Trusted patient education materials are the backbone of an effective consumer health library. However, members of the LGBTQ+ community may not see themselves or their families reflected in many resources due to the gendered and non-inclusive language they are written in. This article outlines some suggestions for concrete actions that patient librarians can take to ensure that their materials are not excluding LGBTQ+ patients.
Describes how the Royal Society of Occupational Therapists has moved to digital-only. Could be useful to see what resources MPFT OTs can access through the library, as well as seeing how they reached that decision. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
For organizations implementing health literacy initiatives, using ‘change champions’ appears to be a promising strategy. This systematic review aimed to identify the empirical and conceptual research that exists about health literacy champions. Open access article.
We examined how feelings shape people’s organizing and deleting practices, focusing on four affective aspects: anxiety, self-efficacy, belonging, and loss of control. We hypothesized that these affective aspects would predict the extent to which people utilize organizing and deleting practices. Access via CILIP subscription
Main findings showcase that libraries as secure and trusted places can play a key role in developing and promoting health literacy to different groups; new job titles emerge for librarians (consumer health librarian, health information services librarians, health literacy librarian); whereas collaboration is a key element for developing and offering health literacy training programs to diverse group of users as well as the public. Access via CILIP.
Results
Participants spent the most time viewing the content of the posts, particularly post images. Findings revealed that users' viewing patterns differed when different health topics were presented, but not according to the type of information provider. However, the study showed that users check the Facebook page's banner to verify the health information provider's identity.
The authors reviewed individual applications and conducted trials before selecting three, namely Microsoft Forms, Excel, and Power BI, to work together effectively to input, analyze, and report library statistics. The final data tracking system integrates within Teams for easy sharing within the institution without additional funding.
AI did not write this article. A year from now, this claim may seem less believable. But rather than living in fear of AI and the potentially harrowing landscapes it suggests, librarians can stay ahead of the curve by implementing the tools discussed in this article. As with any other substantive technology, these tools are still in their infant stages, so there’s no need to hard commit to any one option. Libraries at the intersection of nascent AI technology and community service will certainly find something helpful to deploy in the quest to create a more efficient and innovative environment for patrons.
Although search engines sometimes highlight specific search results relevant to health, many resources remain underpromoted.5 AI assistants may have a greater responsibility to provide actionable information, given their single-response design. Partnerships between public health agencies and AI companies must be established to promote public health resources with demonstrated effectiveness. For instance, public health agencies could disseminate a database of recommended resources, especially since AI companies potentially lack subject matter expertise to make these recommendations, and these resources could be incorporated into fine-tuning responses to public health questions. New regulations, such as limiting liability for AI companies who implement these recommendations, since they may not be protected by 47 US Code § 230, could encourage adoption of government recommended resources by AI companies.
Comparison of LibKey and Quicklinks resolvers and direct linking tools., but also gives an insight into how they work. Concludes "the LibKey Discovery tool far outpaces Quicklinks when it comes to coverage" which is good to know!
The findings of this study emphasize the need for caution when seeking medical information on ChatGPT since most of the references provided were found to be fabricated or inaccurate. Individuals are advised to verify medical information from reliable sources and avoid relying solely on artificial intelligence-generated content.
Reference management tools assist with organizing the evidence found from the search. Analyzing the search results and writing the review provides an understanding of why the research question is important and its meaning.
Two hundred thirty-two students and residents responded. Most preferred electronic format for reading a few pages, but print for entire books. Respondents preferred ebooks because they were immediately available, searchable and could be used on the go, and print books because they strained users' eyes less, facilitated absorption of the text and could be held in users’ hands. The location of respondents and year of study had little effect on responses.
Librarians at the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries have begun to intentionally incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into teaching during design, implementation, and evaluation. This article uses four case studies to provide an overview of the librarians' approaches to inclusive teaching (1) an annual workshop for Physical Therapy students on the intersection between DEI, health literacy, and patient education; (2) a librarian-taught one-credit course for public health students, which was revised to create a more inviting syllabus and integrate elements of universal design; (3) an annual project for first year medical students highlighting health disparities and community resources; and (4) piloting the application of critical librarianship principles in library standalone sessions on database searching and reference management. Suggestions are provided for other librarians who are interested in developing a culture of inclusive teaching in their own libraries.
