No Silver Bullet– New Roles for the Staff of
Health Sciences Libraries
For those who would rather read the book than see the
movie…
Raised by Wolves
Jim Neal, 2006 states that:
“Academic Libraries now hire an increasing number of individuals to fill professional
librarian positions who do not have the master degree in library science but instead hire staff to fill librarian positions who hold a variety of qualifications such as
advanced degrees in subject disciplines, specialized language skills, teaching experience or technology expertise.”
Two Questions
1. What professional duties, educational background and skill sets are required for new positions in health sciences libraries?
2. Are libraries and their institutions willing and able to hire non-MLS’s to fill librarian positions?
Literature Review
• Few articles establish trends in health sciences librarianship as related to staffing • Sought trends from the most recent year.
• Notable research on position analysis/trends: – Wu and Li, 2008
– DeArmond, et al, 2009 – Bychowski, et al, 2010 – McMullen and Yeh, 2012
Trends in Academic Health Sciences Libraries*
• Cooperation • Consortial licensing • New technologies • Bibliometrics • Changes in Scientific Communication • Data increase • Library buildings • Research Support • Systematic Reviews • Evidence Based Practice• Clinical Librarianship • Mobile technologies • Accountability • Role Convergence • Team Science • Consolidation
• Patient Care, Safety Quality • Electronic Medical Record • Scholarly Communication • Succession Planning
*
identified by Health Information Libraries Journal “International Perspectives and Initiatives Column “Trends in Academic Health Sciences Libraries*
• E-science
• Data management • Open access
• Educational technologies • Doing more with less
• New relationships with University Deans • Library dashboards
Trends in Academic Libraries 2012*
• Communicating value • Data curation • Digital preservation • Higher education • Information technology • Mobile environments• Patron driven e-book acquisition • Scholarly communication
• Staffing
• User behaviors and expectations * ACRL Planning and Review Committee
Taiga Forum 2011 Provocative Statements*
• Organizational structures flatten • Radical cooperation
• Collaborative space partners • Books as decor
• No more collection building
• New model of liaison librarianship
• Staff reallocation, elimination and retraining • Library in the cloud
• Boutique services • Oversupply of MLSs
Concise List Trends Influencing Health Sciences
Libraries
• Scientific/Scholarly Communication • Data Management
• Accountability (Patient Safety/Care and Return on Investment) • Cooperation/Collaboration
• Mobile Technologies • Staffing
• Team Science/Collaborative Science/E-Science • Technology (New/Educational/General)
Job Announcement Analysis
• All positions posted to the AAHSL listserv between January 1, 2012 and June 30-2012 = sample of 34.
• Used full job descriptions when possible but did need to resort to summaries if the full job description was no longer available.
• Hypothesis:
– Words and phrases in documents would mirror trends – Correlation between responsibilities and qualifications – Able to spot new trends
• Process
– Manual text analysis
Job Announcement Title Analysis Findings
Job Title
65% had “librarian” in the title
Most popular job title: Director variant 21% Clinical Librarian 9%
Examples of Job Titles
Clinical Librarian
Electronic Resources Librarian Information Services Librarian
Translational Science/Research Librarian Electronic Services Librarian
Diving Deeper: Analysis Education Requirements
Percentage of Positions Requiring an MLS
56 %
44 % Yes
Diving Deeper: Analysis of Position Summaries/Duties
0 10 20 30 40 50 60Diving Deeper: Analysis of Position
Qualifications/Requirements
0 5 10 15 20 25Sample text from Position Summaries
create programming, staffing, and services to foster an intellectually stimulating
environment that nurtures and invigorates the research process…keeping abreast of new modes of research in the Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) and
consequently develop ad hoc methods of engagement that highlight the library’s role in promoting and furthering this research.
establish new clinical librarian services …. She/he will evaluate the impact of those services on student learning and faculty clinical research and will assist in the
promotion and planning of clinical librarian services in other clinical and patient care settings of the health sciences schools.
assessing instruction to meet the needs of students and faculty; and understanding and implementing emerging trends in health sciences librarianship, evidence based practice, scholarly communication, data management, and new technologies.
