DOI: 10.1111/hir.12107
Editorial Engaging in research: challenges and opportunities for health library and information professionals Abstract This year’s virtual issue (the 6th in the series) has been published to coincide with the European Association for Health Information and Libraries’ (EAHIL) 2015 workshop (10–12 June, Edinburgh): Research-Minded: Understanding, Supporting, Conducting Research. This event is being run in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists and the International Clinical Librarian Conference. Although research has always been a central part of any librarian’s role, until recently health librarians and library users and funding bodies assumed that librarians were `midwives’ – there to assist students, clinicians, academics and managers set up and carry out their research. The notion of the librarian as a professional with a research agenda, who understands research methods, submits research grants, and publishes, is a relatively new perspective. If librarians are to take an evidence-based approach to their profession they need to acquire research skills. This is the rationale for the 2015 EAHIL workshop. To support the workshop, this virtual issue contains six original articles published in Health Information and Libraries Journal over the last 2 years that demonstrate the range of research activities carried out by health librarians, as well as a review article and articles from each of the three feature columns. All articles included in this virtual issue are available free online. Keywords: evidence-based library and information practice; professional development; research methodology; research policy; research skills This year’s virtual issue (the 6th to date) has been published to coincide with the European Association for Health Information and Libraries’ © 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
(EAHIL) 2015 workshop (10–12 June, Edinburgh). The workshop, entitled ResearchMinded: Understanding, Supporting, Conducting Research, is being run in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS) and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). Every year EAHIL organises either a conference or a workshop, which provide an opportunity to network and learn about what people are doing in other countries. The decision to make research the theme this year reflects the growing interest in evidence-based library and information practice. Although research has always been a central part of any librarian’s role, until recently librarians and library users and funding bodies assumed that librarians were ‘midwives’ – there to assist students, clinicians, academics and managers set up and carry out their research. The notion of the librarian as a professional with a research agenda, who understands research methods, submits research grants, and publishes, is a relatively new perspective. If librarians are to take an evidencebased approach to their profession they need to acquire research skills. This is rationale for the 2015 EAHIL workshop. Galvanised by the success of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health care, from the mid-1990s a variety of articles began to appear in the literature referring to what was then called evidence-based librarianship (EBL). Champions such as Jonathan Eldredge in the USA and Andrew Booth in the UK set the agenda for EBL organised conferences and stressed the need for librarians to become research savvy. The goal of evidence-based librarianship, Eldredge (p. 290) suggests, is to reintegrate the ‘science’ back into library science.1 The starting point for any form of evidence-based practice is to formulate questions that are relevant and amenable to research. There
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have been various efforts to identify the ‘grand challenges’ for EBL. The Medical Library Association in the USA has published two research policy agendas (2008, 2012) which spell out the top-ranked research questions.2 The 2012 exercise narrowed these down to 4 categories: Outcomes/Impact; Information Access; Education of users; Professional Issues. Two of the studies included in this virtual issue deal with outcomes or impact; two with information access; two with user education; and four with professional issues. The virtue issue begins with a review article by Lawton & Burns3 (which addresses professional issues) provides an excellent example of how research can underpin professional practice and development. Their study should enable librarians to engage in proactive career planning. The impetus for their investigation was the need to identify key competencies for health librarians in a time of economic uncertainty and changing requirements and expectations of employers. The authors employ a variety of methods: a mapping review; a literature review; an analysis of education policies and standards; and an analysis of essential skills in job adverts for health librarians in Ireland. This research identified ten core competencies for librarians working in health care which could be used when drawing up personal professional development plans. The list of those that were common to at least three of five professional associations were as follows: (i) communication, (ii) systematic review, (iii) critical appraisal, (iv) manage and organise health information, (v) management and organisational skills, (vi) training and education, (vii) legal knowledge, (vii) leadership, (ix) technology and (x) understanding of the health care environment. The authors recommend that library and information schools should revise their curricula to ensure the baseline competencies are incorporated. Turning next to the original articles, we start by looking at two papers which use the case study method to investigate topics of general concern to health librarians. The first by Bayliss et al.4 deals with information access. It tackles the question of how to search for information on the effectiveness of public health interventions. What makes this type of search challenging is that such topics usually involve several disciplines and the
