Facing the Future: How Many Faces and How Many Futures for the Health Information Professional? Andrew Booth, Reader in Evidence Based Information Practice, ScHARR, University of Sheffield

Disclaimer:• “Information

scientists may be equipped to scan the horizon, but they possess silicon chips, not crystal balls”

BOOTH, A. and WALTON, G., 2000. Some concluding trends and themes. IN: Booth, A. and Walton, G. (eds.). Managing knowledge in health services. London : Library Association Publishing, pp. 289-295

Looking Back…..Looking Forward• Q: What would you

consider to be the Unique Selling Point of the “Academic Health Sciences Librarian” i.e. the Bottom line justifying your existence?

In Other Words:In Other Words:

““What has the Academic What has the Academic Health Science Librarian Health Science Librarian

Ever Done For Us?”Ever Done For Us?”

And Your Response Is?

Many Faces, Many

Futures!

Are we in danger………

•Of having so many hats that none of them quite fits?

Researchers’ Use of Academic Libraries and their Services

• Significant differences of perceptions and views between researchers and librarians

• Communication channels need to be improved. How?

• Research community uses social networking to exchange and share research-based information.

• Role of libraries presently ill-defined. • Researchers don’t readily recognize

content on their desktop is provided through library. Researchers’ Use of Academic Libraries and their

Services A report commissioned by the Research Information Network and the Consortium of Research

Libraries

Not having information skills training can be…..

• “good because you have to learn the hard way. You tend to have better skills if you have had to find your own way around - but it would've been nice to have been eased into it, in a bit more structured way as well”

Goodall, D. L. and P. Brophy (1997). A comparable experience? library

support for franchised courses in higher education. British Library

Research and Innovation Report; 33. Preston, CERLIM, University of Central

Lancashire.

Research habits

Users "power-browse" or skim material, using "horizontal" (shallow) research. Most spend only a few minutes looking at academic journal articles and few return to them. "It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense,”

Not just "screenagers". “Undergraduates to professors….exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, flicking behaviour in digital libraries. Factors specific to the individual, personality and background are much more significant than generation."

INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR OF THE RESEARCHER OF THE FUTURE

Researchers IL training should focus on IM not IR – 1 (Booth, 2007)

• Inappropriate to meet IL needs of researchers using instruction methods based on undergraduates;

• Researchers do not follow neat stepwise progression from state of unknowing (“information need”) to knowing that underpins most IL instruction.

• Information management, rather than information retrieval, should be focus of IL instruction for researchers.

Researchers IL training should focus on IM not IR – 2 (Booth, 2007)

• Information retrieval should focus on “area scanning”, footnote chasing and known author searching rather than keyword searching

• IL training should be “socialised” through formal collaboration …..and integration with existing research programmes or research groups.

• Training should focus on practically based outcomes e.g. production of log book or portfolio.

• Training should optimally be tailored to individual and delivered at time of need.

RIP - Library as Place

• “the library has changed from being the place for researchers to visit for help with information searching and for picking up the actual information, to being the “living room” for undergraduate students, making the researchers who visit the library feel outnumbered, and sometimes unwelcome.”

Haglund and Olsson (2008)

Rethinking the Library Web Site

• “Libraries spend huge amounts of time and money to work on the structure and content of the library Web page, while few researchers use it as a starting point for information searching. Many researchers….used the Web of their own department as a starting point, and this is where the library should establish a presence with direct links targeted to that particular group”.

Haglund and Olsson (2008).

Future Proofing the Profession (2004)• Developments within healthcare library

and information services relevant to profession more generally.

• Certainly true within CPD as health sector ‘has supported work-based learning as one of several ways to improve skills and provide opportunities for lifelong-learning for its workforce’[i]. [i] Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Future Proofing the Profession: the report of the Health Executive Advisory Group. CILIP, 2004.

In the red corner…… ………………blue corner

• The Case for Specialist Skills

• The Case for Generic Skills

Generalist vs Specialist (Petrinic & Urquhart, 2007)

Generic skillsGeneric skills• Literature searching

(reference work)• Outreach work• Teaching and training• Numeracy-related skills,• Influencing and

persuading skills to work across organizational and departmental boundaries

• Experience of financial management

Specialist roles• Knowledge of anatomy

and physiology, • Origin and meanings

of medical terms,• Project management • Literature searching • Knowledge of

evidence-based practice,

• Research methods (quantitative and qualitative) and epidemiology.

Generic versus Specialist

• Contextual knowledge [Specialist]• Managerial skills [Generic] • Professional skills [Generic] • Learning and teaching[Generic] • Interpersonal [Generic] • & NHS Context [Specialist] • Technical [Generic]

= COMPLIANT (Lacey & Booth, 2003)

Revisiting COMPLIANT

• Do Technical skills receive unmerited emphasis?

