Journal of the Medical Library Association

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the Medical Library Association: a look back at the last twenty-five years

JJ Pionke — 2024-07-29

Over the past twenty-five years, the Medical Library Association (MLA) has pursued a range of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This article, written by members of the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA)’s Equity Advisory Group (EAG), outlines significant measures taken to raise awareness about specific concepts, opportunities, and challenges related to DEI among MLA members. Topics discussed include the impact of influential Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) leaders, the establishment of DEI and social justice-focused membership communities, and specific initiatives led by various working groups and committees which have served to strengthen MLA’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion during the last three decades.

Twenty-five years of Medical Library Association competencies and communities

Stephanie Fulton — 2024-07-29

Professional associations provide resources to support members' career development and facilitate ways for members to engage with and learn from one another. This article describes Medical Library Association (MLA) activities related to the revision of professional competencies and the restructuring of the organization's communities during the past twenty-five years. Grounded in MLA's Platform for Change, the MLA competency statement underwent two revisions with core themes remaining consistent. Major efforts went into rethinking the structure of MLA communities, and it became a strategic goal of the association. Numerous groups spent considerable time guiding the changes in MLA's community structure. Sections and special interest groups were transformed into caucuses. Domain hubs were established to facilitate project coordination across caucuses and create more leadership opportunities for MLA members, but their implementation did not meet expectations. Member engagement and leadership are ongoing challenges for MLA. The next twenty-five years will undoubtedly see additional revisions to the competencies and continued iterations of the community structure.

Using expert knowledge and peer review to create a reproducible process for the NAHRS Nursing Essential Resources List (NNERL)

Rebecca Raszewski — 2025-01-14

Background: Librarians have relied on resource lists for developing nursing collections, but these lists are usually in static or subscription-based formats. An example of this is the 26th edition of the Essential Nursing Resources last published in 2012. The Nursing and Allied Health Resources and Services (NAHRS) Caucus Nursing Essential Resources List (NNERL) Task Force has been working on a new list since Fall 2020. The goal of the Task Force is to create a nursing resource list that represents current materials and formats, uses a selection process that is transparent and reproducible, and will be available to a broad audience.

Case Presentation: Working from the Essential Nursing Resources 26th edition, the NNERL Task Force updated the purpose statement then began reviewing the resources on the list. Two working groups were formed: 1) an evaluation rubric working group developed a tool to evaluate the resources and 2) a tagging work group developed guidelines for creating metadata and “tags.” Volunteers were recruited from the NAHRS Caucus to tag the resources. Lastly, the Task Force finalized the list of resources in the NNERL then cleaned and reconciled the data.

Conclusions: The final version of the NNERL will be published in Airtable, a cloud-based project management product, that will include metadata for every item on the list. The NNERL will be copyrighted to the NAHRS NNERL Task Force and made available through the Open Science Framework (OSF) under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons License.

A scoping review of librarian involvement in competency-based medical education

John W. Cyrus — 2025-01-14

Objective: A scoping review was undertaken to understand the extent of literature on librarian involvement in competency-based medical education (CBME).

Methods: We followed Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines. A search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted on December 31, 2022, in Medline, Embase, ERIC, CINAHL Complete, SCOPUS, LISS, LLIS, and LISTA. Studies were included if they described librarian involvement in the planning, delivery, or assessment of CBME in an LCME-accredited medical school and were published in English. Outcomes included characteristics of the inventions (duration, librarian role, content covered) and of the outcomes and measures (level on Kirkpatrick Model of Training Evaluation, direction of findings, measure used).

Results: Fifty studies were included of 11,051 screened: 46 empirical studies or program evaluations and four literature reviews. Studies were published in eight journals with two-thirds published after 2010. Duration of the intervention ranged from 30 minutes to a semester long. Librarians served as collaborators, leaders, curriculum designers, and evaluators. Studies primarily covered asking clinical questions and finding information and most often assessed reaction or learning outcomes.

Conclusions: A solid base of literature on librarian involvement in CBME exists; however, few studies measure user behavior or use validated outcomes measures. When librarians are communicating their value to stakeholders, having evidence for the contributions of librarians is essential. Existing publications may not capture the extent of work done in this area. Additional research is needed to quantify the impact of librarian involvement in competency-based medical education.

Making an impact: the new 2024 Medical Library Association research agenda

Marie T. Ascher — 2025-01-14

Objective: This research project sought to identify those subject areas that leaders and researcher members of the Medical Library Association (MLA) determined to be of greatest importance for research investigation. It updates two previous studies conducted in 2008 and 2011.

