Journal of the Medical Library Association

Thank you to the Journal of the Medical Library Association reviewers in 2024

Jill T. Boruff — 2025-04-18

We sincerely thank the peer reviewers in 2024 who helped evaluate and improve the quality of work published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA).

Urban Health: A Practical Application For Clinical-Based Learning

Endah Fitriasari — 2025-04-18

A decade of Does: celebrating the 125th anniversary of MLA through an annual meeting conversation with past Janet Doe lecturers

Gerald Perry — 2025-04-18

At the Medical Library Association (MLA) 2024 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, the Janet Doe Lectureship Series plenary session featured a panel of past Doe lecturers from the last decade. Reflecting on their lectures they were challenged to imagine how the Association’s Core Values could guide and inform decision making in response to current and emerging challenges to the profession and in the environment. Panelists’ reflections included themes of inclusivity, collaboration, leadership, technology, space planning, and the role of medical librarians in addressing issues of mis- and disinformation, bias, equity, and open access, today and in the future. Common themes included the centrality of collaboration as a necessary component of health sciences librarianship, and the ongoing criticality of the profession’s commitment to ethical practices. The panelists shared insights on how MLA's Core Values can guide the profession and association through the challenges and opportunities of the evolving healthcare and information landscape, including the rise and the rapid evolution of advanced technologies.

Biomedical Image Analysis Special Applications in MRIs and CT Scans

Evita Maula — 2025-04-18

Biomedical Image Analysis Special Applications in MRIs and CT Scans is a part of the Brain Informatics of Health (BIH) Book series. This book covers the fundamental theory of these techniques and their practical applications through various examples, presented in a straightforward manner without complex mathematics. The authors delve into key aspects of biomedical image analysis, including model formulation, architecture, basic steps, empirical analysis, and performance evaluation using statistical parameters to assess the effectiveness of the proposed models.

JMLA virtual projects continue to show impact of technologies in health sciences libraries

Emily Hurst — 2025-01-14

Beginning in 2012, the Virtual Projects section of the Journal of the Medical Library Association has provided an opportunity for library leaders and technology experts to share with others how new technologies are being adopted by health sciences libraries. From educational purposes to online tools that enhance library services or access to resources, the Virtual Projects section brings technology use examples to the forefront. The new publication issue for future Virtual Projects sections will be January and the call for submissions and Virtual Projects deadline will now take place in June and July.

Revisiting JMLA case reports: a publication category for driving innovation in health sciences librarianship

Jill T. Boruff, AHIP — 2025-01-14

In the April 2019 issue (Vol. 106 No. 3), the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) debuted its Case Report publication category. In the years following this decision, the Case Reports category has grown into an integral component of JMLA. In this editorial, the JMLA Editorial Team highlights the value of case reports and outlines strategies authors can use to draft impactful manuscripts for this category.

Amy Blevins, Medical Library Association President, 2023-2024

Elizabeth Kiscaden — 2025-01-15

Amy Blevins served as the Medical Library Association president from 2023-2024. In this presidential biography, authors outline a history of Blevins' recruitment to the career, career development, and impact on the association and the profession.

Leveraging AI tools for streamlined library event planning: a case study from Lane Medical Library

Boglarka Huddleston — 2025-01-14

Health sciences and hospital libraries often face challenges in planning and organizing events due to limited resources and staff. At Stanford School of Medicine’s Lane Library, librarians turned to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to address this issue and successfully manage various events, from small workshops to larger, more complex conferences. This article presents a case study on how to effectively integrate generative AI tools into the event planning process, improving efficiency and freeing staff to focus on higher-level tasks.

Leveraging an open access platform to provide organizational value in clinical environments

Aida Marissa Smith — 2025-01-14

The Ascension Nurse Author Index is an example of how resource-limited clinical libraries can provide value to their organization by creating a database of peer-reviewed journal article publications authored by their nursing associates. In 2024, Ascension launched a database index to highlight its nurse authors, bring attention to subject matter expertise, foster collaboration among authors, and recognize impact within the profession. The index uses an open access platform, software intended for reference management with a public-facing cloud option, to minimize expenses. This unconventional use of the platform allowed us to capitalize on the software's bibliographic database management capabilities while allowing us to input institutional-specific metadata. By creative use of the open-access platform, librarians can successfully partner to create value for their organization by highlighting the work of its nurses.