• Very volatile training half-life/ time-limited

• User can construct, via Google, site-specific search engines (swikis), personalised search page, gadgets e.g. To do list, text translator, person-specific RSS news feeds.

• Very few technical skills remain exclusive domain of librarian.

• Alternative to Technical? • Knowledge of social

networking tools e.g. blogs, wikis and podcasts would be useful.

• Little technical knowledge required - comprehensive knowledge of possible uses.

• Librarian probably inhabits Facebook community, uses Citeulike to share references and occasionally visit YouTube and MySpace.

But what will be the next Facebook/YouTube? COMPLIANT should read COMPLIANCE (T for Technical replaced with CE of Continuing Education!)

Otherwise danger we will settle for alternative - COMPLACENCE!

FOLIO Programme

• Two year series [12 courses]; One year extension of 6 courses; 2 x 1 year extensions of 3 courses

• 6-8 weeks delivered by email and basic Web technologies

• 2-3 hours per week

• Submission of Portfolio – Distinction, Honours, Standard, Fail

• Spawned FOLIOZ, FOLIAGE and Precept-Lite

FOLIO Breakout Course

‘Breaking out of the Box: Extending the health LIS professional role – skills and strategies”

E-LearningE-LearningREF and Impact Factors

Information Literacy

Systematic Reviews

Hybrid Services

Managing within Budget Cuts

Research Training

Face(s) Lift(s) - 1• From “Library As Place” to “Information

Specialist in Context”• Information Commons• Facilitating e-learning (not just for Distance

Learners)• From Teacher to Tutor

• Problem Based Learning• Interactive Learning• Learning in Context

• From Impact Factor to Maximising Impact• Article Citations & h indexes• Identifying “Impact Stories”

• From Information Management to Knowledge Translation

Face(s) Lift(s) - 2

• From Scattering to Tailoring and Targeting• Institutional Repositories• Open Access Journals (Hosting?)

• From Expert Searcher to Search Consultant• From “Handmaiden” to “Genuine Partner” in

Research• Evidence Syntheses

• Collaborative Tool Provider• Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts• Intellectual Property e.g. Reusable Learning

Objects

AGONY AUNT

SELLER

PROFESSOR COACH

ENTERTAINER

SPACE: Training Styles Inventory

SELLER - I try to convince my audience with my message

PROFESSOR – I try to instruct my audience with my message

AGONY AUNT – I try to help my audience with their problems

COACH – I try to encourage my audience from the sidelines

ENTERTAINER – I try to get my audience to have fun

Message

Audience

Presenter

Learning in Context

Coomarasamy & Khan BMJ 2004;329: 1017-9.

The Future Will be “Nip and Tuck”!

• Before we get our Facelift…….

• ….We will probably receive a “Tummy Tuck”….

• OR even……… Amputation !

We are Going to Be Very Stretched!

The Future is Here!: It just Isn’t Evenly Distributed Yet!

Facing the Future

The Me1st and Me2 Generation• i-Pod• i-Google• i-Phone• i-Pad• i-Will-Survive!

Our Future is What We Make It!Our Future is What We Make It!

References - 1• Booth A (2007) Researchers require tailored

information literacy training focusing on information management, not simply information retrieval. Report for Research Information Network Consultative Group on Librarianship and Information Science. http://www.rin.ac.uk/training-research-info-spec

• CIBER. Information behaviour of the researcher of the future – (A British Library/JISC Study) http://www. bl.uk/news/pdf/googlegen.pdf

• Lacey, T., & Booth, A. (2003). Education, training and development for NHS librarians: supporting e-learning. A review commissioned by the National electronic Library for Health Librarian Development Programme. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, ScHARR (School of Health and Related Research

References - 2

• Boulos MN, Maramba I, Wheeler S. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ. 2006 Aug 15;6:41.

• Kamel Boulos MN, Wheeler S (2007). The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Info Libr J. 24(1):2-23.

• Partridge H & Hallam G (2006) Educating the Millennial Generation for evidence based information practice Library Hi Tech 24 (3): 400-419.

• Petrinic T, Urquhart C (2007) The education and training needs of health librarians—the generalist versus specialist dilemma. Health Information and Libraries Journal 24 (3), 167–176.

References - 3

• Haglund L and Olsson P (2008). The Impact on University Libraries of Changes in Information Behavior Among Academic Researchers: A Multiple Case Study. Journal of Academic Librarianship 34 (1), 52-59

• Research Information Network (2008). Researchers’ Use of Academic Libraries and their Services A report commissioned by the Research Information Network and the Consortium of Research Libraries http://www.rin.ac.uk/researchers-use-libraries

• Tattersall A (2008) 'Blogging in an Academic Health Library Setting. Libraries for Nursing Bulletin; June 2008.