a week. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Nursing students made more use of all available resources and were better trained than clinical nurses, but both groups lacked database-searching skills. Participants were eager for more patient care information, more database training, and better computer skills; therefore, health sciences librarians have the opportunity to meet the nurses' information needs and improve nurses' clinical information-seeking behavior.

Adult↗

An introduction to the Semantic Web for health sciences librarians.

OBJECTIVES: The paper (1) introduces health sciences librarians to the main concepts and principles of the Semantic Web (SW) and (2) briefly reviews a number of projects on the handling of biomedical information that uses SW technology. METHODOLOGY: The paper is structured into two main parts. "Semantic Web Technology" provides a high-level description, with examples, of the main standards and concepts: extensible markup language (XML), Resource Description Framework (RDF), RDF Schema (RDFS), ontologies, and their utility in information retrieval, concluding with mention of more advanced SW languages and their characteristics. "Semantic Web Applications and Research Projects in the Biomedical Field" is a brief review of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), Generalised Architecture for Languages, Encyclopedias and Nomenclatures in Medicine (GALEN), HealthCyberMap, LinkBase, and the thesaurus of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The paper also mentions other benefits and by-products of the SW, citing projects related to them. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Some of the problems facing the SW vision are presented, especially the ways in which the librarians' expertise in organizing knowledge and in structuring information may contribute to SW projects.

Humans↗

The health sciences librarian's exposure to malpractice liability because of negligent provision of information.

This article discusses personal and organizational liability for the negligent provision of information by health science librarians providing information regarding patient diagnosis and treatment. It notes claims in the library literature that liability exists for providing faulty information, but these claims do not state or explain the legal basis for such liability. It identifies three basic information retrieval and communication services provided by reference librarians and characterizes the negligent provision of information as a failure to exercise care in one or more of the three. With regard to personal liability, it identifies the relevant law, the tort of negligent misrepresentation involving risk of physical harm, and outlines the elements that a plaintiff would have to establish to sue successfully. With regard to organizational liability, it notes that a plaintiff would use one of two common law theories: either the vicarious liability doctrine of respondeat superior or the direct liability negligent hire theory of recovery.

Humans↗

Electronic publishing: implications for health sciences libraries and librarians.

Increasingly we hear of "electronic publishing" in the form of books and journals made available as databases, either through traditional online services or through electronic message services. This paper explores its potential impact on the medical library community and on the relationship between end user and librarian. The librarian's new roles as intermediary, facilitator, and advocate for end users are examined. The question of developing expertise for evaluating information as well as facilitating access is addressed.

Libraries, Medical↗