The role of subject knowledge in academic health sciences librarianship May 16, 2006 Erin Watson Health Sciences Library University of Saskatchewan

Methodology 2004 web survey: 94 Canadian librarians - 32% response rate 2006 web survey: 711 American librarians – 21.7% response rate Difficult to identify prospective participants

Who were the respondents? More than half (63.4% Canada; 58.9% U.S.) had more than 10 years experience In , 66.7% of Canadian and American health sciences librarians had more than 10 years of experience 1 1 Annual Statistics of Medical School Libraries in U.S. and Canada

Percentage of respondents by primary job responsibility/ies CanadianU.S. Administration Cataloguing Collection Development ILL Reference User Education

Job responsibilities Canada: Non-typical duties combined with reference, administration, etc. U.S.: more non-typical health sciences librarians: systems librarians, records managers and informationists

Degrees held Canada: 6.7% with health science degree U.S.: 11.7% with health sciences degree; 1.3% with diploma

Importance of Health Sciences Degree Canada: 30.0% felt it was very or somewhat important U.S.: 50.0% felt it was very or somewhat important

Importance of other areas Many respondents felt computer science/technology, administration, statistics/research methods, basic sciences, education, liberal arts were as important Several U.S. respondents mentioned importance of M.L.I.S.

Keeping up with Literature Canada: 93.3% felt that keeping up with the health sciences literature was very or somewhat important U.S.: 80% felt the same

Top 3 ways to become informed Ranking of activity as “very useful” Canada: professional organizations (46.7%); web sites (43.3%); journals (39%) U.S.: professional organizations (40%); websites (39%); journals (39%)

Professional Associations Canada: 90% CHLA members; 36.7% MLA U.S.: 89.2% MLA members U.S.: 37.5% members of AHIP; Canada: 3.3% Many respondents were members of local associations

Web sites Difference between self-education and searches for patrons? Canada: PubMed, CINAHL, news and consumer health sites U.S.: Medlineplus, news sites and PubMed

Most popular journals Canada – CMAJ (53.3%); JAMA (53.3%); BMJ (50%); NEJM (50%) None=30% U.S. – JAMA (48%); NEJM (45.3%); BMJ (25.7%) Science (26.4%); None=35.8% Many U.S. respondents mentioned RSS and TOC alerting

Discussion Lists Canada: 70% CANMEDLIB; Medlib-L 36.7% 33.3% said very useful U.S. – 45.9% MEDLIB-L 28% said very useful

Independent study Canada: 33.3% very useful U.S.: 28% very useful

University courses Canada: 3.3% (1 respondent) was taking a class at the time of the survey 25% said very useful U.S. 3.3% were taking courses at time of the survey 18% said very useful

TV and Radio Canada: 13.3% said very useful Top shows: Quirks and Quarks (33.3%), Nature of Things (23.3%) U.S.: 10% said very useful Top shows: NOVA (37.3%), NPR shows, especially Science Friday (18.1%) « Fun » shows also educational?

Average Time Spent per week Canada: 6.0 hours U.S.: 4.4 hours Large range for both

Other Useful activities Top “other” ways to become informed: -Reference questions -Talking to users -Lectures, workshops and conferences (for librarians or for health professionals) -Following the news

Why is degree not valued more? Librarians not aware of how much health sciences would help them? Degree goes out of date quickly? Health sciences are too varied?

Conclusions/Implications Continuing education, although not necessarily degree studies, remains important Professional organisations play an important part What role does subject knowledge play in user perceptions of librarians?