Designing for impact: a case study of UTHSC’s research impact challenge

Jess Newman McDonald — 2025-01-14

Prompted by increasing requests for assistance with research evaluation from faculty researchers and university leadership, faculty librarians at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) launched an innovative Research Impact Challenge in 2023. This Challenge was inspired by the University of Michigan's model and tailored to the needs of health sciences researchers. This asynchronous event aimed to empower early-career researchers and faculty seeking promotion and tenure by enhancing their online scholarly presence and understanding of how scholarship is tracked and evaluated.

A team of diverse experts crafted an engaging learning experience through the strategic use of technology and design. Scribe slideshows and videos offered dynamic instruction, while written content and worksheets facilitated engagement and reflection. The Research Impact Challenge LibGuide, expertly designed with HTML and CSS, served as the central platform, ensuring intuitive navigation and easy access to resources (https://libguides.uthsc.edu/impactchallenge). User interface design prioritized simplicity and accessibility, accommodating diverse learning preferences and technical skills.

This innovative project addressed common challenges faced by researchers and demonstrated the impactful use of technology in creating an adaptable and inclusive educational experience. The Research Impact Challenge exemplifies how academic libraries can harness technology to foster scholarly growth and support research impact in the health sciences.

Use of large language model (LLM) to enhance content and structure of a school of dentistry LibGuide

Emily P. Jones — 2025-01-14

A librarian used a large language model (LLM) to revise a dentistry subject LibGuide. Prompts were used to identify methods for optimizing navigational structure for usability, highlight library-specific information students need additional help with, and write summaries of page content. Post-revision, LibGuide access increased, and students provided anecdotal feedback that they perceive the changes positively. LLMs may enhance LibGuide discoverability and usability without adding significant time and resource burdens for librarians.

Making the most of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models to support collection development in health sciences libraries

Ivan Portillo — 2025-01-14

This project investigated the potential of generative AI models in aiding health sciences librarians with collection development. Researchers at Chapman University’s Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science campus evaluated four generative AI models—ChatGPT 4.0, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot—over six months starting in March 2024. Two prompts were used: one to generate recent eBook titles in specific health sciences fields and another to identify subject gaps in the existing collection. The first prompt revealed inconsistencies across models, with Copilot and Perplexity providing sources but also inaccuracies. The second prompt yielded more useful results, with all models offering helpful analysis and accurate Library of Congress call numbers. The findings suggest that Large Language Models (LLMs) are not yet reliable as primary tools for collection development due to inaccuracies and hallucinations. However, they can serve as supplementary tools for analyzing subject coverage and identifying gaps in health sciences collections.

Development of an open access systematic review instructional video series accessible through the SPI-HubTM website

Sheila Kusnoor — 2025-01-14

Given the key role of systematic reviews in informing clinical decision making and guidelines, it is important for individuals to have equitable access to quality instructional materials on how to design, conduct, report, and evaluate systematic reviews. In response to this need, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Center for Knowledge Management (CKM) created an open-access systematic review instructional video series. The educational content was created by experienced CKM information scientists, who worked together to adapt an internal training series that they had developed into a format that could be widely shared with the public. Brief videos, averaging 10 minutes in length, were created addressing essential concepts related to systematic reviews, including distinguishing between literature review types, understanding reasons for conducting a systematic review, designing a systematic review protocol, steps in conducting a systematic review, web-based tools to aid with the systematic review process, publishing a systematic review, and critically evaluating systematic reviews. Quiz questions were developed for each instructional video to allow learners to check their understanding of the material. The systematic review instructional video series launched on CKM’s Scholarly Publishing Information Hub (SPI-Hub^TM) website in Fall 2023. From January through August 2024, there were 1,662 international accesses to the SPI-Hub^TM systematic review website, representing 41 countries. Initial feedback, while primarily anecdotal, has been positive. By adapting its internal systematic review training into an online video series format suitable for asynchronous instruction, CKM has been able to widely disseminate its educational materials.

