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?