Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l'Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada

Editor's Message

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Librarian Support for Researchers in Ontario Hospitals

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Introduction This study investigates the extent to which Ontario hospital librarians and library resources support researchers and describe the librarians' participation in research capacity building within their institutions.

Methods A 16-question SurveyMonkey™ web-based survey questionnaire was disseminated via email to 53 potential participants consisted of library directors, managers and solo librarians.

Results The response rate was 60%. The number of researchers supported by librarians ranged from 10 or less to 76 or more researchers in the past 10 months. Librarians supported a variety of scholarly research outputs, assisting researchers with journal articles being the most frequently supported activity. The top three library resources used to support researchers were licensed electronic journals, print collections and expert librarian searches. One of the reported ways librarians received training to better assist researchers was via online continuing education.

Discussion As others have reported, there was a predominance of support for literature studies including literature reviews and systematic reviews. Surprisingly, some librarians reported that they had all the databases or resources they needed to support research, while an alarming 79 per cent of respondents reported not having access to all the databases and resources they needed. Lack of access to databases or online resources may have a negative effect on the quality of research the librarians provided. Raising the awareness of the role of the librarian in supporting researchers in the hospital setting can inform the health sciences librarians' professional practices and provide evidence of the library's participation in the research capacity building of the organization.

Dare to Dream: Promoting Indigenous Children's Interest in Health Professions through Book Collections

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Introduction: Indigenous peoples in Canada experience significant health challenges, but few pursue careers in the health sciences. Two programs by medical librarians designed to encourage children in First Nations communities to dream of careers in the health professions will be presented.

Description: An academic library in [Province] developed children’s health and science book collections with Indigenous school libraries. Library and information science students, as well as a librarian, participated in health education activities in the recipient schools. This project inspired the community service project of the joint MLA/CHLA-ABSC/ICLC Mosaic|Mosaïque 2016 conference, which focused on placing similar collections in Ontario Indigenous communities. The mechanics, benefits, and challenges of the programs will be discussed including book selection and delivery.

Outcomes: Hundreds of books have been delivered and informal qualitative evaluative data from the recipient communities indicates positive outcomes. Some difficulties in providing optimal access to the books were identified due to communication problems or the relative lack of library infrastructure in these communities.

Discussion: Reading for pleasure is linked to student's academic success. Access to varied and quality literature is important for school achievement, therefore these collections may potentially impact student’s future life chances. While a direct correlation between these collections and student’s future career choices cannot be easily measured, it is known that Indigenous high school graduates frequently choose to pursue professions linked to the needs of the community. Therefore any materials drawing attention to potential community health needs may well influence student’s choices.

Research Support in Health Sciences Libraries: A Scoping Review

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Background:

As part of a health sciences library’s internal assessment of its research support services, an environmental scan and literature review were conducted to identify research services offered elsewhere in Canada. Through this process, it became clear that a more formal review of the academic literature would help libraries make informed decisions about their services. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review of research services provided in health sciences libraries contexts.

Methods:

Searches were conducted in Medline, Embase, ERIC, CINAHL, LISTA, LISS, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google for articles which described the development, implementation, or evaluation of one or more research support initiatives in a health sciences library context. We identified additional articles by searching reference lists of included studies and soliciting medical library listservs.

Results:

Our database searches retrieved 7134 records, 4026 after duplicates were removed. Title/abstract screening excluded 3751, with 333 records retained for full-text screening. Seventy-five records were included, reporting on 74 different initiatives. Included studies were published between 1990 and 2017, the majority from North American and academic library contexts. Major service areas reported were the creation of new research support positions, and support services for systematic review support, grants, data management, open access and repositories.

Conclusion:

This scoping review is the first review to our knowledge to map research support services in the health sciences library context. It identified main areas of research service support provided by health sciences libraries that can be used for benchmarking or information gathering purposes.

Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources

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The New Instruction Librarian: a Workbook for Trainers and Learners

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The No-Nonsense Guide to Project Management

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Colandr

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CHLA 2018 Conference Contributed Papers / ABSC Congrès 2018 Communications libres

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CHLA 2018 Conference Posters / ABSC Congrès 2018 Affiches

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CHLA 2018 Lightning Talks / ABSC Congrès 2018 Présentations Éclair

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CHLA 2018 Conference Sponsors / ABSC Congrès 2018 Sponsors

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