Individual DOI minting for Open Repository: a script for creating a DOI on demand for a DSpace repository

Catherine Tess Grynoch — 2025-01-14

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are a key persistent identifier in the publishing landscape to ensure the discoverability and citation of research products. Minting DOIs can be a time-consuming task for repository librarians. This process can be automated since the metadata for DOIs is already in the repository record and DataCite, a DOI minting organization, and Open Repository, a DSpace repository platform, both have application programming interfaces (APIs). Existing software enables bulk DOI minting. However, the institutional repository at UMass Chan Medical School contains a mixture of original materials that need DOIs (dissertations, reports, data, etc.) and previously published materials that already have DOIs such as journal articles.

An institutional repository librarian and her librarian colleague with Python experience embarked on a paired programming project to create a script to mint DOIs on demand in DataCite for individual items in the institution’s Open Repository instance. The pair met for one hour each week to develop and test the script using combined skills in institutional repositories, metadata, DOI minting, coding in Python, APIs, and data cleaning. The project was a great learning opportunity for both librarians to improve their Python coding skills. The new script makes the DOI minting process more efficient, enhances metadata in DataCite, and improves accuracy. Future script enhancements such as automatically updating repository metadata with the new DOI are planned after the repository upgrade to DSpace 7.

ChatGPT, Python, and Microsoft Excel

Kaique Sbampato — 2025-01-14

This article examines how the integration of ChatGPT, Python, and Microsoft Excel can significantly enhance the productivity of medical librarians. These tools provide a powerful framework for automating tasks, processing large datasets, and generating actionable insights. ChatGPT, with its advanced natural language processing, helps automate Python script generation and improve data processing in Excel, streamlining workflows and enabling more precise service delivery. Practical applications demonstrate improvements in information retrieval, data management, and research support. The results show that, despite some integration challenges, these technologies have the potential to greatly elevate the efficiency and effectiveness of librarians in managing healthcare data.

Early explorations of holistic review in graduate medical education

Gena C. Dunivan — 2025-01-14

Background: Graduate Medical Education programs have implemented holistic review to improve the selection process for new residents. Holistic review will have a profound effect on Health Information Professionals (HIPs) with the arrival of medical residents with different backgrounds and needs. The unique experiences and skills of HIPs will position them well for the new realities in medical residency programs. This article traces the historic roots of holistic review.

Methods: The authors employed a scoping review to track the historical traces of holistic review in Graduate Medical Education over the formative period of 1999-2019.

Results: Medical residency programs over a 20-year period piloted holistic review in the screening, interview, and multiple time periods in the selection process. These ventures reflected a diversity of approaches and creative adaptations from other disciplines such as personnel management, organizational psychology, and active learning forms of education

Conclusion: Health information professionals and medical educators will better engage with the newer cohorts of residents when equipped with a history of holistic review.

"I still have not mastered that skill!" Medical student perspectives on a simulation-based evidence-based medicine competency assessment

Joey Nicholson — 2025-04-18

Objective: We expect medical students to be able to apply evidence-based medicine (EBM) skills in the context of the clinical care of patients. Previous assessments of this domain have primarily utilized decontextualized knowledge tests, which provide limited insights into students’ understanding of EBM skills in the context of patient care. New performance-based EBM competence assessments using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are being developed and tested. Understanding how students experience and interact with a simulation-based assessment of EBM competence would enable us to improve the modality.

Methods: We recruited 13 graduating medical students from one medical school who had recently completed an immersive multi station readiness-for-residency OSCE (Night onCall) which included a case-based EBM assessment. We conducted individual interviews to explore their perceptions of participating in this OSCE as a method of EBM assessment. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using Dedoose by three health science librarians.

Results: Students discussed their experience and perceptions in six main areas: connection to clinical practice, curricular timing and content coverage, feedback, station instructions, awareness of their own limitations, and an OSCE as a format for assessing EBM.

Conclusion: Medical students appreciated the EBM OSCE because it enhanced their learning about how to integrate EBM into clinical practice. They proposed implementing multiple such opportunities throughout medical school because it would improve their competence and provide highly impactful opportunities to build toward EBM mastery. They endorsed that this would be well-accepted by medical students.

