Professionals providing quality information for improved health. spacer

 

Introducing MLA's Online Bootcamp for New Health Sciences Librarians Online Bootcamp for HSL

The following courses are intended to provide a core curriculum for the competencies required of beginning health sciences librarians. The courses selected for this Boot Camp curriculum match MLA's Professional Competencies and are available through distance education or a self-paced tutorial. Most courses offer MLA CE contact hours upon completion.

This curriculum can be a guide to enhance knowledge and skills for:

  • Recent library school graduates who are interested in positions in health sciences libraries
  • Librarians transitioning into positions in health sciences libraries


MLA's Professional Competencies and corresponding courses

Health Sciences Environment and Information Policies
Health sciences librarians and information professionals must understand the contexts in which the need for bioscience and health sciences–related information emerges and the unique ways of perceiving and interpreting those environments. In addition, health information professionals should be aware of issues and trends that impact the purpose, programs, policies, and activities of the government entities and other institutions that shape health care in the particular country in which they reside.
  • Scholarly Publishing and Open Access: Straight Talk
    The program will introduce significant models of scholarly publishing and explore the impact of open access on libraries and authors. The Webcast was held November 2007 and available for purchase through the MLA online store.

 

Leadership and Management
Health information professionals effectively weave library and information science principles into the fabric of complex institutional environments. They also establish and sustain viable operations and relevant services for information resource centers. This requires specialized knowledge, skill, and understanding of leadership, finance, communication, and management.
  • Change Management and Leadership for Medical Librarians
    This program addresses the needs of both the medical library change agent and those asked to implement the changes. Topics include: understanding the five roles, typical mistakes and how to prevent and fix them, what is changing in medical libraries, eight characteristics of people who cope well with change, nine causes of stress, conceptual tools and models, case studies and knowing when change is not the answer. This is a facilitated, online class, which lasts five weeks.
  • Everyday Leadership for Medical Librarians
    Learn how to identify and improve your leadership skills, no matter what your current role is in your medical library or institution. Through a series of interactive writing exercises and online group discussions, you will discover how to better identify and overcome barriers to success with staff, colleagues, decision-makers, and your medical library's users. Topics include the differences among leadership, management and professional points of view, the characteristics of everyday leadership, dealing with risk, understanding the big picture, creating and communicating vision, ethical influence, applying leadership in workplace situations, mistakes in leadership, and how to break through self-created glass walls and ceilings. This is a self-paced, online class, which lasts one month.
  • Survival of the Fittest; Strategies to Prove Your Library's Value
    This program will help you understand the library's value in the larger organization mission of the organization, strengthen knowledge of tools that can be used to assess library users and stakeholders, and craft promotion strategies and programs. The Webcast was held March 2007 and available for purchase through the MLA online store.

 

Health Sciences Information Services
Health sciences librarians require knowledge of the content of information resources and skills in using them. They must understand the principles and practices related to providing information to meet specific user needs and to ensure convenient access to information in all forms.
  • Making PubMed Work for You
    This class is intended to hone basic searching techniques and the ability to develop search strategies that will take advantage of the PubMed interface to MEDLINE. The course will explore various methods for searching the PubMed system. Topics covered include using MeSH and search qualifiers, limiting search results, and refining your search. This course will provide an in-depth view of the system and demonstrate utilizing the features of PubMed to search effectively; 3 week class via Moodle.
  • Expert Searching for Evidence Based Nursing
    If you work with nursing faculty & students and/or nurse managers & staff, this course will help you develop your search skills, so that you can improve search services for these groups. In addition to databases and searching, it includes discussion of teaching and collaboration skills. The course includes a model for evidence based searching, overview of nursing terminology, and practice searching MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Mosby's Index.
  • Evidenced-based Practice in the Health Sciences Tutorials
    The Evidence-based Practice (EBP) tutorials are tailored to five health science disciplines: applied health, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Each tutorial consists of five instructional modules, covering topics such as the research design, searching the literature, and evaluating the quality of research. These tutorials are intended for those first learning about EBP as well as those looking to review EBP concepts and strategies.
  • EBM and the Medical Librarian
    This course is an introduction for medical librarians to evidence-based medicine (EBM) and the role the librarian can play in its practice. Participants will learn to identify the parts of a well built clinical question and be able to judge the validity of studies, and ascertain the roles librarians can undertake in providing EBM training and support. Offered twice a year; uses Blackboard.
  • Prescription for Information: Addressing Health Information Literacy!
    This tutorial is for health care providers and emphasizes the importance of health literacy and the challenges patients face in understanding medical terminology. It also helps participants recognize the impact that low health literacy has on patient care and learn about health information resources and strategies available to them and their patients. The tutorial also describes health literacy services provided by medical librarians.
  • Planning and Managing the Consumer Library
    Focus on planning and managing issues related to providing consumer health services or operating a consumer health library. Learn about needs assessment, costs and funding, business plans, volunteer and paid staffing, collection development, policy development, and public relations. It is available as a three-week Web-based asynchronous class via Moodle.

