Changing Roles of Health Sciences Librarians: Key Trends

Introduction

As modern technology stimulates increasingly sophisticated and complex electronic innovations, the role of health sciences librarians has continued to adapt and change year after year. Whereas health sciences librarians once served primarily as information keepers, today they serve more as partners, educators, creators, and information managers in a new sense. As Ralph A. Wolff once stated, "forging librarian/faculty partnerships will require new roles for librarians … events within and outside higher education are changing our fundamental conceptions of the library" (Dunn, p. 1). Nothing could be more true. As technology continues to change the way individuals and organizations conduct daily affairs, so too has technology changed the fundamental workings of the library and the roles of librarians.

Health sciences librarians are adopting various changes in response to technologically driven trends that include the need for web design and Internet knowledge. Dunn (1997) suggests that change must occur beginning with the center of higher education's "information enterprises," which for many institutions is its libraries (p. 4). These trends include broad-ranging changes for library staff at every level.

Until recently, most information was stored on paper — whether in the form of books, periodicals, magazines, or other documents — and the librarian's role included managing, preserving, and distributing such materials (Dunn, 1997; Craver, 2002). Health sciences librarians' roles are changing, however, as the ways we select, organize, store, and retrieve information continue to evolve. Rapid advancements in technology have enabled more direct and efficient service and assistance. Trends of the future include emphasizing the selection, access, and subsidizing of information resources, as well as teaching students and faculty to identify, locate, and evaluate information resources using new tools (Dunn, 1997; Craver, 2002).

Changing Roles for Health Sciences Librarians

Librarians may now expect to serve as network administrators, enabling a support structure of information and access to that structure for patrons (Dunn, 1997; Craver, 2002). Librarians' roles may now include teaching and learning activities such as instruction in web use (Dunn, 1997). Librarians are evolving "from an information organizer and provider to an active participant in the research process" (Dunn, p. 7). Their role is to teach users "how to structure research questions, access information and select resources" in multiple formats (Dunn, p. 8). Librarians' roles may also encompass leadership — "facilitating the introduction of new technologies for learning and research" (Dunn, p. 8).

More and more health sciences librarians face new opportunities and can now help define how information and instruction "are communicated to students and faculty" (Dunn, p. 10). Librarians may also serve as counselors, teaching people how to navigate an electronic environment, and act as advisors rather than mere custodians of collections (Dunn, 1997).

Rather than simply collecting, organizing, and storing information, librarians of the future will face new challenges that may include: partnering with specialists to deliver information instruction; designing instructional or educational programs that enable information access; teaching users how to access information; creating "information access tools"; preserving information in multiple formats; and serving as facilitators who introduce information technology (Dunn, p. 11).

Roles specific to health sciences research may include enabling health systems organizations to better utilize and understand health services, designing tools for managing and researching information, and working in collaboration with faculty and staff to understand or discover new information sources and methodologies (NLM, 1999). Health services librarians' roles now include not only improved ability to respond to questions but also the capacity to support and conduct research, and may even include participation on "health services research teams" (NLM, 1999).

The new roles emerging within the health sciences field may require additional education and advanced degrees in areas including distance learning, self-study, and related disciplines (NLM, 1999). Health sciences libraries of the future must work to understand the contexts in which "biomedical and related information emerges and the unique ways of interpreting those environments" (NLM, 1999). This requires an understanding of changing healthcare environments and policy sources (NLM, 1999).

While librarians have traditionally "engaged in organization and arrangement of information collections," today's use of digital collections and accompanying services requires librarians "to function as knowledge navigators" or even "cyberspace organizers" (Young, p. 103). This suggests that digital librarians learn methods for teaching users "customized consultation and interpretation sources" (Young, p. 103). Librarians may also share new roles with educators that include authenticating and validating knowledge resources, particularly those relevant to the health sciences field (Young, 1996).

Trends for health sciences librarians also include requiring librarians to establish standard guidelines for constructing and maintaining a cyber library over time, ensuring a strong foundation comparable to that expected of a conventional library system (Craver, 2002). Cyber libraries, much like traditional libraries, must ensure that users have constant access to reference materials. Librarians' roles may include developing a mission statement, setting specific goals related to their library, and establishing an overall design and maintenance plan (Craver, 2002).

References

Craver, K. W. (2002). Creating cyber libraries: An instructional guide for school library media specialists. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.

Dichev, C. & Dicheva, D. (2004). A framework for concept-based digital course libraries. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 15(4): 347.

Dunn, B. (1997). The academic library in the information age: Changing roles. California State University. Retrieved October 12, 2005, from

Lyman, P. (1996). What is a digital library? Technology, intellectual property and the public interest. Daedalus, 125(4): 1.

NLM. (1999, January). NICHSR introduction to HSR class manual: The librarian's role in HSR. U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved October 10, 2005, from

Nunberg, G. (1998). Will libraries survive? The American Prospect, 41(1): 16.

Pollock, M. & Brown, K. (1998). Learning and transitions in the careers of librarians. IFLA Journal, 24(1): 1. Retrieved October 12, 2005, from

Polly, J. & Cisler, S. (1994, January). Connecting to the global Internet. Library Journal, 119(1): 38.

Weller, A. (1998). Changing roles of health sciences librarians in the electronic environment: Providing instructional programmes, improving access and advancing scientific communication. IFLA Journal, 24(1): 1. Retrieved October 12, 2005, from

Young, P. R. (1996). Librarianship: A changing profession. Daedalus, 125(4): 103.