Journal of the Medical Library Association

Errata for Issue 110 (3)

Katelyn Arnold — 2023-03-24

“Rigor and reproducibility instruction in academic medical libraries,” 2022;110(3):281-93. The PDF and metadata as published contained an incorrect author last name. The correct author name is Tisha Mentnech.

“Determining COVID-19’s impact on an academic medical library’s literature search service,”2022;110(3):316-22. The PDF as published contained an incorrect author last name. The correct author name is David Petersen.

“In Memoriam: Virginia M. Bowden,” 2022;110(3):381-82. The article was published with incorrect HTML title and author affiliation information. The correct affiliation for Janna C. Lawrence is Director.

Virtual Services in the Health Sciences Library: A Handbook

Barbara M. Pope — 2023-03-24

Health sciences libraries serving universities and medical facilities have long used technology to provide library services, but COVID-19 presented libraries with unique challenges. Libraries shut their doors and adapted to conducting reference, instruction, and outreach, remotely. For some libraries described in Virtual Services in the Health Sciences Library: a Handbook, those services had been done in the library; for others, the library had considered adding virtual services. For those libraries that have not made the jump, this text presents strategies to which all health sciences libraries would find a useful reference. Given its practical strategies and engaging text, this reviewer finds Virtual Services in the Health Sciences Library: a Handbook to be an inspiring and a highly recommended reference for health sciences libraries.

Shannon D. Jones, MLS, MEd, AHIP, FMLA, Medical Library Association President, 2022-2023

Kelsa Bartley — 2023-03-24

In this profile, Shannon D. Jones, MLS, MEd, AHIP, FMLA, Medical Library Association President, 2022-2023, is described as someone who “takes chances on people, valuing those others might not see as valuable" -MJ Tooey. Jones embraces lifelong learning, and it shows up in her collegiate journey; she has been a student of leadership, a leader of institutions, especially within the Medical Library Association (MLA); and a leader in librarianship. She is a trailblazer, the second African American MLA president, and a champion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Jones has been Director of Libraries & Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) for the past seven years and is also Director of Region 2 of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, National Library of Medicine.

Assessing Academic Library Performance: A Handbook

Jenessa M. McElfresh — 2022-12-08

Standards of practice for hospital libraries and librarians, 2022: Medical Library Association Hospital Libraries Caucus Standards Task Force

Jill Tarabula — 2023-03-24

The Hospital Library Caucus of the Medical Library Association (MLA) follows the practice established in 1953 of developing quality indicators and best practices in the newly developing and fast-changing world of hospital libraries. As these libraries increased in number and prominence, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO) included in 1978 a hospital library standard developed in collaboration with MLA. Subsequent changes in JCAHO, then The Joint Commission (TJC) knowledge management criteria as well as technological changes in the curation and delivery of evidence-based resources influenced standards changes over the years. The 2022 standards mark the most recent edition, replacing the 2007 standards.

In Memorium: Virginia M. Bowden

Janna C. Lawrence, AHIP — 2022-12-08

Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

Megan Nance — 2022-12-08

Finding Your Seat at the Table: Roles for Librarians on Institutional Regulatory Boards and Committees

Tyler Moses — 2022-12-08

Unsolicited solicitations: identifying characteristics of unsolicited emails from potentially predatory journals and the role of librarians

Paije Wilson — 2023-03-24

Email solicitations for manuscript submissions are a common tactic employed by predatory journals to attract potential victims. Both new and established researchers alike have fallen prey to this tactic, justifying the need for librarians to provide further education and support in this area.

This commentary provides a succinct overview of predatory journals; briefly describes the problem of predatory journal email solicitations; explains the role librarians can play in their identification; and lists some red flags and tactics librarians can tell researchers to look out for, as informed by the literature and the author's analysis of 60 unsolicited journal emails she received in her own institutional inbox.

Shaping the past: how donors influenced Becker Library’s rare book collections

Elisabeth Brander — 2023-03-24

Rare book collections do not form in a vacuum; they are shaped by the individuals who assemble and curate them. This is certainly the case with the rare book holdings of Becker Medical Library at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. This paper examines some of the most significant donors to Becker’s rare book collections in order to explore how these collections are a reflection of the interests and priorities of the physicians who assembled them, and also raises the issue of how the makeup of these collections create a Western-focused narrative regarding the history of medicine.

Erratum to “How accurate are gender detection tools in predicting the gender for Chinese names? A study with 20,000 given names in Pinyin format,” 2021;110(2):205–11.

Charlene Dundek — 2022-04-29

The PDF version of this article reflected an older version of the article with an incorrect URL for reference 17, while the HTML version was correct. The PDF has been updated to the correct version.

Erratum to “Performance of gender detection tools: a comparative study of name-to-gender inference services,” 2021;109(3):414–21 and “Using genderize.io to infer the gender of first names: how to improve the accuracy of the inference,” 2021;109(4):609–12.

Paul Sebo — 2022-04-26

The reference for Gender API in both of these manuscripts linked to the wrong Gender API tool. The correct URL is <https://gender-api.com/en/>. The original articles have both been updated to reflect this change.