Publishing in journals is an important responsibility of academics, researchers and practitioners. It helps us to share information about innovative and effective nursing practice. Evidence-based practice is vital to nursing, and health and social care, but research suggests it is less widespread than it should be. One reason may be that front-line practitioners do not always have the support, time and knowledge to search for and review evidence. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
"[R]ecently I’ve enjoyed developing our Health and Wellbeing collection, creating some additional resources in the form of wellbeing bags for staff to borrow." This is a short mention in this blogpost - just wondered if it's something we could think about?
LitSense [1] is a unique search system for making sense of the biomedical literature at the sentence level, providing a unified access to over half a billion statements extracted from PubMed and PubMed Central.
Given a query, LitSense finds the best-matching sentences based on overlapping terms as well as semantic similarity via a cutting-edge neural embedding approach.
This paper introduces CORE, a widely used scholarly service, which provides access to the world’s largest collection of open access research publications, acquired from a global network of repositories and journals. CORE was created with the goal of enabling text and data mining of scientific literature and thus supporting scientific discovery, but it is now used in a wide range of use cases within higher education, industry, not-for-profit organisations, as well as by the general public.
Conclusions
Although ChatGPT is reliable and useful for patients to obtain information about rheumatic diseases, it should be kept in mind that it may give false and misleading answers.
To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Discussion
Libraries should consider buying quick reference and large, heavy textbooks as ebooks and pocket-sized or shorter, single-topic titles, in print format.
This study found that four (flounderer, skimmer, digester and devourer) out of five types emerged as distinct search styles. Insights into engagement helped distinguish online health searcher types in this sample.
Conclusion
The dynamics of the engagement dimension indicate that the online health information search process is multi-dimensional. It is comprised of different levels of cognitive, emotional, and conative responses, further extending the PHE model. Health science librarians and health professionals have a unique opportunity to help individuals better navigate online health search.
The FAC (Focus, Amplify, Compose) rubric for assessing medical students’ question formulation skills normally accompanies our Evidence Based Practice (EBP) training. The combined training and assessment rubric have improved student scores significantly. How much does the rubric itself contribute to improved student scores? This study sought to measure student improvement using the rubric either with or without a linked 25-minute training session. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Information professionals have supported medical providers, administrators and decision-makers, and guideline creators in the COVID-19 response. Searching COVID-19 literature presented new challenges, including the volume and heterogeneity of literature and the proliferation of new information sources, and exposed existing issues in metadata and publishing. An expert panel developed best practices, including recommendations, elaborations, and examples, for searching during public health emergencies. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The authors reviewed individual applications and conducted trials before selecting three, namely Microsoft Forms, Excel, and Power BI, to work together effectively to input, analyze, and report library statistics. The final data tracking system integrates within Teams for easy sharing within the institution without additional funding.
Conclusion: URL decay in health care management journals has decreased in the last 15 years. Still, URL decay does continue to be a problem. Interestingly, health services policy research journals had a lower rate of decay than practitioner-oriented journals (34.8% vs. 51.7%). Authors, publishers, and librarians should continue to promote the use of digital object identifiers and web archiving and perhaps study and replicate efforts used by health services policy research journals to increase continued URL availability rates.
Case Presentation: Staff at a health sciences library collaborated with faculty to incorporate escape rooms into library instruction in a variety of formats (in-person, hybrid, online) with health professions students from various disciplines (optometry, pharmacy, medicine). The escape rooms described in this paper offered unique experiences for students through active learning.
Discussion: Important considerations when planning escape rooms for health sciences library instruction include deciding on team-based or individual design, calculating potential costs in time and money, deciding on an in-person, hybrid, or online format, and determining whether grades should be assigned. Escape rooms can be an effective strategy for library instruction in the health sciences, working in multiple formats to bring game-based learning to a variety of health professions students.
