Evaluation of hospital staff's perceived quality of librarian-mediated literature searching services

Determining COVID-19's impact on an academic medical library's literature search service

Objective

At many institutions, literature search services are an important aspect of health science librarianship. This exploratory study analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the use of an academic hospital medical library's literature search service.

Methods

To evaluate the pandemic's impact on literature searching at The University of Tennessee Medical Center's Preston Medical Library, data were analyzed for changes from the year before the pandemic (March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020) to the first year during the pandemic (March 1st, 2020 to February 28, 2021). This was accomplished using LibWizard, a library feedback and assessment application, to review literature search data during the two periods. Variables of interest included total searches, purpose of searches, affiliation of the searcher, and searches with a pandemic-related research question.

Results

A 36.6% drop in literature search service usage was reported from the pre-pandemic year to the during-pandemic year. There was a 55.3% decrease in searches intended for research, as well as significant decreases in the number of searches requested by all patron affiliations. After March 2020, 10% of all searches concerned a COVID-related topic.

Conclusion

The overall decrease in literature search requests, decrease in research searches, decrease in searches among all patron affiliations, and increase in searches on a COVID-related topic suggest that healthcare worker and institutional priorities changed during the pandemic. The results revealed research interests during the first year of the pandemic, as well as an overall change in library service functionality.

Landscape of health sciences librarian-mediated search services

BACKGROUND

Health librarians have traditionally provided mediated searches to support patient care, education and research.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to discover the types of search result formats used by health science libraries, determine current practice among health science libraries (types of requesters served, fees, deduplication, turnaround time and citation manager use) and uncover innovative methods for providing search results.

METHODS

An online survey was distributed to the MEDLIB-L, ExpertSearching, MidContinental Chapter of the Medical Library Association and ICON listservs and through direct email to selected Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries reference and education librarians.

RESULTS

Librarians affiliated with 127 institutions from 11 countries (including the USS) and 36 USS states and territories responded. One hundred and forty-two of the total 150 analysed responses provided information on full-text access, and 81 of those 142 responses (57%) indicated that the institutions' link-resolver links were included in search results provided to the requester. The survey responses provide information on literature search services regarding turnaround time, use of a citation managers, fees and deduplication.

CONCLUSION

With the developing landscape of citation managers and the tools offered, these data can be used as a benchmark for librarians who are considering evaluating or modifying their search service delivery.

Graduate students in public health predict their actual usage of different library services and resources quite accurately

BACKGROUND

Public health students need to use different resources to those used by other health science students.

OBJECTIVES

To compare how users expect to interact with library resources and services with how they reported actual interactions and expected future usage, to inform library planning.

METHODS

During first semester orientation, a paper questionnaire was administered to graduate students (n = 25), followed by an end of semester questionnaire in a mandatory public health course. Differences (orientation vs. actual and actual vs. predicted future) were analysed using chi-square tests.

RESULTS

Most graduate students utilized library resources as frequently as they anticipated at the semester's start. Regarding which library resources they would use, respondents' predictions during orientation were accurate. Respondent confidence in their abilities to use the library resources rose by the semester's end, and the group's expectations of using electronic books in the future semester increased significantly.

DISCUSSION

Graduate students had realistic expectations when predicting their library resource usage and difficulties and most expected to value the quiet space as much as they did.

CONCLUSION

Such tracking of group expectations, experience and predicted usage helps library managers' plan where support is required.

Critical incident technique helps determine how health library and information services influence clinical decision making and patient care: A literature review

BACKGROUND

The Critical incident technique (CIT) has been used for decades in the assessment of the impact of library and information services on patient care and clinical decision making.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this article is to identify and review the studies that have used CIT approach to assess the impact of library and information services on patient care and clinical decision making.

METHODS

Related articles were searched in the information resources of Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Google Scholar and LISTA.

RESULTS

From among 1346 articles obtained, 22 met the inclusion criteria. The analysis of the articles indicated that CIT has been used for various purposes such as assessing the information value, assessing the information resources and librarians in their clinical practice and decision making, examining information-seeking behaviour and analysing cost- benefits.

DISCUSSION

Critical incident technique is a flexible approach for libraries and information services, based on individuals' experiences of finding and using information to help resolve a perceived problem.

CONCLUSIONS

The studies identified in this review offer a variety of methods for using CIT that other libraries might consider for their own impact studies.

Clinical informationist participation in grand round sessions of gastroenterology department: An action research study

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, providing access to the required information by clinical informationist (CI) is vital for clinical teams to make the best decision. This study was carried out to identifying how CIs should participate in grand round (GR).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The current study is an action research study. It was conducted in the GR sessions of the Gastroenterology department of Al-Zahra Hospital affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2017. Participants included attending physicians, fellowship students of the Gastroenterology departments, a CI, and two supervising medical librarians. Data were collected through observation and discussion. Qualitative content analysis and concept mapping were used for data analysis.

RESULTS

The findings indicated that existing problems were related to the CI, medical team, and infrastructural ones. The participation of the CI in medical team was arranged based on the following steps: planning, action, evaluation, and suggestions. It started from an initial diagnosis of patients and ended in GR meetings. During evaluation step, suggestions were made to remove the existing problems and in the fifth step, results were summarized and a framework for the participation of the CI in GR sessions was suggested.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical team members were satisfied with the participation of the CI, but it is necessary to remove the existing structural and personal barriers (related to the CI and medical team members), in order to improve the efficiency of this participation.

Longitudinal observations of expected and actual library resource usage and barriers experienced by public health students

Objective:

This longitudinal observational study explored relationships between actual and expected usage of library resources as well as anticipated and encountered barriers to that usage among public health affiliates over the course of a semester.

Methods:

School of Public Health master's degree students were sent questionnaires monthly throughout a semester that asked about usage of and barriers to library resources to examine changes over time.

Results:

Most students utilized library resources less often than they predicted at the beginning of the semester and did not have accurate expectations about which library resources they would use. Although most students encountered no difficulties using library resources, those who did often had multiple problems and seldom sought library assistance.

Conclusion:

As School of Public Health master's students had unrealistically high expectations of library resource usage, librarians may need to manage students' expectations and assist in overcoming difficulties. Further studies across health sciences disciplines are needed to determine differences between different populations of users.

Pre-requisites, barriers and advantages of clinical informationist participation in grand round: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Clinical specialists require access to the most recent and up to date professional information. However, barriers such as insufficient time and lack of necessary information retrieval skills necessitate the presence of clinical informationist (CI) in medical teams.

OBJECTIVES

This study sought to determine the pre-requisite for CI participation in the grand round.

METHODS

This was a qualitative study carried out using content analysis approach. Study involved all fellowship students and attending physicians in the department of gastroenterology at Al-Zahra hospital in Isfahan (Iran), who were selected using purposive sampling. Gathered reports were analysed using qualitative content analysis and concept mapping approaches.

DISCUSSION

To improve the process of CI collaboration with clinical specialists during the educational rounds, it is necessary for CI to have certain pre-requisite skills.

CONCLUSIONS

By identifying the pre-requisites for CI participation in the grand round and explaining advantages of this participation for clinical specialists, this study proposes a suitable process for implantation of CI participation in grand rounds.