interventions are frequently complex. What the researchers wanted to test was whether very comprehensive searches across multiple databases are always necessary when carrying out a systematic review. Focussing on the prevention of cardiovascular disease they wanted to see which databases were suitable and to compare the performance of different strategies in retrieving studies. They concluded that undertaking very sensitive searches across a number of databases might not be an effective use of resources. The article by Janke & Rush5 also uses the case study method to answer a very different research question. The authors draw on their personal experience to describe how an academic librarian can play an ongoing role in a multi-phasic research project – from question identification to dissemination. The librarian’s input to each of the phases is articulated, and his contribution is systematically evaluated. Although this may sound rather descriptive and unscientific, the authors provide specific examples and estimates of the work undertaken and the time required. A convincing case is made the impact and benefits of having a librarian involved as a core member of the research team. The study by Wallace et al.6 adopts a mixed methods design to test the hypothesis that handheld devices, with librarian support and access to primary literature, can easily and inexpensively meet the information needs of underserved rural health care professionals. Ensuring information access for rural clinicians is a universal challenge for librarians, and this study provides strong evidence that PDAs and smart phones are an effective way to provide basic medical library services. The authors insist that library involvement (via training and technical support) was essential to the success of their intervention. Duhon & Jameson’s paper7 reports on a national study into health information outreach (HIO). To capture data on HIO activity in US health science libraries, they conducted an online survey of academic libraries; the data collection form is published as an appendix to the original article. Their main interest was to discover the extent to which general academic libraries attempted to educate students about consumer health information. The majority of responders were not engaged in outreach although they © 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
Editorial
perceived the need for such outreach. The authors identified barriers and outlined the benefits to the library of engaging in outreach. The main barriers were budgetary limitations, staffing issues and mission ambiguity. A key benefit is that outreach improves the visibility of the library service. Urquhart & Dunn’s8 paper explores an important topic – how to demonstrates the impact of a new data set on research and policy. The authors show how bibliometrics combined with web metrics and interviews can be used to assess the impact of a data set on researchers and policymakers. As research devoted to outcomes/impact has been deemed to be a key research area for librarians, it is timely to have a study which provides evidence to show how various metrics can assess research impact. It is also helpful to have an example how bibliometrics can be used when the unit of analysis is a data set rather than documents given the proliferation of public data sets on the Web. Suzanne Lewis’s9 paper reports on three Australian research projects which highlight a shift in research from an emphasis on what librarians do to the skills needed to engage in evidence-based librarianship. One project was designed to identify the types of educational activities that would help health librarians become more skilled searchers. A second project on indigenous health explored whether there was a need for an objectively derived search filter for identifying published research evidence. The final study aimed to determine the future skills requirements for the Australian health library workforce and to develop an education framework. The author suggests how the evidence from these projects will be used in practice to define and improve the skills and knowledge of health librarians. The main consequence will be to provide an evidence base for defining the skills and knowledge required of LIS practitioners in health. The final three papers in this virtual issue are drawn from the regular features section of the journal. The article by Murphy10 from the International Perspectives and Initiatives feature reports on international trends in health science librarianship. The method of content analysis was used to analyse trends in 21 countries reported in articles published in the feature. Fourteen trends were identified, and the first five were described:
© 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
the need to build partnerships; the shift from print to digital collections; the impact of financial austerity; librarians’ increasing involvement in education and training; and recognition of the importance of professional development. The article from the Learning and Teaching in Action feature column by Hamilton11 describes a training needs analysis of library staff in Glasgow. The motivation behind the work was a concern by trainers that the sessions they offered were not meeting the needs of users. The survey, based on an information skills competency framework, had a good response rate. The results from this research were used to write a training plan. The concluding article by Deshmukh & Roper12 is from the Dissertations into Practice feature column. The context for the research was a demand from funders of the clinical library service for evidence of its impact. Finding there were no existing standards for evaluating Clinical Librarian (CL) services, the authors used a mixed method approach to design an evaluation framework. They concluded that it is not possible to measure the impact of a CL service using exclusively quantitative methods. Their framework incorporated stakeholders’ criteria, which were categorised as outputs, outcomes and impacts. They suggest that their work provides a tool which can be used to make the case for a CL service. HILJ is delighted to make this virtual issue available to all to inspire and motivate library and information workers keen to learn about research. Nina Matheson’s13 reflections on research make a compelling case for engaging in research: ‘. . .the most valuable lesson of my professional life (was). . . that research can free you from the tyranny of the routine, from the yoke of received opinion, and the swamp of wishful thinking’. (p3) Jeannette Murphy Regular Feature Editor Honorary Research Fellow CHIME, University College London International Perspectives & Initiatives, Health Information and Libraries Journal, Email: [email protected]
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References 1 Eldredge, J. D. Evidence-based librarianship: an overview. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 2000, 22, 289– 302. 2 Harris, M. R., Holmes, H. N., Ascher, M. T. & Eldredge, J. D. Inventory of research questions identified by the 2011 MLA research agenda Delphi study. Hypothesis 2013, 20, 5–16. 3 Lawton, A. & Burns, J. A review of competencies needed for health librarians – a comparison of Irish and international practice. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2015, 32, 84–94. 4 Bayliss, S. E., Davenport, C. F. & Pennant, M. Where and how to search for information on the effectiveness of public health interventions – a case study for prevention of cardiovascular disease. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 303–313. 5 Janke, R. & Rush, K. L. The academic librarian as co-investigator on an interprofessional primary research team: a case study. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 116–122. 6 Wallace, R. L., Woodward, N. J. & Clamon, T. S. A mixed-methods analysis of a library-based hand-held intervention with rural clinicians. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 116–122.
