Clinical
librarianship: resource guide
Bertha Yuen Man Low
West Midlands Library Services Development Unit
Email:
‘Clinical Librarianship’ is one of
the many topics covered by the last Health Libraries Group Conference
‘Variety is the Spice of Life’
http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/hlg/conf2004/index.html.
This section highlights two presentations and related resources.
From
Clinical Librarian To Informationist: Developing Specialized Expertise
T. Scott Plutchak of
Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University
of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, presented the Bishop & Lefanu Memorial
Lecture and outlined the notion and evolution of informationist.
The possibility
of a new profession, the informationist, was proposed by Frank
Davidoff and Valerie Florance (2000)
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/132/12/996.
It was then challenged further by
T. Scott Plutchak (2002)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128952.
The Medical Library Association
(MLA) hosted a real-time Web discussion about the informationist
concept in 2002
http://www.mlanet.org/research/informationist/discuss.html.
In the same year MLA also
organised the Informationist Conference
http://www.mlanet.org/research/informationist/conference_0402.html
to facilitate a national discussion, to derive a consensus definition,
and to develop recommendations for an action agenda for the
informationist profession in clinical and research domains.
This was followed by the
Informationist 2003 Open Forum
http://www.mlanet.org/research/informationist/forum_overview.html
and 2004 Open Forum which was held as part of the MLA Annual
Conference
http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2004/program/special.html#open_forum.
As a result of these discussions, the concept of
Information Specialist in
Context (ISIC)
http://www.mlanet.org/research/informationist/
is proposed. According to the definitions put forward by Eskind
Biomedical Library
http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/isic/,
commissioned by MLA to lead the research on the informationist:
“ISICs are individuals with
thorough background knowledge in clinical medicine, laboratory
research, public health, or other healthcare/research specialty that
are also versed in research methodology, critical appraisal of
literature, and information seeking. ISICs work as members of
healthcare or research teams to provide evidence in answer to practice
questions. ISICs may come from numerous professions: library and
information science, informatics, pharmacy, nursing, etc.”
To refine the understanding of
the ISIC concept, Eskind Biomedical Library is conducting a role
delineation study to identify the skills and education needed for
ISICs in different practice settings. Healthcare and research
professionals and librarians are invited to take part in a Web survey
to voice their opinions on this concept.
MLA also
provides The Informationist: Bibliography
http://www.mlanet.org/research/informationist/reading.html
Danianne Mizzy (2003) reports on
the experience of two librarians attending the informationist training
programme of the Eskind Biomedical Library
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2003/march2/informationists.htm
Knowledge In The Palm Of Your
Hands: PDAs In The Clinical Setting
Claire Honeybourne of University
Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust reported on the PDA (personal digital
assistant) pilot project led by the clinical librarian programme
http://www.le.ac.uk/li/lgh/library/palm.htm.
In addition to the project
documentation, the Clinical Librarian Service Web site
http://www.le.ac.uk/li/lgh/library/clinlib.htm
provides a wealth of resources including the evaluation of the
clinical librarian service and a bibliography, and supports the
networking of clinical librarians through links to other clinical
librarians around the world and the UK Clinical Librarian Conference.
Other recent studies relating to
clinical librarianship include the systematic review by Wagner and
Byrd (2004) and the review of the UK scenario by Sargeant and Harrison
(2004).
PDAs for Health Care Providers of
Arizona Health Sciences Library
http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/pda/index.htm
has an exhaustive bibliography on the use of PDAs in healthcare
settings till 2002. To research for more studies, visit PubMed
http://www.pubmed.gov and search for the medical
subject heading (MeSH) ‘Computers, Handheld’ for literature published
from 2003 onwards.
PDA Healthcare Portal of Auburn
University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy
http://frontpage.auburn.edu/pharmacy/pcs/pda/resources.htm
provides information on PDA basics, discussion forums, and ongoing
software evaluation.
BMJ has
conducted an online survey on resources for handhelds
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/324/7334/DC2
Mohammad (2004)
gives an overview on the potential of handheld computers in clinical
settings and issues involved in the BMJ
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7449/1181.
McAlearney,
Schweikhart and Medow (2004)
examine doctors’
perspectives about their experiences with handheld computers in
clinical practice through focus groups and conclude that doctors are
interested in leveraging the use of handheld computers
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/328/7449/1162.
Reference
Davidoff, F. &
Florance, V. (2000), “The Informationist: a new profession”,
Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 132, no. 12,
pp. 996-998, Available:
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/132/12/996
McAlearney, A.S.,
Schweikhart, S.B. & Medow, M.A. (2004), “Doctors’ experience with
handheld computers in clinical practice: qualitative study”, BMJ, vol.
328, pp.1162-1165, Available:
Mizzy, D. (2003),
“Informationists: making rounds makes a difference”, C&RL News, vol.
64, no. 3, Available:
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2003/march2/informationists.htm
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/328/7449/1162
Mohammad, A
(2004), “Handheld computers”, BMJ, vol. 328, pp.1181-1184, Available:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7449/1181
Plutchak, T.S. (2002), “The
Informationist: two years later”, Journal of Medical Library
Association, vol. 90, no. 4, pp.367-369, Available:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128952
Sargeant, S.J.E. & Harrison, J. (2004), “Clinical
librarianship in the UK: temporary trend or permanent profession? Part
I: a review of the role of the clinical librarian”,
Health Information and Libraries Journal, vol. 21, no.
3, pp.173-
Wagner, K.C. &
Byrd, K.D. (2004), “Evaluating the effectiveness of clinical medical
librarian programs: a systematic review of the literature”, Journal of
Medical Library Association, vol. 92, no. 1, pp.14-33, Available:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=314100&rendertype=abstract
Back to Inform 15 (2)
|