In 2022, a benchmarking survey was completed to gage learner satisfaction with library services, spaces, and resources across 10 Mayo Clinic Libraries. The discussion for this project began around a previously published survey of what medical students wanted from their library. Librarians were asked if Mayo Clinic Libraries could do a similar survey, as a full survey of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science had not been done. Overall, the findings were positive and provide a baseline for future surveys.
research collaborations require librarians to make long-term commitments to projects. How can we ensure that these collaborations are successful? Study of research collaborations can assist librarians in determining how to build and maintain research collaborations and avoid or overcome conflicts and barriers. Finding others with similar interests, maintaining communication through multiple channels, and basic project management skills are key to successful research collaborations.
Results: A total of 209 reviews were found and analyzed. Of these, 28% had a librarian co-author, 41% named a librarian in the acknowledgements section, and 78% mentioned the contribution of a librarian within the body of the review. However, mentions of a librarian within the review were often generic (“a librarian”) and in 31% of all reviews analyzed no librarian was specified by name. In 9% of the reviews, there was no reference to a librarian found at all.
Conclusions: Even among this set of reviews, where librarian involvement was specified at the protocol level, librarians’ contributions were often described with minimal, or even no, language in the final published review. Much room for improvement appears to remain in terms of how librarians’ work is documented.
Data from a 2022 survey of library directors, however, indicated that approximately 70% of respondents expressed confidence in the continuance of remote/hybrid work. Additionally, from a very limited sample size, salaries for remote/hybrid positions did not appear to be less than in-person postings. While current employees at many institutions may benefit from flexible scheduling, this study examines whether job postings, which are often the primary information available to applicants, included information about remote and hybrid work options.
Conclusion
SRs are becoming more and more complex to conduct and information specialists and statisticians should routinely be involved right from the start of the SR. This increases the trustworthiness of SRs as the basis for reliable, unbiased and reproducible health policy, and clinical decision making.
Conclusion: Innovations by libraries during the early stages of the pandemic are having a long-term impact on library culture and the delivery of services. Even as libraries returned to in-person services, elements of telecommuting,
This commentary provides a succinct overview of predatory journals; briefly describes the problem of predatory journal email solicitations; explains the role librarians can play in their identification; and lists some red flags and tactics librarians can tell researchers to look out for, as informed by the literature and the author's analysis of 60 unsolicited journal emails she received in her own institutional inbox.
Conclusion: The deliberate inclusion of a health sciences librarian into the doctor of pharmacy curriculum can benefit faculty and students. Opportunities for collaboration are available throughout the curriculum, such as providing instruction for database utilization and supporting the research activities of both faculty and student pharmacists.
The authors compare and contrast the structure and function of librarians and library services using a convenience sample online survey of pediatric hospitals in the Southeast based on the rankings from the Regional U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals and Magnet status. This approach is intended to determine how librarians and library services at hospitals that are recognized by the above programs differ from those that are not recognized.
Two health sciences librarians created search strategies for these questions and searched eleven databases. Both the librarians and the six participants evaluated the search results using a rubric based on PICO to assess extent of alignment between the librarians’ and requestors’ relevance judgments. Intervention, Outcome, and Assessment Method constituted the most frequent bases for assessments of relevance by both librarians and participants. The librarians were more restrictive in all of their assessments except in a preliminary search yielding twelve citations without abstracts. The study’s results could be used to identify effective techniques for reference interviewing, selecting databases, and weeding search results.
In this work, we present an interactive tool for automatically digesting large sets of PubMed articles: PMIDigest (PubMed IDs digester). The system allows for classification/sorting of articles according to different criteria, including the type of article and different citation-related figures. It also calculates the distribution of MeSH (medical subject headings) terms for categories of interest, providing in a picture of the themes addressed in the set. These MeSH terms are highlighted in the article abstracts in different colors depending on the category. An interactive representation of the interarticle citation network is also presented in order to easily locate article “clusters” related to particular subjects, as well as their corresponding “hub” articles. In addition to PubMed articles, the system can also process a set of Scopus or Web of Science entries. In summary, with this system, the user can have a “bird’s eye view” of a large set of articles and their main thematic tendencies and obtain additional information not evident in a plain list of abstracts.