7 Duhon, L. & Jameson, J. Health information outreach: a survey of U.S. academic libraries, highlighting a midwestern university’s experience. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 121–137. 8 Urquhart, C. & Dunn, S. A bibliometric approach demonstrates the impact of a social care data set on research and policy. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 294–302. 9 Lewis, S. Evidence based library and information practice in Australia: defining skills and knowledge. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2011, 28, 152–155. 10 Murphy, J. International trends in health science librarianship: Part 7 Taking stock. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 245–252. 11 Hamilton, S. Assessing knowledge skills in the NHS: a training needs analysis approach. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 168–173. 12 Deshmukh, A. & Roper, T. An investigation into the feasibility of designing a framework for the quantitative evaluation of the Clinical Librarian service at an NHS Trust in Brighton, UK. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 314–317. 13 Matheson, N. W. The idea of the library in the twenty-first century. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1995, 83, 1–7.
© 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
Editorial Engaging in research: challenges and opportunities for health library and information professionals Abstract This year’s virtual issue (the 6th in the series) has been published to coincide with the European Association for Health Information and Libraries’ (EAHIL) 2015 workshop (10–12 June, Edinburgh): Research-Minded: Understanding, Supporting, Conducting Research. This event is being run in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists and the International Clinical Librarian Conference. Although research has always been a central part of any librarian’s role, until recently health librarians and library users and funding bodies assumed that librarians were `midwives’ – there to assist students, clinicians, academics and managers set up and carry out their research. The notion of the librarian as a professional with a research agenda, who understands research methods, submits research grants, and publishes, is a relatively new perspective. If librarians are to take an evidence-based approach to their profession they need to acquire research skills. This is the rationale for the 2015 EAHIL workshop. To support the workshop, this virtual issue contains six original articles published in Health Information and Libraries Journal over the last 2 years that demonstrate the range of research activities carried out by health librarians, as well as a review article and articles from each of the three feature columns. All articles included in this virtual issue are available free online. Keywords: evidence-based library and information practice; professional development; research methodology; research policy; research skills This year’s virtual issue (the 6th to date) has been published to coincide with the European Association for Health Information and Libraries’ © 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
(EAHIL) 2015 workshop (10–12 June, Edinburgh). The workshop, entitled ResearchMinded: Understanding, Supporting, Conducting Research, is being run in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS) and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). Every year EAHIL organises either a conference or a workshop, which provide an opportunity to network and learn about what people are doing in other countries. The decision to make research the theme this year reflects the growing interest in evidence-based library and information practice. Although research has always been a central part of any librarian’s role, until recently librarians and library users and funding bodies assumed that librarians were ‘midwives’ – there to assist students, clinicians, academics and managers set up and carry out their research. The notion of the librarian as a professional with a research agenda, who understands research methods, submits research grants, and publishes, is a relatively new perspective. If librarians are to take an evidencebased approach to their profession they need to acquire research skills. This is rationale for the 2015 EAHIL workshop. Galvanised by the success of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health care, from the mid-1990s a variety of articles began to appear in the literature referring to what was then called evidence-based librarianship (EBL). Champions such as Jonathan Eldredge in the USA and Andrew Booth in the UK set the agenda for EBL organised conferences and stressed the need for librarians to become research savvy. The goal of evidence-based librarianship, Eldredge (p. 290) suggests, is to reintegrate the ‘science’ back into library science.1 The starting point for any form of evidence-based practice is to formulate questions that are relevant and amenable to research. There
1
2