The National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC)

Marilia Y. Antunez — 2022-12-08

The case of the disappearing librarians: analyzing documentation of librarians’ contributions to systematic reviews

Amelia Brunskill — 2023-03-24

Objective: The study aimed to analyze the documented role of a librarian in published systematic reviews and meta-analyses whose registered protocols mentioned librarian involvement. The intention was to identify how, or if, librarians’ involvement was formally documented, how their contributions were described, and if there were any potential connections between this documentation and basic metrics of search reproducibility and quality.

Methods: Reviews whose PROSPERO protocols were registered in 2017 and 2018 and that also specifically mentioned a librarian were analyzed for documentation of the librarian’s involvement. Language describing the librarian and their involvement was gathered and coded, and additional information about the review, including search strategy details, was also collected.

Results: A total of 209 reviews were found and analyzed. Of these, 28% had a librarian co-author, 41% named a librarian in the acknowledgements section, and 78% mentioned the contribution of a librarian within the body of the review. However, mentions of a librarian within the review were often generic (“a librarian”) and in 31% of all reviews analyzed no librarian was specified by name. In 9% of the reviews, there was no reference to a librarian found at all.

Conclusions: Even among this set of reviews, where librarian involvement was specified at the protocol level, librarians’ contributions were often described with minimal, or even no, language in the final published review. Much room for improvement appears to remain in terms of how librarians’ work is documented.

Jot: guiding journal selection with suitability metrics

Stephen G. Gaffney — 2022-12-08

Researchers grapple with a challenging and consequential decision each time they choose a journal for manuscript submission. There are several online tools that attempt to identify appropriate journals for a manuscript, but each of these tools has shortcomings in terms of the journal data they provide and the exploration functionality they offer—and not one of these tools is open source. Jot is a free and open-source web application that matches manuscripts in the fields of biomedicine and life sciences with suitable journals, based on a manuscript's title, abstract and (optionally) citations. Jot gathers a wealth of data on journal quality, impact, fit, and open access options that can be explored through a dashboard of linked, interactive visualizations. Visit Jot at https://jot.publichealth.yale.edu, or run your own Jot server using our open-source Python package 'journal_targeter', available from the Python Package Index (PyPI).

Designing and assessing a data literacy internship program for graduate health sciences students

Bethany Sheriese McGowan — 2023-03-24

This case study presents the results of a data internship and workshop series on data analysis in qualitative biomedical systematic reviews. In a newly developed librarian-led internship program, an intern was trained on data literacy concepts and data analysis tools and, in turn, helped recruit and train other graduate health sciences students. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a flipped classroom model was applied to develop a completely virtual learning experience for both the intern and workshop attendees. Both the data intern and workshop participants reported improved confidence in data literacy competence at the end of the project. Assessment results suggest that while the workshop series improved participants’ data literacy skills, participants might still benefit from additional data literacy instruction. This case also presents a model for student-led instruction that could be particularly useful for informing professional development opportunities for library interns, fellows, and student assistants.

Erratum to: Bloss JE, LePrevost CE, Cofie LE, Lee JGL. Creating information resources and trainings for farmworker-serving community health workers. J Med Libr Assoc. 2022;110(1):113–118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1272.

Jamie E Bloss — 2022-02-28

The following funding disclosure was left out of the manuscript during the submission and production process. The original manuscript has been updated to include this statement.

FUNDING STATEMENT

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number G08LM013198. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

The veteran-centered care conferences: interprofessional education and community involvement facilitated by the health sciences librarian

Karen S Alcorn — 2022-12-08

Background: Veterans have a variety of unique healthcare needs and receive care from both the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and private healthcare systems. Because healthcare students will likely treat veterans at some time during their career, it is important they gain exposure to working with veterans during their professional degree programs.

Case Presentation: This case report presents the development of an annual Veteran-Centered Care Conference (VCCC) at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The VCCC included a faculty librarian who led a multi-disciplinary team that planned and coordinated each event. Speakers and participants included university students and faculty from multiple healthcare disciplines, as well as representatives from the VA, veterans’ advocacy groups, and community members (including many veterans). The purpose of the VCCC was to raise awareness of the healthcare needs of contemporary veterans. The goal of the VCCC was to improve healthcare provided to veterans by enhancing civilian health professions students’ knowledge of the potential effects of military service on a person’s health.

Conclusion: After four successful events covering such topics as PTSD, specific health concerns of women veterans, substance use disorder, and homelessness, the VCCC was canceled, primarily due to low pre-registration. Examples of lessons learned and future possibilities for the VCCC and the patient-centered care conference format are discussed. This report is of particular importance given the many years the United States has been at war in the Middle East and the recent withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Erratum to: Pionke JJ, Phillips K, Migdalski A, Smith EM. Advocacy is all of us: recommendations to enhance the Medical Library Association’s advocacy initiatives. J Med Libr Assoc. 2022;110(1):5-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1327.

JJ Pionke — 2022-02-16

The name of one of the authors was misstated during the manuscript submission and publication process. The author’s name Kathryn Phillips was corrected to Kathleen Phillips. The original manuscript has been updated to reflect this change.

