The move to open: medical library leadership in scholarly communication

Author : Chris Shaffer

Over the years, health sciences librarians have been change agents, leading the charge on issues of importance to the profession and the communities we serve. From its founding in 1898 with the Exchange, the Medical Library Association (MLA) has been dedicated to improving access to health information.

In 2003, the Board of Directors published a statement supporting open access to information generated from federally funded scientific and medical research and maintained that having access to timely, relevant, and accurate information is vital to the health of the nation and its education and research programs.

At some financial risk, the association made the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) open access and published the entire archive of JMLA and its predecessor, the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, in PubMed Central. Nearly two decades later, the promise of open access and open science finally seems to be coming to fruition.

In the 2020 Janet Doe Lecture, Chris Shaffer, AHIP, described the ways that MLA has led the profession, standing behind a shared vision and “walking the walk.” In challenging listeners to embrace open science, he affirmed that, as leaders in improving access to health sciences information since 1898, medical librarians must work in the open science arena to realize our vision “that quality information is essential for improved health.”

URL : The move to open: medical library leadership in scholarly communication

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1127

The complex nature of research dissemination practices among public health faculty researchers

Authors : Rosie Hanneke, Jeanne M. Link

Objective

This study explores the variety of information formats used and audiences targeted by public health faculty in the process of disseminating research.

Methods

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve faculty members in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, asking them about their research practices, habits, and preferences.

Results

Faculty scholars disseminate their research findings in a variety of formats intended for multiple audiences, including not only their peers in academia, but also public health practitioners, policymakers, government and other agencies, and community partners.

Conclusion

Librarians who serve public health faculty should bear in mind the diversity of faculty’s information needs when designing and improving library services and resources, particularly those related to research dissemination and knowledge translation.

Promising areas for growth in health sciences libraries include supporting data visualization, measuring the impact of non-scholarly publications, and promoting institutional repositories for dissemination of research.

URL : The complex nature of research dissemination practices among public health faculty researchers

Alternative location : http://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/article/view/524

Relationship between Online Journal Usage and their Citations in the Academic Publications: A Case Study

Authors : Jessy Abdul, Mahabaleshwara Rao, Amitha Puranik

The advancement of science and technology has impacted functioning of the libraries of higher educational institutions, and the mode of providing resources for various academic activities.

For many years, libraries attached to educational institutions have been labouring with the question of how to determine the value of journals in their specific library collection. The Health Sciences Library of Manipal Academy of Higher Education at Manipal, subscribed a vast number of online journals for their users.

A relation between the usage and citations of subscribed online journals might provide a basis for the collection management in the libraries of academic and research institutions.

The current study resolved to identify whether relationship exists between usage of subscribed online journals and their citations in the academic publications of the health science professionals from 2010 to 2015.

The study found a statistically significant relationship between subscribed online journal usage and their citations in the publications through the inferential test of Spearman’s rank-order correlation.

For collection development of online journals, libraries can utilise the usage or citation data of journals as a decision making tool.

URL : Relationship between Online Journal Usage and their Citations in the Academic Publications: A Case Study

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/13114

Health Sciences Libraries Advancing Collaborative Clinical Research Data Management in Universities

Authors : Tania P. Bardyn, Emily F. Patridge, Michael T. Moore, Jane J. Koh

Purpose

Medical libraries need to actively review their service models and explore partnerships with other campus entities to provide better-coordinated clinical research management services to faculty and researchers. TRAIL (Translational Research and Information Lab), a five-partner initiative at the University of Washington (UW), explores how best to leverage existing expertise and space to deliver clinical research data management (CRDM) services and emerging technology support to clinical researchers at UW and collaborating institutions in the Pacific Northwest.

Methods

The initiative offers 14 services and a technology-enhanced innovation lab located in the Health Sciences Library (HSL) to support the University of Washington clinical and research enterprise.

Sharing of staff and resources merges library and non-library workflows, better coordinating data and innovation services to clinical researchers. Librarians have adopted new roles in CRDM, such as providing user support and training for UW’s Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) instance.

Results

TRAIL staff are quickly adapting to changing workflows and shared services, including teaching classes on tools used to manage clinical research data. Researcher interest in TRAIL has sparked new collaborative initiatives and service offerings. Marketing and promotion will be important for raising researchers’ awareness of available services.

Conclusions

Medical librarians are developing new skills by supporting and teaching CRDM. Clinical and data librarians better understand the information needs of clinical and translational researchers by being involved in the earlier stages of the research cycle and identifying technologies that can improve healthcare outcomes.

At health sciences libraries, leveraging existing resources and bringing services together is central to how university medical librarians will operate in the future.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2018.1130

Health science libraries in Sweden: new directions, expanding roles

Authors : Lotta Haglund, Annikki Roos, Petra Wallgren-Björk

Librarians in Sweden are facing huge challenges in meeting the demands of their organisations and users. This article looks at four key areas: coping with open science/open access initiatives; increasing demands from researchers for support doing systematic reviews; understanding user experiences in Swedish health science libraries; and the consequences of expanding roles for recruitment and continuing professional development.

With regard to changing roles, there is an increasing shift from the generalist towards the expert role. The authors raise the issue as to how to prepare those new to the profession to the changing environment of health science libraries.

URL : Health science libraries in Sweden: new directions, expanding roles

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12229