Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship Commons^™

Finding And Using Validated Surveys In Health Science Research, Tracy Ashby

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Join us as we introduce techniques for identifying and using validated surveys in health sciences research. Learn strategies for finding reliable, evidence-based measurement tools in the databases and gain tips on how to evaluate their quality and relevance.

Board Exam Preparation Resource Trends In Academic Health Sciences Libraries Serving Colleges Of Osteopathic Medicine Programs., Joanne Muellenbach, Kyle Robinson, Hsin-Liang (Oliver) Chen, Harold S Bright, Lori Fitterling

PCOM Scholarly Works

BACKGROUND: The study seeks to identify the board exam preparation (prep) resources made available to medical students by academic health sciences libraries and other departments within U.S. colleges of osteopathic medicine (COM) programs, and the extent to which these resources are utilized by medical students and educators.

METHODS: The study was conducted in two phases. In phase one, forty-two COM library directors were invited to complete a survey regarding their usage, funding, and access models for available board prep resources. In phase two, semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom to explore the library's role in providing access to these resources. …

Enhancing Research Communication With Visual Tools, Sonya Fogg

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Understand the role of visual communication in medical research. Distinguish between data visualizations, infographics, and visual abstracts. Identify best practices and some resources and tools for creating effective visuals.

Screening Tools For Maternal Mental Health In Africa: A Systematic Review, Joyce Jebet, Irene Mageto, Benard Mutwiri, Abednego Ongeso, Ruth Wagathu, Rose Maina, Denis Munene, Kawira Kithuci, Peter Gatiti

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Background:

Maternal health during pregnancy and the postnatal period encompasses mental health, which is a key aspect in enhancing a positive outcome. Despite screening for other possible complications during pregnancy and the postnatal period, very little attention has been paid to screening for mental health. Screening is a key tool in early diagnosis and, eventually, timely diagnosis and management in cases where complications arise.

Aim:

This study aimed to assess the available maternal mental health screening tools and compare the outcome on their utilization during pregnancy and postnatal periods in the African continent.

Methodology:

This was a …

Electronic Research Notebooks And Partnership Checklists: Fostering Cultured Collaboration In Evidence Synthesis Projects Using Labarchives And Swirl-Sr, Gary Kaplan, Mslis, Ahip, Abby Adamczyk, Mlis, Ahip, Emmett Booth, Mlis, Ahip, Stephanie Roth, Mlis, Ahip

Academic Commons and Scott Memorial Library Staff Papers and Presentations

Background

Librarians providing evidence synthesis services often face project management challenges, from tracking progress on search strategy development to clarifying team roles. Librarians have a variety of tools to address these challenges.¹ We propose using electronic lab notebooks (ELNs), which standardize how scientists record research progress. Institutions have adapted ELNs to protect intellectual property and improve rigor and reproducibility.

Although many published systematic reviews report following guidelines such as PRISMA, they still lack rigor and reproducibility.² Therefore, one of the authors developed the Standards for Working with Research Librarians-on Systematic Reviews (SWiRL-SR) checklist to facilitate collaboration and improve …

Ai Tools For Research Teams, Sandra Desjardins

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Join us for a fast-paced, practical session on using free and low-cost AI tools to save hours on your research workflow, from initial discovery to final synthesis. We'll have an overview of tools like Rayyan, ResearchRabbit, and Elicit.

Mapping Information Literary To The Medical Curriculum, Ella Hu, David Stewart

Posters

Medical school accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) requires library staff to be responsive to educational needs. Despite a move toward integrated learning, library instruction is often limited to single sessions early in the curriculum. Curriculum mapping addresses this by providing a systematic analysis of program courses to visualize teaching priorities and the student experience. This strategic tool enables librarians to shift from reactive service to proactive engagement, finding high-impact courses through syllabus analysis. Furthermore, aligning the ACRL Framework with medical education standards, such as AAMC Core EPAs and ACGME requirements, is essential for identifying instructional gaps …

Waring Library Society Newsletter, Summer 2026, Waring Library Society, Waring Historical Library, Medical University Of South Caroilna, Jude Arendall, Joann Livingston Zeise, Brooke Fox

The Waring Library Society Newsletters

In this issue, the Waring Library Society welcomes its new President and shares updates on recent and upcoming renovations to Waring Historical Library. Waring Historical Library's staff reflect on insights gained from a recent sabbatical, and highlight several events and engagements the Waring has been part of this season.

Improving Outreach To Residents Through Semi-Structured Interviews, Emmett Booth, Mlis, Ahip, Gary Kaplan, Mlis, Ahip, Abby Adamczyk, Mlis, Ahip, John Caruso, Md

Academic Commons and Scott Memorial Library Staff Papers and Presentations

Objectives

Our academic medical center has a large number of residents and fellows across programs based out of multiple hospitals, five of which receive direct support from the libraries. Two librarians supporting the scholarly activities of residents and fellows were hired by the university in the last six years. As these positions evolve, we seek to understand if outreach is working, whether support is effective, and whether scholarly support needs are changing. Building on survey results from last year,1 the team is conducting interviews with residents and program directors to better understand their perceptions of library support and services.

Changes In The Dental & Oral Health Information Landscape, Alisun Dekock, Melissa Ernst, Jimmy Gonzalez Vicker, Kelly O'Brien

Individual Scholarship

As we navigate rapid changes to information access and utilization, dental and oral health care professionals are finding new ways to meet the needs of their users. Practitioners locating, evaluating, and applying research continues to encounter new obstacles, including significant changes to institutions that share health data and make recommendations. This poster discusses effective strategies dentistry librarians have used for information retrieval, method analysis, and patient education.

Background  

This poster provides an overview of how four dentistry librarians are responding to trends and changes in the dental and oral health information landscape at their various institutions and organizations.

Description   

Within …

Ai’S Role In Searching For Evidence: Friend And Foe, Barbara (Basia) Delawska-Elliott, Brandon Wilkinson

Publications 2026-present

No abstract provided.

Computer, Diagnose This Paper: Ai Tools For Student Health Information Research, Brandon Kennedy

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Discover how to harness the power of artificial intelligence to navigate the rapidly expanding landscape of medical literature in this bite sized 30-minute session. You will learn how to utilize relevant AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Consensus to enhance your ability to develop effective search strategies and interpret information while strictly adhering to academic and ethical standards. Perfect for students who want to incorporate AI within their research workflow.

Enhancing Patient Care: The Power Of Librarian-Mediated Literature Reviews, Heather J. Martin, Carrie Grinstead, Danielle Linden

Publications 2026-present

Background: Our health system library fields thousands of requests for literature searches each year in support of research, policy, evidence-based practice projects, and care for individual patients. With fewer library staff than comparable institutions and an engaged, multidisciplinary clinical workforce, we face ongoing pressures to do more with less and to demonstrate our value.

Case Presentation: A 2021 article in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship offered an existing survey and basic project design that we used to assess our impacts. We adapted, with permission, the survey and methods of “Analysis of a Hospital Librarian Mediated Literature Search Service at a …

Mendeley: Cite Smarter Not Harder, Jennifer Stockton

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Tired of manually formatting bibliographies and struggling to keep your research organized? This class introduces you to Mendeley, the free, powerful reference manager that will revolutionize how you handle citations. Learn how to quickly capture and organize references, generate bibliographies in various citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), and deduplicate your results. Join us to save time, reduce errors, and focus on your research, not your formatting!

Zotero: Your Research Lifeline, Jennifer Stockton

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

No abstract provided.

From Clicks To Clarity: Advanced Searching In Cinahl, Tracy Ashby, Jennifer Stockton

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Take your CINAHL search to the next level. Learn practical techniques for combining Subject Headings, keywords, and filters to create strong, effective search strategies that support your evidence-based research.

Pie Chart Overview And Tenure And Promotion, Melissa L. Rethlefsen

PIE CHART

This presentation gives an overview of PIE CHART and additional material relating to open science in tenure and promotion. Materials included in this project were supported by the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number RC2NS138557. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Tips On The Prisma Flow Diagram & Methods Section Write-Up, Sandra Y. Desjardins

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Clearly communicate your research methodology with a well-crafted PRISMA flow diagram. This 30-minute class provides practical tips and a step-by-step guide to creating a clear and informative methods section for your research papers.

The Art Of The Review: A 9-Step Guide For Beginning Researchers, Sandra Y. Desjardins, Jenny Stockton

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Master the systematic review process from start to finish. This 30-minute course provides a comprehensive overview of nine essential steps. Learn how to plan, execute, and report on your systematic review with confidence.

Integrating Digital Archives & Scholarship: Raising Awareness Of Library Historical Collections, Alice W. Sherwood

Library Staff Publications

Since 2022, The TMC Library started using Digital Commons Exhibits, adding 15k items to its 18yr institutional repository to include more library archival materials. Traffic of archival collections jumped from 4k, 36k to 107k downloads in 2024, bringing greater impact to not only archives, but the entire library community.

Other beneficial impacts have been identified since additional archival materials have been integrated within our institutional repository. Other than more people who have been accessing McGovern Historical Center using their services and materials, The TMC Library has noticed changes since more download traffic has been noticed on our institutional repository. In …

Brewed Connections: Bringing Early Career Librarians Together Through Virtual Coffee Chats, Brandon Kennedy, Brianna Hales, Samantha Nunn, Sarah Villere, Alex Henigman

Library Staff Publications

Early Career Librarians (ECLs) thrive on collaboration, informal exchange, and community elements that have been challenged by remote and hybrid work. In response, an ECL task force developed and implemented a monthly Virtual Coffee Chat project aimed at fostering informal nationwide connections among ECLs and Library and Information Science (LIS) students interested or involved in health sciences. Hosts provided discussion prompts while also fostering an open forum to discuss challenges and current events such as: AI, systematic reviews, faculty conversations, organizational structures, and training challenges. This poster presents the design, launch, and impact of the ongoing Virtual Coffee Chat project. …

Librarians On-Call: A Review Of Search Tools Utilized By Fourth Year Medical Students On A Mock Call, Celeste Perez, Brandon Kennedy, Katie Prentice, Sonya Fogg, Jennifer Stockton, Bronwyn Sutherland, Lara Oulette, Sandra Desjardins, Beatriz Varman, Tracy Ashby

Library Staff Publications

OBJECTIVE: A team of medical librarians were given the opportunity to observe the medical readiness of fourth year medical students (MS4s) for finding evidence-based clinically relevant information (drug choice, patient care, etc.) during an on-call simulation. For this initial analysis, we observed the search tools utilized by MS4s when asked to recommend treatment for simulated patients.

METHODS: 10 librarians were asked to evaluate 1 module of a simulation required of 240 MS4s as a gauge of their readiness to be residents on call. A Night On-Call Simulation program was used to record their responses & online navigation. The MS4s attended …

Demystifying Research Reviews, Sandra Y. Desjardins, Jennifer Stockton, Madison Hastings

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Feeling lost in a sea of research articles? Unsure which studies you can trust to inform your work?

In this 30-minute session, we'll demystify the world of research reviews, teaching you how to quickly and confidently navigate the literature like a pro. You'll move beyond feeling overwhelmed and become a research detective, equipped to find and evaluate the best evidence.

Research On Identification And Evaluation Method Of Medical Experts' Expertise Domains In Online Health Community Based On Knowledge Graph, Yunjiang Xi, Qian Zhang, Man Li, Juan Yu

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] This study aims to identify the expertise domains of medical experts, and evaluates their domain levels to provide a basis for community expert recommendation.

[Method/process] This study utilized the improved OneRel model to structure community historical Q&A into entity relation triples. Then used the knowledge graph triples to test the consistency between the medical knowledge in the community Q&A and the domain knowledge, and finally obtained the doctor's domain levels by aggregating in each expertise domain.

[Result/conclusion] Using the data example from xywy.com website, 214 doctors in the community were ranked in terms of their average level of expertise …

Developing Pico, Research Questions And Protocols, Sandra Y. Desjardins

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Whether you're a student, a physician, or a faculty member, every great research project starts with a clear plan. This session will walk you through the essential steps of turning a research idea into a structured plan using the PICO framework. We'll cover how to develop focused research questions and discuss the value of using established protocols to ensure your work is sound and reproducible.

Come learn the foundational skills needed for successful research in a welcoming and practical "Lunch & Learn" environment.

Advanced Database Searching, Sandra Y. Desjardins

Library Class: Lunch & Learn

Master the art of finding relevant research articles. This 30-minute class focuses on building strong search strategies using Medline, Web of Science, and Embase. Develop essential skills in concept building to uncover critical information for your research project.

Integrating Digital Archives And Scholarship: Raising Awareness Of Library Historical Collections, Alice W. Sherwood

Library Staff Publications

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is home to the largest concentration of medical professionals and experts anywhere in the world. Collectively, the Texas Medical Center is the largest employer in Houston and the 8th largest business district in the United States. The TMC includes 50 medicine-related institutions, including 21 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, six nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, and pharmacy. The TMC Library plays a vital role for the institutions inhabiting the 2.10 square mile campus that is the TMC. The Texas Medical Center Library has been around since 1915, way before …

Supplemental Data: Analyzing Point Of Care Tools Through Faculty, Resident, And Stakeholder Buy-In: Promises And Pitfalls, J. Michael Lindsay

Faculty Publications

Costs for UpToDate, the library’s primary point of care clinical tool, had increased to half of the acquisitions budget but without user affiliation data to facilitate cost sharing. A working group led by librarians was formed to review alternatives. Surveys indicated users preferred UpToDate and renewal was recommended by the working group, with costs being shared between the academic unit and the hospital. These results showed that the library can effectively lead analysis projects with this level of visibility, but persuading users to consider alternatives to a trusted tool can be challenging.

Appendix 1 is a general survey meant to …

Evaluation Of The Library Session In A Health System Rn Research Fellowship Program, Frances Chu, Basia Delawska-Elliott, Carrie Grinstead, Dana Kopp, Heather Martin

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

Librarian Support For Hospital Gme Programs: Evaluating A New Position, Emmett Booth, Mlis, Gary Kaplan, Mlis, Ahip, Abby Adamczyk, Mlis, Ahip, John Caruso, Md

Academic Commons and Scott Memorial Library Staff Papers and Presentations

Background

In 2015, Jefferson Health completed the process of merging with Abington Hospital. In 2021, Jefferson Health completed the process of merging with Einstein Philadelphia Hospital. Graduate Medical Education (GME) leadership at both hospitals, in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson University Libraries' leadership, identified a need for a clinical librarian to provide library support and services to their faculty, residents, fellows, and staff, building on a model introduced in 2019.¹ Library support is essential to fulfilling the scholarly output requirements of ACGME accreditation.² This was a new position created to help integrate both hospital networks into Jefferson Health …