Inquiring Informationists: A Qualitative Exploration of Our Role

Clinical informationist educational needs and goals: A scoping review

Clinical informationist (CI) is one of the current trends in the field of medical librarianship and information science. CIs are members of clinical care teams, and their main duty is to fill the gap in the information needs of health-care workers and patients using information sources. They need an official and standard education. This study aims to identify the educational goals and needs of CIs. To this end, a scoping review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines. The ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Proquest (MEDLINE), Science Direct, Emerald, ERIC, Cochrane, and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts were searched. The Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries was hand searched for relevant studies. A total of 1026 studies were extracted, and 38 studies were selected for the final review. The review resulted in identifying 18 goals in cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor areas. Furthermore, the educational needs were identified in eight educational needs including research method and statistics, education, medical knowledge, information and librarianship science, clinical environment knowledge, evidence-based knowledge, information technologies and systems, management, and leadership. Although part of these educational needs can be met through general medical librarianship and information science education, further specialized education for CIs requires specific aims and curriculum. Thus, the results of this study can be the basis for future studies regarding the competencies of CI in order to provide a more precise and detailed curriculum based on these educational needs.

The librarian as research informationist: a case study

QUESTION

How can an embedded research informationist add value to the scientific output of research teams?

SETTING

The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library is an academic health sciences library serving the clinical, educational, and research needs of the UCLA community.

METHODS

A grant from the National Library of Medicine funded a librarian to join a UCLA research team as an informationist. The informationist meets regularly with the research team and provides guidance related to data management, preservation, and other information-related issues.

MAIN RESULTS

Early results suggest that the informationist's involvement has influenced the team's data gathering, storage, and curation methods. The UCLA Library has also changed the librarian's title to research informationist to reflect the new activities that she performs.

CONCLUSION

The research informationist role provides an opportunity for librarians to become effective members of research teams and improve research output.

"You're just one of the group when you're embedded": report from a mixed-method investigation of the research-embedded health librarian experience

OBJECTIVE

Embedded librarianship has received much attention in recent years. A model of embeddedness rarely discussed to date is that of research-embedded health librarians (REHLs). This study explores the characteristics of Canadian REHLs and the situations in which they are employed.

METHODS

The authors employed a sequential, mixed-method design. An online survey provided descriptive statistics about REHLs' positions and work experiences. This informed a series of focus group interviews that expanded upon the survey. Through constant comparison, we conducted qualitative descriptive analysis of the interviews.

RESULTS

Based on twenty-nine survey responses and four group interviews, we created a portrait of a "typical" REHL and discovered themes relevant to REHL work. REHLs may identify more strongly as researchers than as librarians, with corresponding professional needs and rewards. REHLs value "belonging" to the research team, involvement in full project lifecycles, and in-depth relationships with nonlibrarian colleagues. Despite widely expressed job satisfaction, many REHLs struggle with isolation from library and information science peers and relative lack of job security.

CONCLUSIONS

REHLs differ from non-embedded health librarians, as well as from other types of embedded librarians. REHLs' work also differs from just a decade or two ago, prior to widespread Internet access to digital resources.

IMPLICATIONS

Given that research-embedded librarianship appears to be a distinct and growing subset of health librarianship, libraries, master's of library and information science programs, and professional associations will need to respond to the support and education needs of REHLs or risk losing them to the health research field.

Expert searcher, teacher, content manager, and patient advocate: an exploratory study of clinical librarian roles

OBJECTIVE

The research explored the roles of practicing clinical librarians embedded in a patient care team.

METHODS

Six clinical librarians from Canada and one from the United States were interviewed to elicit detailed descriptions of their clinical roles and responsibilities and the context in which these were performed.

RESULTS

Participants were embedded in a wide range of clinical service areas, working with a diverse complement of health professionals. As clinical librarians, participants wore many hats, including expert searcher, teacher, content manager, and patient advocate. Unique aspects of how these roles played out included a sense of urgency surrounding searching activities, the broad dissemination of responses to clinical questions, and leverage of the roles of expert searcher, teacher, and content manager to advocate for patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Detailed role descriptions of clinical librarians embedded in patient care teams suggest possible new practices for existing clinical librarians, provide direction for training new librarians working in patient care environments, and raise awareness of the clinical librarian specialty among current and budding health information professionals.

Experiences as an embedded librarian in online courses

Embedded librarianship gives librarians a prime opportunity to have a direct, positive impact in a clinical setting, classroom setting, or within a working group by providing integrated services that cater to the group's needs. Extending embedded librarian services beyond the various physical settings and into online classrooms is an exceptional way for librarians to engage online learners. This group of students is growing rapidly in numbers and could benefit greatly from having library services and resources incorporated into their classes. The author's services as an embedded librarian in fully online courses at a medium-sized university will be discussed, as will strategies, lessons learned, and opportunities for engaging in this realm. To develop a foundation of knowledge on embedded librarianship, an overview of this topic is provided.

The informationist: building evidence for an emerging health profession

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.