Medical Reference Services Quarterly最新文献

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming education, and faculty can either incorporate GenAI in intentional course design to promote inquiry-based learning (IBL) or resist its use. This study identified an effective strategy to intentionally integrate GenAI in the course design to promote IBL. A descriptive study design was used for graduate nursing students to compare the effectiveness of a GenAI literature search tool, Elicit: The AI Research Assistant, to PubMed and CINAHL. A two-phase framework was utilized to organize complex information and justify a preference. A rubric was designed to promote and assess critical thinking through IBL in educating graduate nursing students on information literacy and structuring a literature search. Discovering a relationship between the search tools, students identified the strengths (pros) and weaknesses (cons) of each tool and determined which tool was more effective in terms of accuracy, relevance and efficiency.

This report describes the incorporation of plain language and scientific communication best practices to supplement and simplify complex terminology and processes described on a highly utilized Systematic Review LibGuide. Guide content was evaluated pre- and post-revision using established metrics for readability, understandability, and actionability. The quality improvement process described in this report is accessible and feasible for other librarians to complete. Regardless of topic, if LibGuides are publicly available, it is important to ensure content is understandable by users, no matter their background or expertise, to ensure equitable access of information.

Health sciences librarians often lack knowledge of the motivations behind faculty publishing behavior. This study establishes some understanding of their choices through interviews with academic health sciences faculty members. Knowledge of the concepts of open access was lacking, as was the differences between open access and predatory publishing. Faculty had varied opinions on publication without robust peer review, its ethical implications, manuscript quality, and trust in scientific publishing. Evidence from this study suggests that librarians must take an active role in shaping the future of scholarly communication through education, advocacy, and a commitment to moving science forward equitably and ethically.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Science Clips is an online weekly bibliographical digest showcasing over 46,000 scientific articles and publications from 2009 to present. The digest is curated by the Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library to bring awareness to relevant and quality public health literature. This overview describes how users can access and navigate the database, and evaluates the database usability and relevance in public health.

While medical and health science librarians' median salaries have increased over the last forty years; however, inflation-adjusted salaries are lower than in 2008. Utilizing data from the Medical Library Association's salary surveys from 1983 to 2023, this column explores median salary changes over time by discussing the median salary's performance against inflation and how the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic impacted salaries. From 2017 to 2023, the median salary increased by 18%, but after adjusting for inflation, the median salary decreased by almost 6%. The findings have serious implications for recruitment and retention in medical and health sciences librarianship.

Librarians' involvement in Evidence-Based Medical Practice (EBMP) has been widely reported from the Global North. The cross-sectional study designed a survey to investigate how African medical librarians integrate into EBMP. The respondents comprised medical librarians from 12 African countries. Findings revealed that African medical librarians are mostly involved in EBMP activities related to resource use, management, and evidence dissemination. The leading EBMP tools reportedly used or promoted by the librarians include UpToDate and Cochrane Library, while the leading challenges encountered in offering support for EBMP are related to skill deficiency, poor funding, and poor internet connectivity.

Public libraries serve as sources of health information, and partnerships between public and academic health sciences libraries may improve a community's access to and understanding of health information. Librarians at a medical school in Kentucky conducted interviews with public librarians to better understand their experiences with health information with the goal of informing future outreach to public libraries. All participants reported receiving requests for health-related information at least occasionally. Most participants used books to answer health questions, although a wide range of electronic resources were also used. Implications for academic health sciences librarians are discussed.

This article examines the development and implementation of a customized Python script utilizing the Elsevier Scopus and Clarivate Web of Science Journal Citation Reports Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The aim was to streamline and expedite the labor-intensive process of collecting research metrics, which were traditionally compiled manually by librarians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Louis Calder Memorial Library. The script significantly reduces the time and effort required to generate comprehensive reports on research productivity, thereby enabling more efficient resource allocation and aiding in faculty evaluations.

Created by the NIH in 2015, the Common Data Elements (CDE) Repository provides free online access to search and use Common Data Elements. This tool helps to ensure consistent data collection, saves time and resources, and ultimately improves the accuracy of and interoperability among datasets. The purpose of this column is to provide an overview of the database, discuss why it is important for researchers and relevant for health sciences librarians, and review the basic layout of the website, including sample searches that will demonstrate how it can be used.