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have been various efforts to identify the ‘grand challenges’ for EBL. The Medical Library Association in the USA has published two research policy agendas (2008, 2012) which spell out the top-ranked research questions.2 The 2012 exercise narrowed these down to 4 categories: Outcomes/Impact; Information Access; Education of users; Professional Issues. Two of the studies included in this virtual issue deal with outcomes or impact; two with information access; two with user education; and four with professional issues. The virtue issue begins with a review article by Lawton & Burns3 (which addresses professional issues) provides an excellent example of how research can underpin professional practice and development. Their study should enable librarians to engage in proactive career planning. The impetus for their investigation was the need to identify key competencies for health librarians in a time of economic uncertainty and changing requirements and expectations of employers. The authors employ a variety of methods: a mapping review; a literature review; an analysis of education policies and standards; and an analysis of essential skills in job adverts for health librarians in Ireland. This research identified ten core competencies for librarians working in health care which could be used when drawing up personal professional development plans. The list of those that were common to at least three of five professional associations were as follows: (i) communication, (ii) systematic review, (iii) critical appraisal, (iv) manage and organise health information, (v) management and organisational skills, (vi) training and education, (vii) legal knowledge, (vii) leadership, (ix) technology and (x) understanding of the health care environment. The authors recommend that library and information schools should revise their curricula to ensure the baseline competencies are incorporated. Turning next to the original articles, we start by looking at two papers which use the case study method to investigate topics of general concern to health librarians. The first by Bayliss et al.4 deals with information access. It tackles the question of how to search for information on the effectiveness of public health interventions. What makes this type of search challenging is that such topics usually involve several disciplines and the
interventions are frequently complex. What the researchers wanted to test was whether very comprehensive searches across multiple databases are always necessary when carrying out a systematic review. Focussing on the prevention of cardiovascular disease they wanted to see which databases were suitable and to compare the performance of different strategies in retrieving studies. They concluded that undertaking very sensitive searches across a number of databases might not be an effective use of resources. The article by Janke & Rush5 also uses the case study method to answer a very different research question. The authors draw on their personal experience to describe how an academic librarian can play an ongoing role in a multi-phasic research project – from question identification to dissemination. The librarian’s input to each of the phases is articulated, and his contribution is systematically evaluated. Although this may sound rather descriptive and unscientific, the authors provide specific examples and estimates of the work undertaken and the time required. A convincing case is made the impact and benefits of having a librarian involved as a core member of the research team. The study by Wallace et al.6 adopts a mixed methods design to test the hypothesis that handheld devices, with librarian support and access to primary literature, can easily and inexpensively meet the information needs of underserved rural health care professionals. Ensuring information access for rural clinicians is a universal challenge for librarians, and this study provides strong evidence that PDAs and smart phones are an effective way to provide basic medical library services. The authors insist that library involvement (via training and technical support) was essential to the success of their intervention. Duhon & Jameson’s paper7 reports on a national study into health information outreach (HIO). To capture data on HIO activity in US health science libraries, they conducted an online survey of academic libraries; the data collection form is published as an appendix to the original article. Their main interest was to discover the extent to which general academic libraries attempted to educate students about consumer health information. The majority of responders were not engaged in outreach although they © 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
Editorial
perceived the need for such outreach. The authors identified barriers and outlined the benefits to the library of engaging in outreach. The main barriers were budgetary limitations, staffing issues and mission ambiguity. A key benefit is that outreach improves the visibility of the library service. Urquhart & Dunn’s8 paper explores an important topic – how to demonstrates the impact of a new data set on research and policy. The authors show how bibliometrics combined with web metrics and interviews can be used to assess the impact of a data set on researchers and policymakers. As research devoted to outcomes/impact has been deemed to be a key research area for librarians, it is timely to have a study which provides evidence to show how various metrics can assess research impact. It is also helpful to have an example how bibliometrics can be used when the unit of analysis is a data set rather than documents given the proliferation of public data sets on the Web. Suzanne Lewis’s9 paper reports on three Australian research projects which highlight a shift in research from an emphasis on what librarians do to the skills needed to engage in evidence-based librarianship. One project was designed to identify the types of educational activities that would help health librarians become more skilled searchers. A second project on indigenous health explored whether there was a need