 

Health Sciences Resource Management
Health sciences librarians manage resources in a broad range of formats. As technologies continue to evolve, this necessitates management of the latest digital products as well as primary and clinical research data sets.
  • Electronic Collection Development for Health and Medicine E-Libraries
    Students will focus on one developing a collection plan for one library patron group of their choice, for the kind of library they work in (e.g., hospital, medical center, medical school, allied health programs, public libraries, academic libraries, other special libraries, etc.) Participants will end the course with a good draft electronic library collection development plan.
  • Tips for Negotiating Electronic Licenses
    This program will provide participants with useful tips for negotiating electronic licensing agreements and will include tips about multisite licenses, number of users, fair use, performance standard clauses, post-termination access, archival rights, and more. Originally held in January 2005 and now available through MLA's online store.

 

Information Systems and Technology
Ongoing developments in technology reshape the goals and systems of health sciences librarianship and change the way information professionals function. Although required proficiency levels vary across specializations in the field, health sciences librarians must be able to understand and use technology and systems to manage all forms of information and must maintain awareness of information technology trends. They must master basic technology skills as well as their practical application.
  • Geeks Bearing Gifts: Unwrapping New Technology Trends
    Participants will be able to identify technology trends and they will understand how these trends will impact or can be integrated into traditional library services. Course structure will include brief vignettes and demonstrations of a wide variety of technologies. Some of the topics to be covered include RSS, spyware, developments in mobile computing, blogs and wikis, social bookmarking, radio-frequency identification, and more.

 

Curriculum Design and Instruction
An essential responsibility of the health sciences librarian is to teach ways to access, organize, and use information to solve problems. Health information professionals collaborate with other educators in health sciences curriculum design and delivery as well as offer stand-alone experiences. Effective instruction entails not only knowledge of the structure and content of the specific courses being taught and the technologies used to teach them.
  • Instructional Design for Web-based Teaching and Learning
    Overview in this four topic hands-on course the intellectual focus will be on using good instructional design and Web page design principles. Participants will also be introduced to Web-based Teaching techniques and materials using standard Web pages and the Moodle LMS. This course requires a significant amount of hands-on learning-activities, project work, and readings. This work will result in a completed instructional design plan for an instructional unit - course/workshop/tutorial - of the participant's choice for a learner group of their choice with teacher guidance and approval.
  • Designing Web-based Continuing Education
    This web-based tutorial is designed to take you through the process of formatting your continuing education (CE) content for delivery via the Web. The tutorial is intended for current continuing education instructors who already have an understanding of teaching and adult learning principles.

 

Research, Analysis, and Interpretation
All health information professionals use published research either to provide information services to end users or to improve their practice as librarians. In either case, they need to retrieve, analyze, and appraise research literature. Some will also contribute to the knowledgebase of the profession by conducting original research and writing review articles. Whether using the published research of others or reporting their own findings, health information professionals require a core set of knowledge and abilities.
  • Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP)
    This course stresses the practical applications of the EBLIP process including question formulation, searching for the evidence, and appraising the evidence in order to make important decisions. You will design your own solutions for answering the questions that matter most to you.
  • Demonstrating Value: Can Journals Compete with Mouse Cages in Institutional Budgets?
    Services and programs of academic health sciences libraries impact student learning, academic performance, researcher productivity, and the effectiveness of faculty instruction. A library's commitment to practical, user-centered assessment and data-driven decision-making positions it for competitive advantage. Will you be prepared with the right data when a budget administrator asks, "How do I decide between journals for the library and mouse cages for the research program?"

 

 

For more information, contact Debra Cavanaugh, mlapd3@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x32.

 

 

 

                 Thanks to our MLANET sponsors!

Thanks to Rittenhouse for their sponsorship of MLANET.

Your donations help sponsor MLA's grants, scholarships, and awards. Give today!

Order your Medspeak in Plain Language brochures today

                 Thanks to our MLANET sponsors!