An untapped resource? Opportunities for faculty-librarian collaboration to enhance drug information resource utilization in pharmacy education

Kayce D. Gill — 2023-03-24

Background: Doctor of pharmacy educational accreditation standards state student pharmacists should be able to evaluate the scientific literature as well as critically analyze and apply information in answering drug information questions. Student pharmacists often struggle with identifying and using appropriate resources to answer medication-related questions. To ensure educational needs were met, a college of pharmacy hired a health sciences librarian to support the faculty and students.

Case Presentation: The health sciences librarian collaborated with faculty and students throughout the doctor of pharmacy curriculum to identify and address any gaps related to appropriate drug resource utilization. Adding instruction time to the new student pharmacist orientation, coursework throughout the first year of the pharmacy program, and a two-semester evidence-based seminar course provided opportunities for the health sciences librarian to work with student pharmacists in the areas of library resource access, instruction on drug information resources, and evaluation of drug information found on the internet.

Conclusion: The deliberate inclusion of a health sciences librarian into the doctor of pharmacy curriculum can benefit faculty and students. Opportunities for collaboration are available throughout the curriculum, such as providing instruction for database utilization and supporting the research activities of both faculty and student pharmacists.

Health sciences and medical librarians conducting research and their experiences asking for co-authorship

Jamie E. Bloss — 2023-03-24

Objective: Health sciences librarians frequently engage in scholarly publication, both with other librarians undertaking intradisciplinary scholarship, and increasingly as members of research teams centered in other disciplines. We sought to assess the emotional and institutional context of authorship among health sciences librarians, including emotions experienced during authorship negotiation, the frequency with which authorship is denied, and the correlation of perceived support from supervisors and the research community with the number of publications produced.

Methods: 342 medical and health sciences librarians took an online survey of 47 questions regarding emotions experienced when asking for authorship, denial of authorship, if they have been given authorship without asking, and the extent to which they felt supported to conduct research in their current job.

Results: Authorship negotiation creates varied and complex emotions among librarians. The emotions reported differed when negotiating authorship with librarian colleagues and when negotiating authorship with professionals in another field. Negative emotions were reported when asking either type of colleague for authorship. Respondents reported feeling mostly supported and encouraged by their supervisors, research communities, and workplaces. Nearly one quarter (24.4%) of respondents reported being denied authorship by colleagues outside of their departments. Perceived research appreciation and support by the research community is correlated with the total number of articles or publications produced by librarians.

Conclusions: Authorship negotiation among health sciences librarians involves complex and frequently negative emotions. Denial of authorship is frequently reported. Institutional and professional support appear to be critical to publication among health sciences librarians.

Patricia Gallagher (1954–2021)

Stephen J. Greenberg — 2022-04-26

Except for my commute, everything is the same: the shared lived experience of health sciences libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Bart Ragon — 2023-03-24

Objective: To understand the experience of academic health sciences libraries during the pandemic using a phenomenological approach.

Methods: This study used a multisite, mixed-method approach to capture the direct experience of academic health sciences libraries as they evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase one of the study involved administering a qualitative survey to capture to capture current evolutions of programs and services. The survey for phases two (August 2020) and three (February 2021) contained eight questions asking participants to share updates on their evolution and experiences.

Results: Qualitative data were analyzed using open coding techniques to ensure emergent themes were allowed to surface. Additional post-hoc sentiment analysis ascertained the frequency of positive and negative words in each data set. Of the 193 possible AAHSL libraries, 45 (23.3%) responded to the April 2020 survey, 26 to the August 2020 survey, and 16 to the February 2021 survey. Libraries represented 23 states and the District of Columbia. The majority of libraries closed in March 2020. The ease of transferring library services to a remote environment varied by type of service. For the quantitative analysis, ten distinct areas were analyzed using text coded as “Staff” as a lens for understanding the connection between codes.

Conclusion: Innovations by libraries during the early stages of the pandemic are having a long-term impact on library culture and the delivery of services. Even as libraries returned to in-person services, elements of telecommuting,

GIBLIB (4.0)

Heather Healy — 2022-12-08

In-person and online escape rooms for individual and team-based learning in health professions library instruction

Rachel R. Helbing — 2023-03-24

Background: A growing body of research demonstrates that adapting the popular entertainment activity “escape rooms” for educational purposes as an innovative teaching method can improve the learning experience. Escape rooms promote teamwork, encourage analytical thinking, and improve problem solving. Despite the increasing development and use of escape rooms in health sciences programs and academic libraries, there is little literature on the use of this method in health sciences libraries with health professions students.

Case Presentation: Staff at a health sciences library collaborated with faculty to incorporate escape rooms into library instruction in a variety of formats (in-person, hybrid, online) with health professions students from various disciplines (optometry, pharmacy, medicine). The escape rooms described in this paper offered unique experiences for students through active learning.

Discussion: Important considerations when planning escape rooms for health sciences library instruction include deciding on team-based or individual design, calculating potential costs in time and money, deciding on an in-person, hybrid, or online format, and determining whether grades should be assigned. Escape rooms can be an effective strategy for library instruction in the health sciences, working in multiple formats to bring game-based learning to a variety of health professions students.