Emerging roles of health information professionals for library and information science curriculum development: a scoping review

Abstract

ObjectiveThis scoping review identified the emerging and evolving roles of health information professionals (HIPs) in a range of tasks and settings, as they adapt to varied user needs, while keeping up with changing medical landscapes to provide evidence-based information support in grand rounds and scholarly research. The review aims to inform library school students about expected entry-level job qualifications and faculty about adaptable changes to specialized HIP curricula.MethodsThe authors examined 268 peer-reviewed journal articles that concentrated on evolving HIP roles, professional settings, and contexts by retrieving results from several multidisciplinary databases.ResultsHIPs, who generally serve as “embedded librarians,” are taking on more active roles as collaborators, research experts, and liaisons, replacing more passive and exclusive roles as information providers and outreach agents or research assistants. These evolving roles in the reviewed literature were broken into nine categories in approximate order of prominence.ConclusionsA new model linking these evolving roles to the Medical Library Association (MLA) fundamental professional competencies was developed to provide an operational examination and research-based evidence for adapting HIP continuing education curriculum learning outcomes, course content and delivery, and student career pathways for existing graduate HIP specialization courses in library programs. The model indicates each role’s connection to the MLA professional competencies, based on MLA’s detailed description of each competency. A better understanding of HIP demands and expectations will enhance the capacity of library programs to prepare students in HIP specializations.

Big data analytics in health: an overview and bibliometric study of research activity

“…Clinical librarians are often part of the patient clinical care team, as experts in health care information/data, and part of the research teams because they are regularly required to participate in medical procedures by conducting research, attending and participating in medical seminars and providing specialised information to the interested parties (Ma, Stahl, & Knotts, 2018). One of their main contributions to the health world is the connection between the medical literature and the patient care (Ma et al, 2018). In this article, our main attempt is to follow this line and report new information technology systems retrieved from present literature in order to provide health librarians with specialist knowledge about health information resources.…”

Digital Health and Professional Identity in Australian Health Libraries: Evidence from the 2018 Australian Health Information Workforce Census

“…A strong body of literature has appeared in the past decade on predicted changes in the health librarian profession. The scoping review by Ma, Stahl, and Knotts (2018) described nine evolving and active roles, with embedded librarians as a strong theme. Several authors have identified external and occupational drivers of change, and discussed the need for the profession to respond (Brettle & Urquhart, 2011;Crum & Cooper, 2013;Henderson, 2014;Holst et al, 2009;Hopkins, 2017;King & Lapidus, 2015;McGowan, 2012;Murphy, 2013).…”

Reimaging the role of the information professionals in the Educational process: the case of the Sultanate of Oman

“…Group 9 also confirmed that they were aspiring to see "the clarity of the provisions of the Guide on the functions of the information professional, and not as a specialist of the learning resource and the direct responsibility for it.The information professionals have to know clearly the functions of information professionals". However, Ma and Stahl (2018) stated that students obtain better information literacy instruction through their problem-based classroom learning when instructors allow librarians full access to the courses and present librarians to the students to integrate them into the learning environment. This situation leads to instruction has become more about teaching selfsufficiency than serving as a gatekeeper of information.…”

“…The findings show that health sciences librarians are often expected to attend curriculum committee meetings and reach out to students both within and outside the classroom. They emphasized that librarians can play critical roles in developing course competencies and sharing them with other instructors (Ma and Stahl, 2018).…”

“…For example, G9 indicated that "Job title gives the impression that the role is attributed to the place of a specialist in learning sources, and the correct concept must be information professional". Conversely , Ma Stahl (2018) found out that librarians in medical education are called on as partners in the classroom, or research collaborators.…”