Integrating PICO principles into generative artificial intelligence prompt engineering to enhance information retrieval for medical librarians

Kyle Robinson — 2025-04-18

Prompt engineering, an emergent discipline at the intersection of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), library science, and user experience design, presents an opportunity to enhance the quality and precision of information retrieval. An innovative approach applies the widely understood PICO framework, traditionally used in evidence-based medicine, to the art of prompt engineering. This approach is illustrated using the “Task, Context, Example, Persona, Format, Tone” (TCEPFT) prompt framework as an example. TCEPFT lends itself to a systematic methodology by incorporating elements of task specificity, contextual relevance, pertinent examples, personalization, formatting, and tonal appropriateness in a prompt design tailored to the desired outcome. Frameworks like TCEPFT offer substantial opportunities for librarians and information professionals to streamline prompt engineering and refine iterative processes. This practice can help information professionals produce consistent and high-quality outputs. Library professionals must embrace a renewed curiosity and develop expertise in prompt engineering to stay ahead in the digital information landscape and maintain their position at the forefront of the sector.

Adapt and advance: the Medical Library Association's journey through innovation and change

Kevin Baliozian — 2024-07-29

This article examines key inflection points of the last twenty-five years and the critical role of the board of directors in setting the direction of MLA. It reviews ten years of strategic initiatives, building the larger picture of significant change for the association and the building of a better future.

Development and validation of LGBTQIA+ search filters: report on process and pilot filter for queer women

Hannah Schilperoort — 2025-04-23

Introduction: A search filter for studies involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and additional sexual minority and gender identities (LGBTQIA+) populations has been developed and validated; however, the filter contained very small gold standard sets for some populations, and terminology, controlled vocabulary, and database functionality has subsequently evolved. We therefore sought to update and re-test the search filters for these selected subgroups using larger gold standard sets. We report on the development and validation of two versions of a sensitivity maximizing search filter for queer women, including but not limited to lesbians and women who have sex with women (WSW).

Methods: We developed a PubMed search filter for queer women using the relative recall approach and incorporating input from queer women. We tested different search combinations against the gold standard set; combinations were tested until a search with 100 percent sensitivity was identified.

Results: We developed and tested variations of the search, and present two versions of the strategy with 99% and 100% sensitivity. The strategies included additional terms to improve sensitivity and proximity searching to improve recall and precision.

Conclusions: The queer women search filters balance sensitivity and precision to facilitate comprehensive retrieval of studies involving queer women. The filters will require ongoing updates to adapt to evolving language and search platform functionalities. Strengths of the study include the involvement of the population of interest at each stage of the project. Future research will include development and testing of search filters for other LGBTQIA+ subgroups such as bisexual and transgender people.

Thank you to the Journal of the Medical Library Association reviewers in 2023

Jill T. Boruff — 2024-05-22

We sincerely thank the peer reviewers in 2023 who helped evaluate and improve the quality of work published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA).

Evaluating a large language model’s ability to answer clinicians’ requests for evidence summaries

Mallory N. Blasingame — 2025-01-14

Objective: This study investigated the performance of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool using GPT-4 in answering clinical questions in comparison with medical librarians’ gold-standard evidence syntheses.

Methods: Questions were extracted from an in-house database of clinical evidence requests previously answered by medical librarians. Questions with multiple parts were subdivided into individual topics. A standardized prompt was developed using the COSTAR framework. Librarians submitted each question into aiChat, an internally managed chat tool using GPT-4, and recorded the responses. The summaries generated by aiChat were evaluated on whether they contained the critical elements used in the established gold-standard summary of the librarian. A subset of questions was randomly selected for verification of references provided by aiChat.

Results: Of the 216 evaluated questions, aiChat’s response was assessed as “correct” for 180 (83.3%) questions, “partially correct” for 35 (16.2%) questions, and “incorrect” for 1 (0.5%) question. No significant differences were observed in question ratings by question category (p=0.73). For a subset of 30% (n=66) of questions, 162 references were provided in the aiChat summaries, and 60 (37%) were confirmed as nonfabricated.