Methods: The project involved a three-step Delphi process aimed at collecting the most important and researchable questions facing the health sciences librarianship profession. First, 495 MLA leaders were asked to submit questions answerable by known research methods. Submitted questions could not exceed 50 words in length. There were 130 viable, unique questions submitted by MLA leaders. Second, the authors asked 200 eligible MLA-member researchers to select the five (5) most important and answerable questions from the list of 130 questions. Third, the same 130 MLA leaders who initially submitted questions were asked to select their top five (5) most important and answerable questions from the 36 top-ranked questions identified by the researchers.

Results: The final 15 questions resulting from the three phases of the study will serve as the next priorities of the MLA Research Agenda. The authors will be facilitating the organization of teams of volunteers wishing to conduct research studies related to these identified top 15 research questions.

Conclusion: The new 2024 MLA Research Agenda will enable the health information professions to allocate scarce resources toward high-yield research studies. The Agenda could be used by journal editors and annual meeting organizers to prioritize submissions for research communications. The Agenda will provide aspiring researchers with some starting points and justification for pursuing research projects on these questions.

The evolution of our profession and association from 1998-2023: reflections from four Medical Library Association leaders

Kristine Alpi — 2024-07-29

On the occasion of the Medical Library Association’s 125th Anniversary, four librarian leaders with a combined 105 years of engagement in MLA collaborated to reflect on the changes in our profession and our association. We draw on an examination of the last 25 years of the MLA Janet Doe Lectures, our own personal histories, and scholarship we produced for MLA publications and presentations. We offer this compilation as an invitation for readers to reflect on their experiences of changes within the profession, inspiration to engage in the issues around our place in society, and a source for additional exploration into researching and learning from our collective history.

Standing up for representation in undergraduate medical education curricula through medical student, librarian, and faculty collaboration: a case report

Ellen M. Hong — 2024-10-07

Background: A shortage of images of pathology on diverse skin tones has been recognized for decades in health professions education. Identifying skin manifestations of disease depends on pattern recognition, which is difficult without visual examples. Lack of familiarity with visual diagnosis on skin of color can lead to delayed or missed diagnoses with increased morbidity and mortality. As the United States continues to increase in ethnic and racial diversity, addressing the disparity in health outcomes with education is vital.

Case Presentation: At the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, students, librarians, and faculty came together to address this problem and develop a database of dermatological conditions in people with darker skin tones. A student group initiated a series of meetings with faculty to determine the best approach to address and enhance the representation of diversity in disease images within the curriculum. With the guidance of faculty and librarians, students performed a literature search and created a database of images of skin pathologies in people with darker skin tones. The database was disseminated to course directors and lecturers, and the noted disparities were corrected for the next cohort of students. The database provides an easily accessible resource for creating lecture slides.

Conclusion: This project brought awareness of the need for inclusivity and generated a broad review of the curriculum to be more representative of all patient populations. Most importantly, our experience provides a roadmap for institutional change through student, librarian and faculty collaboration and cultivation of a culture of optimism and acceptance.

Algorithmic indexing in MEDLINE frequently overlooks important concepts and may compromise literature search results

Alexandre Amar-Zifkin — 2025-01-14

Objective: To evaluate the appropriateness of indexing of algorithmically-indexed MEDLINE records.

Methods: We assessed the conceptual appropriateness of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used to index a sample of MEDLINE records from February and March 2023. Indexing was performed by the Medical Text Indexer-Auto (MTIA) algorithm. The primary outcome measure is the number of records for which the MTIA algorithm assigned subject headings that represented the main concepts of the publication.

Results: Fifty-three percent of screened records had indexing that represented the main concepts discussed in the article; 47% had inadequacies in the indexing which could impact their retrieval. Three main issues with algorithmically-indexed records were identified: 1) inappropriate MeSH assigned due to acronyms, evocative language, exclusions of populations, or related records; 2) concepts represented by more general MeSH while a more precise MeSH is available; and 3) a significant concept not represented in the indexing at all. We also noted records with inappropriate combinations of headings and subheadings, even when the headings and subheadings on their own were appropriate.

Conclusions: The indexing performed by the February-March 2023 calibration of the MTIA algorithm, as well as older calibrations, frequently applied irrelevant or imprecise terms to publications while neglecting to apply relevant terms. As a consequence, relevant publications may be omitted from search results and irrelevant ones may be retrieved. Evaluations and revisions of indexing algorithms should strive to ensure that relevant, accurate and precise MeSH terms are applied to MEDLINE records.