Sample Text from Position Summaries
collaborate with faculty and researchers on appropriate projects including grants; promote awareness of library services, collection resources, and developments in information management and how these can improve education, research, and patient care; provide expert searching, including practice guidelines and systematic review searching.
Plan and develop a robust and effective education curriculum for residents and house staff, including introduction to library resources and services for new interns, EBM instruction and Moodle Rooms site, journal club activities -- analytical and critical appraisal skills, setting up WIKIs for journal clubs and clinical conferences, participation in clinical rounds and Morning Report and follow-up meetings to research EBM questions.
Sample Text from Position Requirements
Demonstrated knowledge of web design. Working knowledge of
Drupal, HTML, and CSS. Experience with a variety of operating and network systems. Teaching and curriculum development experience, including
distance education instruction. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Willingness to travel. Ability to transport and set up exhibit
materials.
A degree in a biomedical or physical science or graduate-level coursework in a biomedical or physical science is preferred. Demonstrated teaching skills and experience in information management instruction is preferred.
Sample Text from Position Requirements
experience with digital collections creation and management tools, and institutional repository software such as CONTENTdm and Fedora; awareness of current issues and trends in metadata and digital library development; experience working
with campus faculty and staff on digital projects; familiarity selecting and applying controlled vocabularies and ontologies; knowledge of best practices for managing and preserving digital collections. Qualified applicants must demonstrate an
understanding of established and emerging metadata schemes (Dublin Core, MODS, MARC, EAD), content standards (AACR2, RDA), and thesauri (LCSH, MESH);
working knowledge of classification standards (NLM, LC), FRBR concepts, and authority records; experience with one or more metadata manipulation and scripting languages (e.g. XSLT, Java, Perl, Python, or PHP); and, knowledge of XML, OAI-PMH and/or OAI-ORE.
Diving Deeper: Analysis of Key Position Duties versus
Qualifications
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Duties QualifcationsSurvey
• Surveyed 159 Academic Health Science Library Directors who comprise the AAHSL directors mailing list.
• 75 responses (response rate of 47%)
7 % 51 % 42 % Maybe Yes No 19 % 43 % 38 % Maybe Yes No
Willing
Able
Survey Comments
We are currently forming a task force to advise us on our new clinical information services program. We are told by some faculty that they do not want to see us hire a physician or a nurse or another healthcare professional. The want librarians; they know how to diagnosis and treatment and don't need another professional telling them what to do; they need help from a librarian who knows how to find evidence and teach them how to find it
I am currently rethinking what positions will be needed in sciences libraries, especially professional level activities so which ones need an MLS degree is open for discussion. Whatever background/training is most appropriate for the particular role envisioned. I know
from experience that if you hire someone without an MLS who will be working closely with librarians and what they do (e.g., outside of a purely IT or administrative role), you should look for someone who will learn the principles of the field and respect the
professional culture. Without that, you can run into a lot of friction and counter-productivity.
Findings
• Findings
– Skill sets are rather generic, however, broad themes in communication,
instruction, collaboration, project management and technology expertise emerge – Job descriptions don’t mirror trends identified as trends in literature
– Job qualifications don’t always mirror responsibilities. – Some surprises about what I did not find
– Overall willingness to hire non MLSs to fill librarian positions but concerns about organizational culture
• Caveats
– Larger sample set would yield better results
Conclusion--We want it all!
Soft skills and administrative skills are more important than ever BUT we want to hire people with subject expertise.
We need generalists and specialists combined into a super librarian!
In time we may see some of today’s skill sets become more common place but something new will appear on the horizon and we will once again re-examine our role and how we provide services
Role retirement and/or role evolution– librarian natural selection!
In the meantime we might have to hire outside of MLS pool to find qualified candidates. …. It appears that “feral librarians” are welcome at health sciences libraries but attempts
Further Research
• Examine international data sets
• Repeat data gathering for comparison and/or retrospective analysis • Examine role changes in non-professional/academic staff
Questions?
Thank you!
czc2003@med.cornell.edu
Bibliography available via Mendelely:
