to this situation by (1) addressing identified needs through an interdisciplinary, multiinstitutional

educational

programs for

health sciences

librarians*

ByLinda C. Smith,Ph.D. Professor

Graduate School ofLibrary andInformation Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

501 E. Daniel Street Champaign, Illinois 61820

This project responds to theneed to

identify

the

knowledge, skills,

and expertise required by healthsciences librarians in the future and todevise mechanisms forproviding thisrequisite training. The approach involves interdisciplinary multiinstitutional alliances with collaborators drawn from twograduate schools of

library

and

information science (University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign

and IndianaUniversity) and twomedical schools (University of Illinoisat

Chicago and Washington University). The project encompassessix

specific aims: (1) investigate the evolving roleof the health sciences librarian; (2) analyze existing programs ofstudy in libraryand informationscience at all levelsat Illinois andIndiana; (3) develop

opportunities for practicums,internships, and residencies; (4) explore

thepossibilities of computing and communication technologies to

enhance instruction; (5) identify mechanismsto encouragefaculty

andgraduate studentsto participate in medical informatics research projects;and (6) create recruitment strategies toachieve better representation of currently underrepresented groups. The projectcan serve as amodel for other institutions interestedin regional

collaboration to enhance graduate education for healthsciences librarianship.

Graduate schools in library and information science

(LIS) face anumber of barriers to meeting the need for enhanced educational opportunities for health sciences librarians. The school may not be located near a medical school having research or teaching programs in medical informatics. There may not be enough students seeking to specialize in health sci-ences librarianship to justify substantial coursework in such a specialization. Full-time faculty may have limitedfamiliarity with health sciences librarianship, andcoursesandcurriculum development may fail to incorporate knowledge and skills important for this areaofspecialization. The planning project with par-ticipants from the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign,University of Illinois at Chicago, Indiana University, and Washington University seeks to

re-spond to this situation by (1) addressing identified needsthroughaninterdisciplinary, multiinstitution-al approach; (2) considering all levels of graduate

education aswell asthepotential roleof practicums, internships, andresidencies;and(3)servingasa mod-elfor otherinstitutionsinterestedinregional collab-oration toenhancegraduateeducationfor health sci-ences librarianship.

BACKGROUND

Thisprojectbuilds on prior work in developing spe-cial educational programs as well as on discussions ofthe current context for health information deliv-ery.

Education for health sciences librarianship

Concern for the development of special educational programsfor health sciences librarianship has existed since at least the 1950s. In a series ofarticles, Roper

*The project described is supported by NIH Grant number 1 T15 LM 07098-01 from the National Library of Medicine. The views

expressedaresolely those of the author and do not represent the officialviewof the National Library of Medicine.

sought to determine the nature and distinguishing

characteristics of the special programs of education for medicallibrarianship in the United States for the period 1957 to 1971 and to provide some quantitative evidence of the value of those programs [1-3]. Pro-gramdirectors and trainees in a total of eight degree programs (including the one at the University of Il-linois at Urbana-Champaign) and eight internship programs (including one at Washington University) were surveyed. The purposes of special programs as a group included providing an opportunity for the trainee toacquire an overview of medical library op-erations, knowledge of the literature of biomedical librarianship and thebiomedical sciences, knowledge of the biomedical field, administrative experience, a professional attitude, insight into user needs, knowl-edge of computer applications in medical librarian-ship,aworking knowledge of research methods, and familiarity with library resources in the biomedical sciences.

Atthe endof the 1970s Roper reported the results of asurvey that focused on library school education for medical librarianship. He concluded that "to a large extent we arefollowing the same pattern set up nearly forty years ago by Fleming at Columbia and further refined by Brodman. Individual topics and titles have changed, but essentially the same pattern continuesof onecourseattemptingto coverboth the literature of the health and biological sciences and the administrative aspects of healthsciences librari-anship" [4]. The 1980s brought calls for new

ap-proaches to education for health sciences librarian-ship, given the changes that were taking place in medicine and healthcare. DetlefsenandGalvin rec-ommendedinterdisciplinary andcooperativeefforts,

suchasjointdegreeprograms,especiallyin conjunc-tionwith centersof excellenceinmedical informatics [5]. Concern continues tobe

expressed

in the 1990s,

as in Braude's discussion of how information

tech-nologyis transforming the natureof healthsciences information and its management, thereby altering

the traditional responsibilities of health sciences li-brarians[6]. LIS education programs must evolve to

reflect this situation, lest information management be taken over by individuals with different educa-tional backgrounds and skills.

Detlefsen offers the most comprehensive recent

survey of LIS education for health sciences

librari-anship [7]. She identifies five success factors for a specializedLIS programinhealthinformation

(at

least onefaculty member in a doctoral LIS program with adeclaredinterest in health

information;

agroup of associated medical or health sciences faculties and programs nearby; a large academic health sciences center library nearby; medical informatics research and training initiatives under way at the same uni-versity; personal,

professional,

and electronic links

among the four groups), but recognizes that a situa-tion inwhich all five factors are present is quite un-common.

Position and policy statements on education andresearch

Two recent policy statements from the Medical Li-braryAssociation (MLA) provide useful frameworks for considering how to enhance the education of health sciences librarians and how better to equip them to undertake research. Drawing on the results of a survey of a sample of the MLAmembership [8], Platform for Change, theeducational policy statement of MLA, provides concrete guidelines for graduate programs in health sciences librarianship by identi-fying knowledge and skills relevant to health infor-mationprofessionals [9]. The categories used include health sciences environment and information poli-cies;managementof information services; health sci-ences information services; health sciences resource management; information systems and technology; instructional support systems; and research, analysis, and interpretation. Specific directives to LIS educa-tion state that (1) every graduate program in library andinformation science must lay a broad foundation that stresses theory over application, places librari-anshipin contextwith other relateddisciplines, fos-tersprofessional values, and prepares studentsto de-sign their own learning program throughout the length of their careers; (2) educators should provide arangeof programs and opportunities thatmeetneeds throughout one'sprofessionalcareer, rather than fo-cus solely on the master's degree; and (3) educators needtodefine the boundaries of their programs and develop effective relationships with related infor-mation disciplines [10].

The research policy statement of MLA, Using Sci-entific EvidencetoImproveInformation Practice, presents research as "a foundation for excellence in health information practice, fornew andexpandedroles for healthscienceslibrarians, and for attracting excellent

peopleto the profession" [11]. The policy statement

articulates a dual role for health sciences librarians inrelationtoresearch: (1)"healthscienceslibrarians must be familiar with health care research methods andsourcesin orderto

provide

information services basedonscientificknowledgetotheir

users";

and

(2)

"they must pay particular attention to the

develop-ment and application of their own research knowl-edge base"

[12].

To give librarians the necessary

re-search skills, LIS degree programs must ensurethat opportunitiestodevelop quantitativeand

qualitative

researchknowledgeandskills appear

throughout

the curriculum for both master's and doctoral programs. Subsequent to the

publication

of MLA's

policy

librari-anship, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) sponsored a Planning Panel on the Education and Training of Health SciencesLibrarians,whose report identified goals and recommendations under four headings: the evolving role of the health sciences

librarian,professional educational programs for health sciences librarians, lifelong learning programs for health sciences librarians, and broadening recruit-mentintohealth sciences librarianship [13].

The changingcontext for health information

delivery

As the NLM Planning Panel report notes, "recent advancesinthetechnologyofhigh performance com-puting and communicationshave

dramatically

accel-erated the need for educational change" [14]. In her Janet Doelecture,JanaBradleyhighlights global

net-working andchanges in health care delivery asjust twoof many environmentalforces thatarechanging

the context for health information delivery [15]. She argues that LIS has certain "heartland specialty ar-eas," central to the management of both print and electronicknowledge.Theseinclude lexicalconcerns;

matching information need with recorded

knowl-edge; user-focused organization of knowledge; cre-ation,management,and useofdocumentsurrogates; maintenance and preservation;andassimilation and use[16].

As health sciences librarians operate in an envi-ronment increasingly dominated by information

technology, it is necessary to identify the areas of linkage between LIS and informatics. Matheson has articulated a vision of "postmodern digital knowl-edge management" and suggests that specialists in medicalinformatics must work with librarians to de-velop systems that preserve and provide access to the increasing volume of primary literature in electronic form [17]. Two recent articles in Academic Medicine further explore this theme of the convergence of in-terests between medical informatics and medical

li-brarianship [18-19]. SPECIFIC AIMS

While there have been prior efforts to enhance ed-ucation for health sciences librarianship, there is a shared sense of current shortcomings in formal ed-ucational programs. They are keeping pace neither with potential evolving roles for health sciences li-brarians nor with theintegration of technology, both ascontent to be learned and as a vehicle fordelivering content. Planning activities in our project draw on theresources of the fourcollaboratinginstitutions to

developcreativesolutions to theproblems identified. Specific aims include:

1. Investigate the evolving role of the health

sci-enceslibrarianasthebasis for

library

andinformation science

(LIS)

courseandcurriculum

development

and for the

design

of

practicum, internship,

and research

opportunities.

2.

Analyze

existing

programs of

study

atall levels

(M.S.,

C.A.S.,

Ph.D.at

Illinois; M.L.S.,

M.I.S.,and

Spe-cialist

degree

at

Indiana)

to

identify

possibilities for

enhancing

education for health sciences

librarian-ship through

revisions to courses, the introduction ofnewcourses,the

incorporation

of courseworkfrom related

fields,

andthe

development

ofjoint

degrees.

3.

Develop

opportunities for practicums,

intern-ships,

and residencies at the

cooperating

medical schools and affiliated

institutions,

in health sciences libraries and information services for clinical care,

that would allow better preparation in the areas of informationintegration and medical informatics.

4.

Explore

the

possibilities

ofcomputingand

com-munication technologies that could support collab-orative

learning

among studentsatdifferent sites and theinvolvement of expertsininstructional activities

at distributed sites.

5.

Identify

mechanisms that will encourage LIS

fac-ulty

and

graduate

studentsto participatein medical informatics research projects,withparticular

empha-sis on encouraging doctoral students to select

re-search topics in medical informatics for their disser-tation research.

6. Create recruitment strategies to achieve better representation ofcurrentlyunderrepresented groups

(e.g.,

ethnicminorities)inLISdegreeprogramsatall levels.

COLLABORATORS AND COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS

Theaccomplishmentoftheaimsdependsonthe work of several collaborators at four institutions in three midwesternstates.Thecollaborating institutions have

a number of resources and programs in place that could contributetothesuccessofthis

planning

effort.

Graduate School of Library and Information

Science,

Universityof Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign

TheGraduate School ofLibrary andInformation Sci-ence (GSLIS)atthe University ofIllinois at

Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has degree programs allowing

studentstoearnamasterof sciencedegree, Certificate ofAdvancedStudy (C.A.S.), or doctor ofphilosophy degree. Each of these programs is now sufficiently

flexible toallow specialization in a designated area, suchashealthsciences librarianship. Project person-nel affiliated with GSLIS include Linda C. Smith,

Ph.D., professor; Leigh Estabrook, Ph.D., dean and

EdwardLakner, Ph.D., assistant director for research programs; and Mark Spasser, doctoral student.

The M.S. program has a recently revised core cur-riculum which is 1.5 of the ten units needed for the M.S., where a unit is four credit hours. The core cur-riculum emphasizes research methods and technol-ogy aswell as the core concepts of librarianship. In-formation technology applications are integrated throughout courses in such areas as cataloging and reference, and there are many LIS electives available on topics such as information storage and retrieval, online information systems, library automation, tel-ecommunications, architecture of information sys-tems, electronic publishing and the information in-dustry, implementation of distributed information systems,andinformation resources management. The C.A.S program attracts two categories of students: thosewho have recently finished an M.S. and want the opportunitytospecialize further, and those who wishtoupdatetheir knowledgeorpursueadifferent area of specialization. The program requires eight

units(thirty-twocredithours)of electivecoursework,

of which uptohalfcanbeoutside GSLIS. In addition the student completesatwo-unit (eightcredithour)

project,which caninvolve basic research orapplied problem solving. A revised Ph.D. program was im-plemented in the 1995/96 academic year. It allows greaterflexibilityinpursuingaspecialization, places more emphasis on research methods training, and incorporates a research and a teaching practicum, whileatthesametimehavingarequired proseminar

and corereading list.Students haveopportunities to

engage in research at various points, including the final dissertation stage.

The school has a

well-equipped

computer labora-tory with full Internet connectivity. The

Library

Re-searchCenter, housed with the

school,

conducts

re-search on problems of all types of libraries and in-formation centersand hasexpertiseinsuchdata col-lectiontechniquesassurveyresearch and focus group use.Thestudentbodyincludesa

large proportion

of

students from outside Illinois. In the pastfew years, moreemphasishas been

placed

on

scheduling

cours-es to support part-time students better

(i.e.,

the

Fri-days Only

program),

some of whom commute from Chicago one day per week. The school has

recently

received approval for the LEEP3

scheduling option

that will allow studentsatadistance to earn anM.S.

degree from their homes with limited stayson

cam-pus. Weband otherInternet-based

technologies

will

be used to create a learning environment for these

students.

University

of Illinoisat

Chicago

The University of Illinois at

Chicago

(UIC)

is the

largest institutionof

higher learning

in the

Chicago

area. Among its colleges are: Associated Health Pro-fessions, Medicine (at Chicago, Peoria, Rockford, and Urbana), Nursing, Pharmacy, and the School of Pub-lic Health. Project personnel affiliated with UIC in-clude Walter B. Panko, Ph.D.,director and professor, School of Biomedical and Health Information Sci-ences;Elaine R. Martin, M.S.L.S., assistant university librarian for health sciences and director, NN/LM, Greater Midwest Region; Cynthia L. Henderson, M.I.L.S., health sciences librarian (Urbana); Victoria Pifalo, M.L.S., assistant health sciences librarian (Ur-bana); Annette L. Valenta, Dr.P.H., assistant director for curriculum, School of Biomedical and Health In-formation Sciences; Lewis L. Sadler, M.S., associate professor and department head, Biomedical Visual-ization; and Gail Langer, graduate student in health information management.

The School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences,housed in the College of Associated Health Professions, is a new academic unit created to advance information management and technologies for the health sciences in both theory and application. Di-visions within the new school include: Biomedical Visualization, Health Information Management, and Medical Laboratory Management. The school's re-search and educational programs are strengthened by the activeaffiliations of its academic units with clin-ical counterparts in the UIC Medclin-ical Center and with theLibraryof the Health Sciences (LHS). LHS is UIC's primary resourcefor biomedical information in fields such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, allied health professions, andpharmacy. The library serves as a resource for the UIC Hospital and other affiliated hospitals and health care institutions. The library is composed of four physically separate li-braries, with the parent library in Chicago and the other three sites in Rockford, Peoria, and Urbana. Underacontractawardedby NLM, LHSserves a ten-stateregion in the National Network of Librariesof Medicine. Therearemanyregionaloutreachactivities within the ten states,suchasGrateful Med training,

exploring document delivery options, and

identify-ing Internet providers. The UIC library already has a commitment to post-M.S. training through its

aca-demic resident librarian program, which includes

professional development seminars and

opportuni-ties to takecoursework. A newfocus in recentyears has been the active recruitment of minority librari-ans. In another educational program

supported by

the library, selected support staff have

pursued

an

M.S. in library and information science at UIUC through participation in the FridaysOnly program.

School of Libraryand Information

Science,

IndianaUniversity

Jana Bradley, Ph.D., assistant professor at Indiana University School ofLibraryand InformationScience

on the campus of Indiana University Purdue Uni-versityIndianapolis (IUPUI),isthatinstitution's pri-mary participant in the planning project. Indiana

University hastwo degree programs atthe master's level: themasteroflibraryscience

(M.L.S.)

andmaster of informationscience (M.I.S., introduced in the fall of 1995). The school already has a number of dual degree and specialization programs in place. Ad-vanced degree programs include theSpecialistin Li-brary and Information Science degree for students

alreadyholdinganM.L.S.(thirtycredit hoursofcourse work ofwhich atleast fifteen must be taken in LIS) and thePh.D., which includes botha major(anarea oflibraryservice orinformationscience)andaminor of twelve to fifteen credit hours related to the stu-dent's research interests and taken outside the school. Boththe M.L.S. and M.I.S. programsrequireacourse entitled"Computer-BasedInformation

Tools,"

which covers computer literacy, basic concepts and proce-duresininformationretrieval,andbasic concepts and proceduresinnetworkedtechnologiesandresources. Studentsinboththe M.L.S. and M.I.S. programsmust

completeatleast threeof fourcommon corecourses: UserInformation Needs and BehaviorinTheoryand Practice, Organization andRepresentationof Knowl-edge and Information, Management of Information

Environments,andIntroductiontoResearch and Sta-tistics. The M.I.S. degree requiresfour of the follow-ingsixadditional M.I.S.core courses: Introductionto HumanComputerInteraction; Strategic Intelligence;

Information Technology Standardization; Systems

Analysis and Design; User-Centered Database De-sign; and TheOrganizational Information Resource. The M.L.S.degree requires three of thefollowingfive additional M.L.S. core courses: Bibliographic Access andControl;PerspectivesonLibrarianship, Literacy, Communication and Reading; Information Sources andServices;Library Automation; and Collection De-velopment and Management.

Boththe School of Library andInformation Science

(SLIS) and Indiana University as a whole are very

technology-intensiveenvironments, offering numer-ous opportunities for learning and working with

technology. The Indianapolis-based program is housed in the recently built library. Computer

tech-nologyandnetworkedelectronic and multimedia re-sources are available throughout the building, side by side with print resources. There is emphasis on using electronic communication to increase interaction between students in Indianapolis and

Bloomington.

Washington

University

Project personnel at Washington University in St. Louis include Mark E. Frisse, M.D., director of the

Bernard Becker Medical

Library

and associate dean foracademic informationmanagement, andMichael G.

Kahn, M.D., Ph.D.,

assistantprofessorofmedicine andmedicalinformatics. The Bernard Becker Medical

Library

integrates

several components: the Medical School

Library,

the Archives and Rare Book

Collec-tions,

the

Media/Computer Center,

and the Medical School

Computing

and

Networking

Services. These groups offer a variety of computing and special in-formation services in addition to traditional

library

service.The

library

oversaw anNLM-funded

training

program in computer

librarianship

for several years

during

the 1960s andearly 1970s.

Washington University

School ofMedicine and its health care system partner

(BJC

Health

System)

are one of the nation's

largest

medical schools and one

of the

region's largest

health care delivery systems.

The School ofMedicine andits hospitalpartnersare

jointly developing

a

unified,

comprehensive,

longi-tudinal medical record to encompass all clinical

set-tings

and serve the needs of the patients, care

pro-viders, administrators,

and financial officers.

Project

Spectrum

isa

joint

technology development

consor-tium for the creation and deployment of advanced clinicalinformation systems. The School of Medicine and university have a number ofvery strong infor-matics research groups, including the Section on

MedicalInformatics within the Departmentof Inter-nal Medicine's Division of General Internal

Medi-cine,

theElectronicRadiology Laboratoryofthe Mal-linckrodt Institute of Radiology, the Applied Re-search Laboratory of the Department of

Computer

Science,theInstitute forBiomedical Computing,

neu-roimagingefforts, anda number ofmajorinitiatives ingenome mapping. Work in collaboration technol-ogy

began

in 1986 and includes initiativesin

hyper-text, World Wide Webdevelopment, digitalbotanical

libraries, spatial databases, collaboratory classrooms

with wireless notebook computers and LiveBoards,

and new initiatives in computer-based education.

PLANNING ACTIVITIES

Personnel from the collaborating institutions are car-rying out a number of activities in order to

accom-plish the aimsof the project.

Theevolving role of the health sciences librarian Aim 1:Investigate the evolving role ofthe health sciences librarian as thebasisfor LIS course and curriculum devel-opment and for the design ofpracticum, internship, and research opportunities.

Work on aim 1 serves to inform those activities

research opportunities to be more responsive to the emerging roles of health sciences librarians. This translation of our traditional knowledge and skills into theemerging informationenvironment requires shifts in focus: from books and journals to a broad viewof information; from a library focus to an insti-tution-wide focus; and from a focus on the structure of the library to a focus on the knowledge, skills, and activities of the individual-the LIS professional. Several activities are associated with this aim. A lit-erature review has identified trends in health care delivery and the needfor health sciences information as well as changes in roles of health sciences librar-iansthat are already documented. Focus groups have beenorganized by Leigh Estabrook and Edward Lak-ner in three metropolitan areas (Chicago, Indianap-olis, St. Louis)inordertointensively interview health scienceslibrariansfrom a variety of settings and elicit information on emerging roles. Communication with awider rangeof healthscienceslibrarians will follow

completion of the focus group sessions.JanaBradley

isdevelopinganElectronicArchiveofEvolvingRoles for LIS Graduates.

The electronic archive takes as a given that the

conceptualwork about the evolvingrolesof the pro-fessioniswelladvanced and that practitionersinthe field are experimenting with evolving roles in in-creasingnumbers. Theneed,therefore,isnotformore

rhetoric butfor more understandingof newroles as

theyareactually beingrealized-and foreasily avail-ableexemplarsof these roles.AWebsiteof extended descriptionsisbeingdevelopedtomake available ex-emplars of evolving roles. The descriptions are

au-thoredbythe role incumbentsthroughaforms-based structure that provides a semi-structured narrative andensuresthat eachdescriptionaddresses thesame

issues. The archivewill provide threeapproaches to searching and browsing:

(1)

keyword searching;

(2)

browsing by field, i.e., by individual

question;

and

(3) browsing by contributor

indexing.

Contributors will choose index terms from a controlled list when theycompletethearchive forms. The effectiveness of contributor indexing will be evaluated once the

ar-chive reachesasufficientsize.The

underlying

struc-tureof thearchive-thequestionsor"fields"-is be-ing developedthroughan

analysis

of

approximately

fifty questionnaires

describing evolving

roles com-pleted byrole incumbents.Keydimensions from these

descriptionswill form the basis for the archive

struc-ture.

Analyze degree programs

Aim 2: Analyze existing programs of study at all levels

(M.S.,C.A.S,Ph.D.atIllinois;

M.L.S,

M.I.S,and

Specialist

degree at Indiana) to identify

possibilities for enhancing

educationforhealthsciences

librarianship through

revisions

to courses, the introduction of new courses, the incorpo-ration of coursework from related fields, and the develop-ment ofjoint degrees.

Theenhancement of education for health sciences librarians can beimplemented rapidly if it takes place within existing degree programs. Work on this aim is proceeding in parallel at UIUC and Indiana, with input from UIC on the possibilities for coursework and jointdegrees in the programs associated with the School of Biomedical and Health Information Sci-ences. Activities associated with this aim include the

exploration of opportunities for course content en-hancement, identification of needed new courses, in-corporation of coursework from related fields, de-velopment of joint degrees, and investigation of ex-isting health informatics curricula to identify areas of concentration that may need to be addressed.

Knowledge and skills relevant to health sciences librarianship could be integrated into many existing courses.Course outlines and typical assignments are being reviewed toidentify ways in which the student interested in a health sciences specialization could have more opportunities to gain exposure to that con-tent within the framework of existing courses (e.g., learning to search health sciences databases in an online searching course; learning about the NLM classificationinacataloging course; exploring health resources on the Internet in a telecommunications course). Coupled with the enhancement of existing courses, there is a need to identify gaps that can be filledby the introduction ofnewcoursesintothe LIS curriculum. This will involve proposals for the de-velopment andschedulingofnewcourses. Once gaps are identified, an alternative approach is to identify coursework already offered in other departments, whether in the home institution or one of the co-operating institutions. New joint degree programs havealongertimeline for implementation, but they would allow more intensive preparation in LIS and arelated field. Initialexplorationbetween UIUC and UIC will involve consideration of the degree pro-grams offered within the School of Biomedical and HealthInformation SciencesatUIC, whicharebeing

revised under the leadership of Walter Panko and Annette Valenta. As part of the curriculum revision process, they are using the results ofbrainstorming

sessionsinvolving participantsthatrepresentvarious

employment sectors in health care, such as biomed-ical visualization, health information management, and medical laboratory management. Because there are alreadyanumberof programs for research train-ingin medical informatics, aninvestigation of

exist-ing health informatics curriculaisalsobeing under-takenby Gail Langertoidentifyapproachesthatmay be relevant to the enhancement of health sciences

librarianship education with a stronger medical

At Indiana University Jana Bradley is developing a proposal for a Health Information Specialization (HIS) onthe IUPUI campus. The HIS could be taken in conjunction with the school's

M.L.S.,

M.I.S.,

or Specialist degree. It is

anticipated

thatcoursesin the specialization will also be attractive for continuing

education students andfor doctoral studentswishing

tospecializeinhealth information. The

proposed

HIS will buildonthecoreof the M.L.S. and M.I.S. As the HIS program is envisioned, it will attempt to incor-porate the following features: (1) abroad-based def-inition of health

information;

(2) three to five elec-tivesin health

information;

(3)afocusonproducing

health information specialists who can address crit-icalinformation problems of health care;(4) emphasis

ontailoring forspecific domaininterests

through

ad-vising and mentoring programs; (5)an

emphasis

on experiential learning (e.g., projects,

internships,

di-rected research projects); (6) support for a special

health domain focusinrequired courses;(7)electives developedin a

distance-friendly

manner; and

(8)

en-couragement to take courses outside SLIS. The de-velopment of the HIS isbeing undertaken by mem-bers of the SLISfacultywith broadinput fromfaculty

in various schools on the IUPUI campus, including

the School ofMedicine, the School of Nursing, and the School ofPublic and Environmental Affairs. Prac-titionersin libraries and clinical settingsarealso in-volved. Special assistance is being sought from the informatics personnel at Sigma Theta Tau, the Na-tionalNursing HonorSociety. The final proposalfor the HIS, when completed, will be considered for adoption by the full SLIS faculty.

Developopportunities for practicums, internships, and residencies

Aim 3: Develop opportunities for practicums, internships, and residencies at the cooperating medical schools and af-filiated institutions, in health sciences libraries and infor-mation services for clinical care, that would allow better preparation in the areas of information integration and medical informatics.

As noted earlier, the participating institutions al-ready have demonstrated their commitment to pro-viding training andresidency programs for post-M.S. librarians. We are exploring opportunities for prac-ticums, initially focusing on UIC and Washington University and their affiliated institutions, but later extending to other institutions in the Greater Mid-west Region. When considering new opportunities for internships and residencies, the particular focus of these efforts will be to ensure better preparation in the areas of information integration and medical

informatics.

Explore technologies

forcollaborative and distance

learning

Aim 4:

Explore

the

possibilities

of

computingand

commu-nication

technologies

to

support

collaborative

learning

among students at

different

sites and involvement

of

experts

in instructional activitiesat distributed sites.

Practicums,

internships,

and residencies offer

en-hancements

by allowing

the individual to work in the environment of a

specific

institution. An

addi-tional way to enhance cooperation, especially on a

regional level,

is to

investigate

technologies

sup-porting

collaborative and distance

learning.

Such

technologies

offermanypossibilities,suchas(1)

mak-ing

fullcoursesavailableatremote

sites; (2)

involving

guest lecturers fromadifferentlocation; (3)

providing

"mentors"

(for

example, health sciences librarians

working

indifferent

settings)

asresourcepeoplewho

canbe consulted viaelectronicmail;

(4)

encouraging

collaborative

projects

amongstudentsatdifferent sites. The

technology

allowsashift from one-to-many

dis-tance

learning

toaninfrastructure within which col-laborative

learning

can take

place

through shared group experience andpeer group insights

[20].

We are

identifying

distance and collaborative

learning technologies

availableatthecooperating in-stitutionstodetermine what technologycould be

ex-ploited.

A literature review

by

Gail

Langer

on the

useof

technology

in

graduate

professionaleducation will supplement our own experience with the

strengths

and weaknesses of thistechnology for in-struction. With approval ofLEEP3 at Illinois, a

site-independent M.S.degreeoption withthe first group of students

beginning

summer 1996, we are

inten-sively

exploring the role oftechnologies in support of M.S.

degree

courses. Experience gained

through

thisprogram can benefit the health sciences

special-ization.

Identify

research opportunities

Aim5:

Identify

mechanisms to encourage LIS facultyand

graduatestudents toparticipate inmedicalinformatics

re-search projects, with particular emphasis on encouraging doctoral students to select research topics in medical

in-formatics for theirdissertation research.

While research projects may be undertaken at any level ofgraduatestudy, they are particularly

impor-tant at the C.A.S and Ph.D. levels. We will identify

examplesofresearchopportunities that could be pur-sued at the cooperating sites. This is an initial step in encouraging specialization in health information

research topics by making students aware of these opportunitiesandencouraging them to complete the necessary coursework to prepare for such collabora-tions. At UIUC a recently revised doctoral program offersmore flexibility in course selection and devel-opment ofspecializations.

Recruitment

Aim 6: Create recruitment strategies to achieve better rep-resentation of currentlyunderrepresented groups (e.g., eth-nic minorities) in LIS degree programs at all levels.

Enhanced opportunities for specialization are of little value if there are no students to pursue them. Anderson stresses the importance of recruiting in-dividuals into the profession who have (or have the potential to develop) such attributes as technical lit-eracy,researchcompetence, service orientation, man-agement abilities, leadership qualities, and organi-zational knowledge [21]. One group typically under-represented in LIS student bodies is ethnic minorities [22-24]. The project will address this problem in two ways: (1) by developing strategies to identify and recruit alarger number of students from ethnic mi-noritiesandother groups that are needed among the nextgeneration of health sciences librarians; and (2) by developing ways to involve alumni and other health sciences librarians in recruitment of talented prospective students for this specialization. In addi-tion toconsideringissuesassociated with recruitment toLISdegree programs,we arelookingatrecruitment for employment with a specialization in health sci-ences.

Development, evaluation, and revision of the planningdocument

Althoughtheplanwill takeshapewithin thecontext of the collaborating institutions, itwill benefit from wider review for two reasons: (1) it can serve as a

model for other regional cooperative efforts to

en-hance education and training for health sciences li-brarians; and (2) there may be identified needs that cannot be addressed with the resources available to

the collaborating institutions but that could be met through the involvement of other individuals and institutions. Inordertosecurethiswider reviewand evaluation,wewillconferwith alumni andrecipients

ofother NLMplanninggrants,aswellasmakingthe documentavailablefor electronic distribution toand review by interested parties. Comments received in response to the draft plan will be

incorporated

into arevision,andatimetable will be

developed

for im-plementation.

CONCLUSION

Likeourplanning project,someof the other

projects

basedinLISschoolsareconsideringall levels of

grad-uate education as well asthe

potential

role of prac-ticums, internships, and residencies. The project in-volving UIUC, UIC, Indiana University, and Wash-ington University is distinctive in our efforts to ad-dress the identified education and training needs

through an

interdisciplinary,

multiinstitutional

ap-proach. This approach reflects the founding princi-ples of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, anacademicconsortium of twelve major teaching and research universities (including the University of Il-linois and Indiana University): that no single insti-tution can or should attempt to be all things to all people, that interinstitutional cooperation permits educationalexperimentation and progress on a scale beyond the capability of any single institution acting alone, and that voluntary cooperation fosters effec-tive, concerted action while preserving institutional autonomy and diversity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank Jana Bradley for provid-ing detailed descriptions of her portions of the pro-ject.

REFERENCES

1. ROPER FW. Special programs in medical library educa-tion, 1957-1971. Part I: definition of the problem and re-search design. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1973Apr;61(2):225-7. 2. RoPER FW. Special programs in medical library educa-tion,1957-1971. Part II: analysis of theprograms. Bull Med LibrAssoc 1973 Oct;61(4):387-95.

3. ROPER FW. Special programs in medical library educa-tion, 1957-1971. Part III: the trainees. Part IV: career char-acteristics of two groups of medical librarians. Bull Med LibrAssoc 1974Oct;62(4):397-412.

4. ROPER FW. Library school education for medical librar-ianship.Bull Med Libr Assoc 1979 Oct;67(4):363.

5.

DETLEFSEN

EG, GALVINTJ.Educationfor healthsciences/

biomedical librarianship: past, present, future. Bull Med LibrAssoc 1986 Apr;74(2):148-53.

6. BRAUDE RM. Impact of information technology on the roleof health sciences librarians. Bull Med LibrAssoc1993

Oct;81(4):408-13.

7. DETLEFSEN EG. Library and information science educa-tion for the newmedical environmentand the ageof

in-tegratedinformation. Libr Trends 1993Fall;42(2):342-64.

8. RoPERFW,MAYFIELDMK.Surveyingknowledgeand skills in thehealth sciences: results andimplications. Bull Med LibrAssoc 1993 Oct;81(4):396-407.

9. MEDICALLIBRARYASSOCIATION. Platform forchange:the

educational policystatement of the MedicalLibrary Asso-ciation. Chicago: TheAssociation, 1991.

10. IBID., 12-13.

11. MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Using scientific evi-dencetoimproveinformationpractice:theresearch policy statementof the Medical LibraryAssociation.Chicago: The Association, 1995.

12. IBID., 2.

13. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. The education and training of healthsciences librarians (National Library of Medicine Long Range Plan,Report of Planning Panelon

theEducation andTrainingofHealthSciencesLibrarians).

14. IBID., 6.

15. BRADLEY J. Thechanging face of health informationand

healthinformation work:aconceptualframework. BullMed

Libr Assoc 1996Jan;84(1):1-10.

16. IBID., 9.

17. MATHESON NW. Things to come: postmodern digital knowledge management and medical informatics. J Am Med

Informatics Assoc 1995Mar/Apr;2(2):73-8.

18. BRAUDE RM, FLORANCEV, FRISSEME, FULLER S. The or-ganizationof the digital library. Acad Med 1995;70(4):286-91.

19. FRISSE ME, BRAUDE RM, FLORANCE V, FULLER S. Infor-matics and medicallibraries: changingneeds andchanging roles.Acad Med 1995;70(1):30-5.

20. HARIUEsS. The potential of information networks for

libraryandinformationscienceeducation. Online CDROM Rev 1995Feb;19(1):13-6.

21. ANDERSON RK. Reinventingthemedicallibrarian. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1989Oct;77(4):323-31.

22. JONES-QUARTEY TS,BYUNN KS. Ethnic minorities in

li-brarianship:aselected bibliography. Spec Libr1993;84(2): 104-11.

23. KNOWLES EC, JOLIVET L. Recruiting the

underrepre-sented:collaborative efforts betweenlibraryeducators and librarypractitioners. LibAdminManage 1991;5(4):189-93. 24. McCooKKP,GEISTP.Diversitydeferred: wherearethe minoritylibrarians? LibrJ 1993 Nov 1;118:35-8.