The role of subject knowledge in academic health sciences librarianship May 16, 2006 Erin Watson...
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Transcript of The role of subject knowledge in academic health sciences librarianship May 16, 2006 Erin Watson...
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?