Literature Search Strategy Week: Len Levin on Understanding and Finding Grey Literature

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness

Building Meaningful Bridges: Collaborations between Students, Faculty, Staff and Librarians

OBJECTIVES: In this short communication, attendees will: 1. Be able to recognize examples of successful collaboration between an academic health sciences library and the medical school curriculum 2. Discover methods to develop similar collaborative initiatives at other medical schools. BACKGROUND: In 2010, the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) introduced a new, integrative curriculum. This curriculum includes a mandatory culminating experience called the Capstone Scholarship and Discovery Course (CSD). The CSD ensures that every graduating student completes an individualized, mentored, scholarly project that builds on their personal passion and medical school experience. Librarians in the Lamar Soutter Library (LSL) have become incorporated into the CSD in ways that capitalize on our research and information management skills. Most mentoring for the CSD occurs within one of five Learning Communities or houses.” A librarian is assigned to each house so that every student has a “personal librarian” to consult as they formulate their hypothesis, conduct their literature review, and design their data management plan. In 2014, the LSL partnered with a 2nd year student to construct an online guide on effective scientific and scholarly writing for the CSD. METHODS: As each student begins their 1st year at UMMS, they are assigned to one of five houses. As they begin their CSD projects in year 1, they are encouraged to meet with their house librarian to develop research and data management plans. Students and faculty have welcomed this collaboration and have sought ways to continue to highlight this unique mentoring relationship. Two such initiatives were the creation of an online scientific writing guide and a video project where librarians discuss the importance of sound research methodologies in CSD projects. REFLECTION: The writing guide, launched at the start of the 2014-15 academic year, is prominently linked from the library\u27s medical student portal. This portal is the third most visited of 46 existing subject guides which gives this content significant exposure going forward. The Lamar Soutter Library continually seeks ways to interact with our student body. This collaborative effort highlights how these relationships continue to be forged

Bibliotherapy: tracing the roots of a moral therapy movement in the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present

Introduction: Hospital libraries, including ones designed for patient use, share a common history with hospitals in the evolution of health care delivery 1. The library as a component of the early “insane asylum” in the United States is well documented, and many had been established by the mid-nineteenth century. While these libraries certainly existed as a means of recreation for asylum patients, this historical communication will demonstrate they also served as a center for “bibliotherapy,” the use of reading as a means of healing

A Meeting of the Minds: Enhancing Collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry through the Institutional Repository

This presentation will provide an overview of an ongoing collaboration between the Lamar Soutter Library and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) to promote faculty research. The Library has a long-standing liaison relationship with the Department of Psychiatry to share information about library collections and services, and to support the department’s teaching, clinical, and research needs. In 2009 the Library formally established a Research and Scholarly Communication Services department, with one librarian overseeing the university’s institutional repository, eScholarship@UMMS. eScholarship@UMMS is a digital archive offering worldwide access to the research and scholarly output of the University of Massachusetts Medical School community. Its goal is to bring together all of the University\u27s research under one umbrella, in full text whenever possible, in order to preserve, promote, and provide access to that research. Important features include usage statistics, optimized indexing in Google and Google Scholar, the opportunity to create a personal researcher page, electronic journal publishing software, RSS feeds and email alerts, and ongoing Library support and administration. The Library leveraged the existing liaison relationship with the Department of Psychiatry to advocate for the use of eScholarship@UMMS as a tool to maximize the readership and impact of faculty scholarship. The Department has proven to be an enthusiastic collaborator. eScholarship@UMMS has been enhanced with new research materials, faculty researcher pages, and the publication of an electronic journal. This project serves as a model for library collaboration with faculty departments to support and preserve faculty research output. Presented at the Association for College and Research Libraries New England Chapter Annual Conference, Creative Collaborations, on May 13, 2011, in Worcester, Mass

Evidence-Based Medicine Instruction in Integrative Medical School Curricula: A Tale of Two Libraries

Background: Many academic health sciences libraries have been moving towards active participation in the curriculum at their institutions.1 At the same time, many medical schools have completed, are working upon or are considering movement to an integrative curriculum, (the melding of basic sciences and clinical learning), based on suggested AAMC competencies.2We will discuss how libraries at two New England medical schools have successfully embraced roles in the their school’s curriculum, which are at different stages of adoption of new integrative curricula. Methods: The teaching of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is an area ripe for collaboration between a medical school and its library. The libraries at both Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) now offer EBM instruction within their medical school curricula. HMS is refining its new integrative curriculum while UMMS is in the planning stages with implementation targeted for AY 2010. Teaching time, location within the curriculum, general content and methods between the programs at these two schools will be examined and compared. Results: UMMS conducts all of its EBM instruction within a traditional 3rd year clerkship format. HMS covers similar content online in a 1st year combined basic science/clinical course. However, the libraries at both institutions have successfully facilitated the incorporation of this important topic into required coursework. Reflection: Reflections on the following themes are included in the poster on: Staff and resources/workload Adding content into a packed curriculum Library expertise In person vs. online instruction Progressive versus single encounter instruction Conclusions: While at different phases of curriculum redesign, the academic libraries at UMMS and HMS have demonstrated the effectiveness of varied methods of teaching Evidence-Based Medicine within a medical school curriculum. 1Burrows, Suzetta, et al. Developing an evidence-based medicine and use of the biomedical literature component as a longitudinal theme of an outcomes-based medical school curriculum: year 1. Journal of the Medical Library Association 91.1 (2003):34-41. 2Association of American Medical Colleges. The Education of Medical Students: Ten Stories of Curriculum Change. New York: Milbank Memorial Funds, 2000. Presented at the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs (NEGEA) Regional Conference on May 2, 2009, in Hershey, Pennsylvania