Bookshelf is a database maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine that contains freely accessible online biomedical documents, including systematic reviews, technical reports, textbooks, and reference books. The database allows users to browse and search across all content and within individual books, and it is linked to other NCBI content. This article provides an overview of Bookshelf and demonstrates its usage in a sample search. The resources available in Bookshelf are useful for students, researchers, healthcare professionals, and librarians. [Had a quick look and seems a bit acute focused, but many books are up to date from reputable publishers]
This case study discusses a project by the Savitt Medical Library of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine to implement a Personal Librarian Program that promoted communication between librarians and learners.
This paper is part of a series of methodological guidance from the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group. Rapid reviews (RR) use modified systematic review methods to accelerate the review process while maintaining systematic, transparent and reproducible methods. In this paper, we address considerations for RR searches. We cover the main areas relevant to the search process: preparation and planning, information sources and search methods, search strategy development, quality assurance, reporting, and record management.
R. Angulo, and O. Hahn. (2021)cite arxiv:2112.05165Comment: 171 pages, 30 figures, 1018 references. Review article (in press) for 'Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics'. The article will be updated regularly, thus, comments and suggestions will be very welcome.
O. Philcox, and M. Ivanov. (2021)cite arxiv:2112.04515Comment: 20+8 pages, 12 figures. Data available at https://github.com/oliverphilcox/BOSS-Without-Windows.
K. Luken, R. Padhy, and X. Wang. (2021)cite arxiv:2111.13806Comment: 9 Pages, accepted at the Machine Learning for Physical Sciences workshop at NeurIPS 2021.
J. Muñoz, Y. Qin, A. Mesinger, S. Murray, B. Greig, and C. Mason. (2021)cite arxiv:2110.13919Comment: 23+3 pages, 23+3 figures. Comments welcome. Simulation output available at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dqh9r6wb0s68jfo/AACc9ZCqsN0SQ_JJN7GRVuqDa?dl=0.
J. Weaver, O. Kauffmann, O. Ilbert, H. McCracken, A. Moneti, S. Toft, G. Brammer, M. Shuntov, I. Davidzon, B. Hsieh and 47 other author(s). (2021)cite arxiv:2110.13923Comment: 39 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. Production of IRAC mosaics are presented in Moneti et al. "Euclid Preparation: XVIII. Cosmic Dawn Survey. Spitzer observations of the Euclid deep fields and calibration fields" which has been posted simultaneously. Catalogs can be accessed online now at https://cosmos2020.calet.org.
J. Matthee, R. Naidu, G. Pezzulli, M. Gronke, D. Sobral, P. Oesch, M. Hayes, D. Erb, D. Schaerer, R. Amorín and 5 other author(s). (2021)cite arxiv:2110.11967Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. Figure 2 shows the main result -- the comoving emissivity due to bright LAEs. Our fiducial model is based on results presented in our companion paper -- Naidu & Matthee et al. 2021. Comments welcome.
R. Naidu, J. Matthee, P. Oesch, C. Conroy, D. Sobral, G. Pezzulli, M. Hayes, D. Erb, R. Amorín, M. Gronke and 7 other author(s). (2021)cite arxiv:2110.11961Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. Figure 4 and Table 2 show key results from the stacks. Figure 8 presents a unifying scheme for the LyC duty cycle. Our companion paper (Matthee & Naidu et al. 2021) works out implications of these results for the cosmic UV background at $z\approx2-8$. Comments warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated!.
K. Ren, and M. Trenti. (2021)cite arxiv:2110.03853Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ; data products available at https://github.com/renkeven/QuasarEvolutionData.