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?
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