Dancing Between the Purist and the Practical: Teaching Evidence- Based Medicine in the 3rd Year Family Medicine Clerkship

OBJECTIVE: To teach 3rd year medical students in a Family Medicine rotation the concepts and methods required to practice Evidence-Based Medicine and how to search for that evidence. The course was developed with an emphasis on finding resources and included an extensive epidemiological and statistical component. Using student evaluations, the evolution over five years will be explored. METHODS: The didactic and experimental curriculum was developed with a strict interpretation of search strategies and EBM philosophy and rationale. In 1999, the class contained a detailed component on epidemiology and statistical interpretation of the four clinical study categories (etiology, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis). Following each session, student evaluations were solicited and changes were made to the curriculum based on student feedback and follow-up faculty discussion. Today, a more treatment-centered ethics-based curriculum is taught. While Evidence-Based vocabulary and some statistics such as Absolute Risk and Number Needed to Treat and Harm are included, emphasis is now placed on teaching students to look for good evidence and to use these findings within an effective patient interaction. Collected student evaluations from across the five-year time span will be analyzed to demonstrate the evolutionary steps of the curriculum. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: “More time for searching!” This is always a top comment on student evaluations. Ways to make this happen are consistently being identified and put into practice. As class time is limited, what is taught and how it is taught has become very selective. One recently incorporated tool is the use of a pre-session WebCT-based orientation. Material is always being added within this format to free up class time for more interactive practice. Two other practical content areas that have recently been introduced into the course are a) talking with patients about relative risk and b) understanding bias in the medical literature. The very simple evaluation form remains a device with which to collect further student feedback. The course will continue to be updated as EBM methodologies and outlooks within the medical community change and grow

Building a Literature Review: A Citation Analysis of Medical Educator’s Research Patterns in Balint Group Studies

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes how medical educators search literature, using as an example Balint Groups. Balint Group theory is rooted in psychiatry/psychoanalysis. Drawing from literature on medical educator’s search skills, the authors hypothesize that they have not used a systematic approach in their pre-intervention reviews. Instead, it is expected that researchers use literature conveniently found and readily available. Using a citation analysis, this hypothesis will be explored. METHODS: Balint Groups began in England in 1950s as a means of teaching students and residents “patient-centered” communication skills. In the U.S., it was first adopted in Family Medicine, then later in different specialties. Due to its international and cross-discipline scope, it is hypothesized that searching for existing literature on Balint Groups can pose a challenge to medical educators. In this study, an exhaustive literature review on Balint Groups will be conducted using the MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE and ERIC databases. 334 citations were retrieved. A validated inclusion criteria (Robinson et. al., 2011) will be used to select papers from this cohort of results. The authors will then create a comprehensive list of citations used by the selected papers. The analysis will focus on identifying and examining citation patterns to explore factors such as origin of publication and level of evidence of the most highly cited references. RESULTS: In selecting citations, the authors excluded articles that were a) older than 2003, b) bibliographies only, c) opinion-based letters to the editor (with no citations), and d) meeting abstracts. 112 papers were selected. Citations from these papers were reviewed and Balint-specific citations were selected. The resulting list contained 314 citations, 283 from journal literature and 31 from books. References to primary Balint literature (e.g., books originally published by Michael & Enid Balint who defined Balint Group process) equaled just under 25% of the total citations. The top ten cited journal articles equaled 30% of the total citations. Of these top ten, five were published in the 2000’s, three in the 1990’s and two in the 1980’s. Psychiatry, primary care and doctor-patient relationships where the areas most widely studied using Balint Group practice. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that the hypothesis is correct. Of the 334 total citations retrieved in the initial search, the cited output equals approximately 30% of the available research on Balint Groups. Of this, only 6% is from the top primary resources (Balint-authored books) and top ten cited papers

Identifying the Best Place to Publish Your Evaluation Findings

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness

Today’s Librarian and Building an Evaluation Team

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness

Open Forum (on strategies for advocacy) NAHSL 2013: UMass Medical School’s Experience

Discusses some of the challenges libraries are facing and how the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School is addressing them with an innovative library fellows program