Conclusions: Overall, the performance of a generative AI tool was promising. However, many included references could not be independently verified, and attempts were not made to assess whether any additional concepts introduced by aiChat were factually accurate. Thus, we envision this being the first of a series of investigations designed to further our understanding of how current and future versions of generative AI can be used and integrated into medical librarians’ workflow.

Physical therapy students’ perceptions of embedded medical librarians within evidence-based practice courses: a mixed-methods pilot study

Lori Bolgla — 2025-04-18

Objective: Previous work within academic medical centers has indicated the potential value of embedded medical librarian programs within health sciences professional degree programs. This study sought to determine the perceived benefit that an embedded medical librarian (EML) provided to an evidence-based practice (EBP) course within an entry-level physical therapy degree program.

Methods: Learners completed an anonymous survey at the end of an EBP course about the impact of the EML on the course and their own EML utilization. Frequency and percentages were calculated for quantitative data; qualitative data were analyzed using an iterative process for code development.

Results: Forty (98%) learners completed the survey. Seventy-five point six percent of learners utilized the EML 1-2 times per class session and 31.7% outside of class sessions. Learners overwhelmingly “agreed” (53.7%) or “strongly agreed” (39.0%) that they would consult the EML for literature searches required in future courses. Seventy point seven percent “strongly agreed” that the EML improved their ability to conduct a literature search. All learners either “agreed” (43.9%) or “strongly agreed” (56.1%) that the EML added value to the course. Ninety point two percent considered the EML as an integral part of the course. Themes from the qualitative analysis agreed that the EML added value to the course and facilitated skills that would be useful throughout the curriculum.

Conclusion: Learners believe that having an EML improves their ability to conduct a literature search. Providing learners with EML access during their education experience facilitates development of this skill. Early and continued instruction throughout the entry-level DPT curriculum in informatics ensures program compliance with accreditation standards.

Filtering failure: the impact of automated indexing in Medline on retrieval of human studies for knowledge synthesis

Nicole Askin — 2025-01-14

Objective: Use of the search filter ‘exp animals/ not humans.sh’ is a well-established method in evidence synthesis to exclude non-human studies. However, the shift to automated indexing of Medline records has raised concerns about the use of subject-heading-based search techniques. We sought to determine how often this string inappropriately excludes human studies among automated as compared to manually indexed records in Ovid Medline.

Methods: We searched Ovid Medline for studies published in 2021 and 2022 using the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy for randomized trials. We identified all results excluded by the non-human-studies filter. Records were divided into sets based on indexing method: automated, curated, or manual. Each set was screened to identify human studies.

Results: Human studies were incorrectly excluded in all three conditions, but automated indexing inappropriately excluded human studies at nearly double the rate as manual indexing. In looking specifically at human clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the rate of inappropriate exclusion of automated-indexing records was seven times that of manually-indexed records.

Conclusions: Given our findings, searchers are advised to carefully review the effect of the ‘exp animals/ not humans.sh’ search filter on their search results, pending improvements to the automated indexing process.

Welcome to the future: challenges and opportunities discussed in the Vision 2048 Task Force Open Forums 2021-2023

Charlotte Beyer — 2024-07-29

In preparation of the 125th anniversary of the Medical Library Association, between 2021 and 2022 the Board of Directors established four different task forces to document the story of MLA's past, present, and future as part of the strategic goal of Building a Better Future. The Vision 2048 Task Force sought to bring together members from across the association to chart the future of health sciences librarianship. In 2021, the task force was assembled with members from across the association with varying backgrounds and experience. Early on, the task force focused their work on encouraging conversations within the membership via a series of open forums centered around the overall future of health sciences librarianship including emerging issues critical to effective professional practice, how to prepare the next generation of health sciences librarians, and suggestions of how can MLA adapt to move the profession forward. In an effort to have conversations which were inclusive across as many communities as possible, these open forums were hosted both in-person as well as in a virtual environment. This article documents challenges and opportunities discussed by members during the open forum conversations. As the MLA membership looks toward the future, themes identified within these discussions can help to guide a path forward as health sciences librarianship continues to adapt to meet the needs of the communities we serve.