The role of subject knowledge in academic health sciences

librarianship

May 16, 2006Erin Watson

Health Sciences LibraryUniversity of Saskatchewan

Methodology

• 2004 web survey: 94 Canadian librarians - 32% response rate

• 2006 web survey: 711 American librarians – 21.7% response rate

• Difficult to identify prospective participants

Who were the respondents?

• More than half (63.4% Canada; 58.9% U.S.) had more than 10 years experience

• In 2003-2004, 66.7% of Canadian and American health sciences librarians had more than 10 years of experience1

1Annual Statistics of Medical School Libraries in U.S. and Canada 2003-2004

Percentage of respondents by primary job responsibility/ies

Canadian U.S.

Administration 40.0 30.5

Cataloguing 6.7 5.3

Collection Development

50.0 27.2

ILL 10.0 7.9

Reference 66.7 62.3

User Education 70.0 53.0

Job responsibilities

• Canada: Non-typical duties combined with reference, administration, etc.

• U.S.: more non-typical health sciences librarians: systems librarians, records managers and informationists

Degrees held

• Canada: 6.7% with health science degree

• U.S.: 11.7% with health sciences degree; 1.3% with diploma

Importance of Health Sciences Degree

• Canada: 30.0% felt it was very or somewhat important

• U.S.: 50.0% felt it was very or somewhat important

Importance of other areas

• Many respondents felt computer science/technology, administration, statistics/research methods, basic sciences, education, liberal arts were as important

• Several U.S. respondents mentioned importance of M.L.I.S.

Keeping up with Literature

• Canada: 93.3% felt that keeping up with the health sciences literature was very or somewhat important

• U.S.: 80% felt the same

Top 3 ways to become informed

Ranking of activity as “very useful”

• Canada: professional organizations (46.7%); web sites (43.3%); journals (39%)

• U.S.: professional organizations (40%); websites (39%); journals (39%)

Professional Associations

• Canada: 90% CHLA members; 36.7% MLA

• U.S.: 89.2% MLA members

• U.S.: 37.5% members of AHIP; Canada: 3.3%

• Many respondents were members of local associations

Web sites

• Difference between self-education and searches for patrons?

• Canada: PubMed, CINAHL, news and consumer health sites

• U.S.: Medlineplus, news sites and PubMed

Most popular journals

• Canada – CMAJ (53.3%); JAMA (53.3%); BMJ (50%); NEJM (50%) None=30%

• U.S. – JAMA (48%); NEJM (45.3%); BMJ (25.7%) Science (26.4%); None=35.8%

• Many U.S. respondents mentioned RSS and TOC alerting

Discussion Lists

• Canada: 70% CANMEDLIB; Medlib-L 36.7%

• 33.3% said very useful

• U.S. – 45.9% MEDLIB-L

• 28% said very useful

Independent study

• Canada: 33.3% very useful

• U.S.: 28% very useful

University courses

• Canada: 3.3% (1 respondent) was taking a class at the time of the survey

• 25% said very useful

• U.S. 3.3% were taking courses at time of the survey

• 18% said very useful

TV and Radio

• Canada: 13.3% said very useful• Top shows: Quirks and Quarks

(33.3%), Nature of Things (23.3%)

• U.S.: 10% said very useful• Top shows: NOVA (37.3%), NPR

shows, especially Science Friday (18.1%)

• « Fun » shows also educational?

Average Time Spent per week

• Canada: 6.0 hours

• U.S.: 4.4 hours

• Large range for both

Other Useful activities

• Top “other” ways to become informed:

-Reference questions

-Talking to users

-Lectures, workshops and conferences (for librarians or for health professionals)

-Following the news

Why is degree not valued more?

• Librarians not aware of how much health sciences would help them?

• Degree goes out of date quickly?

• Health sciences are too varied?

Conclusions/Implications

• Continuing education, although not necessarily degree studies, remains important

• Professional organisations play an important part

• What role does subject knowledge play in user perceptions of librarians?