for an objectively derived search filter for identifying published research evidence. The final study aimed to determine the future skills requirements for the Australian health library workforce and to develop an education framework. The author suggests how the evidence from these projects will be used in practice to define and improve the skills and knowledge of health librarians. The main consequence will be to provide an evidence base for defining the skills and knowledge required of LIS practitioners in health. The final three papers in this virtual issue are drawn from the regular features section of the journal. The article by Murphy10 from the International Perspectives and Initiatives feature reports on international trends in health science librarianship. The method of content analysis was used to analyse trends in 21 countries reported in articles published in the feature. Fourteen trends were identified, and the first five were described:
© 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
the need to build partnerships; the shift from print to digital collections; the impact of financial austerity; librarians’ increasing involvement in education and training; and recognition of the importance of professional development. The article from the Learning and Teaching in Action feature column by Hamilton11 describes a training needs analysis of library staff in Glasgow. The motivation behind the work was a concern by trainers that the sessions they offered were not meeting the needs of users. The survey, based on an information skills competency framework, had a good response rate. The results from this research were used to write a training plan. The concluding article by Deshmukh & Roper12 is from the Dissertations into Practice feature column. The context for the research was a demand from funders of the clinical library service for evidence of its impact. Finding there were no existing standards for evaluating Clinical Librarian (CL) services, the authors used a mixed method approach to design an evaluation framework. They concluded that it is not possible to measure the impact of a CL service using exclusively quantitative methods. Their framework incorporated stakeholders’ criteria, which were categorised as outputs, outcomes and impacts. They suggest that their work provides a tool which can be used to make the case for a CL service. HILJ is delighted to make this virtual issue available to all to inspire and motivate library and information workers keen to learn about research. Nina Matheson’s13 reflections on research make a compelling case for engaging in research: ‘. . .the most valuable lesson of my professional life (was). . . that research can free you from the tyranny of the routine, from the yoke of received opinion, and the swamp of wishful thinking’. (p3) Jeannette Murphy Regular Feature Editor Honorary Research Fellow CHIME, University College London International Perspectives & Initiatives, Health Information and Libraries Journal, Email: [email protected]
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References 1 Eldredge, J. D. Evidence-based librarianship: an overview. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 2000, 22, 289– 302. 2 Harris, M. R., Holmes, H. N., Ascher, M. T. & Eldredge, J. D. Inventory of research questions identified by the 2011 MLA research agenda Delphi study. Hypothesis 2013, 20, 5–16. 3 Lawton, A. & Burns, J. A review of competencies needed for health librarians – a comparison of Irish and international practice. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2015, 32, 84–94. 4 Bayliss, S. E., Davenport, C. F. & Pennant, M. Where and how to search for information on the effectiveness of public health interventions – a case study for prevention of cardiovascular disease. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 303–313. 5 Janke, R. & Rush, K. L. The academic librarian as co-investigator on an interprofessional primary research team: a case study. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 116–122. 6 Wallace, R. L., Woodward, N. J. & Clamon, T. S. A mixed-methods analysis of a library-based hand-held intervention with rural clinicians. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 116–122.
7 Duhon, L. & Jameson, J. Health information outreach: a survey of U.S. academic libraries, highlighting a midwestern university’s experience. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 121–137. 8 Urquhart, C. & Dunn, S. A bibliometric approach demonstrates the impact of a social care data set on research and policy. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 294–302. 9 Lewis, S. Evidence based library and information practice in Australia: defining skills and knowledge. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2011, 28, 152–155. 10 Murphy, J. International trends in health science librarianship: Part 7 Taking stock. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 245–252. 11 Hamilton, S. Assessing knowledge skills in the NHS: a training needs analysis approach. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013, 30, 168–173. 12 Deshmukh, A. & Roper, T. An investigation into the feasibility of designing a framework for the quantitative evaluation of the Clinical Librarian service at an NHS Trust in Brighton, UK. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014, 31, 314–317. 13 Matheson, N. W. The idea of the library in the twenty-first century. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1995, 83, 1–7.
© 2015 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal
