Participating in Communities of Practice

Abstract

Hospital librarians understand they need to move outside the four walls of the physical library and provide information support for clinicians in various settings. Librarians round with patient care teams as clinical librarians. They sit on quality improvement and patient safety committees in order to provide information to those groups. Many are members of their organization's Institutional Review Board. Some of these activities are done for a specific purpose and are short-lived. Other activities become institutionalized as the value of the librarian's contribution is recognized. This article will describe examples in which hospital librarians are part of multidisciplinary teams created to improve patient care in their hospital.

Refocusing Reference Services Outside the Library Building: One Library's Experience

“…Services, on the other hand, still need to be provided to an ever increasing number of library users, including more and more distance education students, and new collaborative roles are being explored by libraries. In the sciences, librarians are taking on new roles in providing scientific data curation and contributing to e-science, 10 collaborating on bioinformatics projects, 11 working with Institutional Review Boards, 12 going on rounds and sitting on institutional committees, 13 and other new challenges.…”

Librarians as Part of Cross-Disciplinary, Multi-institutional Team Projects: Experiences from the VIVO Collaboration

“…This collaborative team approach is not only required during the research process, but also during implementation of solutions (Börner et al 2010). Recent years have seen an increase in the level at which librarians participate on collaborative teams outside the library, for example, as members of rounding patient care teams, systematic review teams, Institutional Review Boards, embedded librarians/informationists on research teams and a variety of campus committees (Aitken et al 2011, Moore 2011, Bandy et al 2008, Urquhart et al 2007). In addition, librarians are playing emerging roles in the support of clinical and translational research efforts (Holmes and Dubinsky 2009) as well as e-science and data management initiatives (Gold 2007, Rambo 2009).…”

“…Librarians have been part of collaborative teams outside the library for quite some time; biomedical science librarians participate on patient care teams as clinical librarians, systematic review teams, members of their Institutional Review Board, embedded librarians/informationists on research teams and various campus committees (Aitken et al 2011, Moore 2011, Bandy et al 2008, Urquhart et al 2007). Embedded science librarians have been partners with faculty in curriculum design and co-teaching (Pritchard 2010), as well as in team-taught courses in scientific writing for undergraduate students (Huerta and McMillan 2004).…”

“…Developing critical appraisal skills and a greater understanding of the challenges caregivers face, as well as learning the language and unspoken conventions of the clinical community are also mentioned (Bandy et al 2008). …”

Results of a Survey to Benchmark Canadian Health Facility Libraries

“…The recent literature also explores new roles for health sciences librarians, including the clinical informationist role [18Á20] and a focus on the expanding potential of the clinical librarian in expert searching, teaching, content management, and patient advocacy [21]. Other role changes and expansions are documented in a recent systematic review [22] including hospital librarian participation in multi-disciplinary teams throughout the organization [23], reflecting the trend of liaison relationships, and the embedded librarianship model [24]. The Medical Library Association's Vital Pathways: the Hospital Libraries Project [25] makes it evident that health sciences librarians need to identify and fully embrace current and future roles that will support the parent organization's goals [26].…”