Towards a postgraduate programme in medical Librarianship?

Results of a surveyGerhard Bissels, Librarian, Bühlplatz Library, Bern University Library

• Paper: Rudolf Mumenthaler, Results of the survey on further education for medical librarians, Journal of EAHIL issue 1, 2017

• Survey data published by Rudolf Mumenthaler on https://zenodo.org/record/293844

• Survey carried out by Rudolf Mumenthaler and the LIS Dpt. of HTW Chur in Nov/Dec 2016

• Funding from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Biomed Library Committee of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences

Why this Survey?

• Why discuss a postgrad programme ‘Medical Librarianship’?

Staff Mix Medical Library - UK, Canada, Scandinavia

• ALL library staff have:

• BA

• LIS MA

• Medicine-specific training at workplace

Staff Mix Medical Library - UK, Canada, Scandinavia

Staff Mix Medical Library - Switzerland, Germany

Library Services

Services Gap• Single academic librarian

+ Management (team, budget)

+ Book selection

+ Cataloguing (classification, subject indexing)

+ Journals, databases, learning resources

- Information Literacy Teaching

- Mediated searches

- Publishing advice

- Support for researchers, PhD students, clinicians

- …

➥Skills Gap• Single academic librarian

+ Management (team, budget)

+ Book selection

+ Cataloguing (classification, subject indexing)

+ Journals, databases, learning resources

- Information Literacy Teaching

- Mediated searches

- Publishing advice

- Support for researchers, PhD students, clinicians

- …

Recruitment

• Difficulty recruiting suitably qualified staff for medical libraries

Need for Postgrad Programme on the Continent

• Academic librarians

• lack of Medicine-specific knowledge, e.g. systematic searching

• Library staff with polytechnic qualification

Benefit of Postgrad Qualification

• Recognised qualification for librarian

• Evidence of skills for library

Induction Programmes for New Staff in the UK, North America

• Specialist knowledge is being passed down within larger medical library teams in the UK, Canada, US, Scandinavia

• Induction programme ➡ postgrad programme?

Survey: Initiative• Working group:

• Betsy Anagnostelis, Royal Free Medical Library (UCL)

• Rudolf Mumenthaler, HTW Chur

• Gerhard Bissels, Bern University

• Funding: Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences

• Intention:

• explore medical librarians’ educational needs and preferences

• check viability of postgrad programme

Survey: Highlights

• 499 participants from

• 38 countries

• Bias towards English speakers (survey in English only)

Competencies Framework for SurveyEBM-related skills LIS skills Generic skillsliterature search for evidence based practice

information literacy knowledge management

Critical appraisal user research ethicssystematic searching collection development scholarly publishingteaching search databases, e-

resourcespedagogics

health research library management sustainabilityEpidemiology information services marketinginformation for patients research data

managementstatistics, visualization

trends in MLIS classification it-skillscore resources in health science

reference managementbibliometrics

Literature Search EBP

Systematic Searching

Teaching Search

Knowledge Management

Information Literacy

Willingness to Pay

• 50% would pay ‘less than € 1,000’ for MA = 60 ECTS

⬍ • 50% would pay ‘less than € 1,000’ for CAS = 15 ECTS

Next Steps

• Expert Roundtable on ‘Education and Training of Medical Librarians’, Bern, May 17 to 19th

• ➥ Recommendations to library schools considering a specialist programme in ‘Medical Librarianship’

• ➥ Recommendations to EAHIL about CPD

• Prof. Rudolf Mumenthaler, HTW Chur: rudolf.Mumenthaler@htwchur.ch

• Gerhard Bissels, Bern University Library: gerhard.bissels@ub.unibe.ch

• Paper to appear in Journal of EAHIL issue 1, 2017

• Survey data https://zenodo.org/record/293844

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