Sharing inter-faculty teaching experiences for improved training in information literacy

audience: researcher, professiona

Conservation partagée entre les bibliothèques universitaires de la Communauté française de Belgique - Témoignage, bilan et perspective

Groupe de Travail pour la Conservation Partagée des Périodiques (GT-CPP

Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine

At the University of Liege, the medical library recently merged with several entities including the libraries of Zoology, Botany, Psychology and Veterinary Medicine. Everywhere, the librarians are involved in teaching activities and users training programs are rather well developped in every field. But the comparison of the curriculum contents points to a few amazing differences. The most surprising one is the approach of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). The concept is well introduced in the medical community and it is a legal obligation for the medical students to be thaught in and to practice EBM. Surprisingly, the veterinarians don't seem very interested. Besides its impact on clinical practice, EBM is a good opportunity to create new habits that are valuable for continuing education and to develop critical appraisal skills. Thus, we wish to analyze the reasons that might explain why EBM seems to be left aside at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Two approaches are envisionned. First, we plan to ask the Faculty itself about its position regarding the concept. Surveys and interviews will be conducted, distinguishing between the general practitionners, the researchers and the teaching staff. On the other hand, an in depth analysis will be conducted regarding the media available at the veterinary library. Are they suited to the practice of EBM? If not, which additional tools should be purchased ? At the end of the process, we expect to be able to adapt the content of the training sessions we offer to library users and possibly to improve the collaboration with the veterinary teaching staff

Placing the academic library at the center of veterinary PhD students' training

For several years academic librairies have been actively involved in information literacy instruction. However, the required competences are different for PhD students and in the case of the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Liège (Belgium), good Faculty-Librarian collaborations have been developed. Specific targeted courses and training sessions concerning information literacy have been officially incorporated in the PhD curriculum, with the main objective being to help PhD students to be autonomous and efficient in the elaboration of scientific publications, an essential stage of their scientific career

Large group teaching: the distance learning solution?

Problem-based learning has been introduced at the University of Liège for four years now. The medical library was committed with the organisation of different activities (60 hours/2 years), starting with the control of basic computer litteracy, continuing with an analysis of the structure of the different document types used for scientific communication as well as the discovery of both traditional and electronic medical libraries, to end with guidelines for information retrieval. Such courses requested new approaches and several difficulties had to be taken into consideration including : 1. The transfer of skills rather than kowledge. Some theoretical bases have to be taught before practicing. But the students mostly need to be challenged with different situations requesting different approaches of litterature searching. 2. The course is given before the students feel the need of it. The librarians enconter the students during the first semester of the second year before the students are asked to search the medical litterature to build their own knowledge about clinical matters. 3. The absence of motivation. Second year medical students are focused on major courses in basic and preclinical sciences. 4. Large group teaching (n ≥ 300). All the sections of the medical Faculty are concerned. 5. Inadequate logistic support. Small sized computer rooms do not allow the organization of very many parallel hand-on sessions. 6. Insufficient teaching staffs. Distance learning tools were used to develope online activities complementary to face to face teaching. They are focused on practice. Links to the theory are provided but only when they are indispensable. Many quizzes are also proposed in order to trigger critical mind and auto-evaluation. By January 2005, a first cycle will be completed from the beginning of the course to the final examination. We plan to survey students from every section in order to evaluate the impact of this new teaching strategy. Their observations will be reported as well as our conclusions and suggestions for possible improvements

Merging academic libraries: An opportunity for a face-lift?

Although the decision to merge libraries generates stress, it is also a great opportunity to start a global reflection on the functioning of libraries. In 2003, the University of Liège decided to create a new physical and functional structure by combining the previously independent libraries of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Botany, Zoology, Psychology and Educational Sciences. The initial phase included a plan to remove the collections and standardise the academic teaching of IT literacy in the various disciplines. We now want to question our missions and evaluate our present working procedures in order to optimise our services, eventually develop new ones, and make them visible through a new website or any other types of support. The different populations of users need to be clearly identified, evaluated and anticipated. Staff competences must be evaluated to guarantee that users' expectations are met, and possibly to envisage any new services that may need to be created. In addition, staff competences must be improved through adapted education and tailored professional training. At the same time, the library involvement in academic teaching deserves to be properly highlighted. We are aware that there is not anything new in such an approach, but the pieces of evidence are scattered, outdated or not adapted to our present situation. As a consequence, we propose an overview of the literature concerning the marketing of academic libraries, conducted according to the principles of Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice. We shall select the most important publications providing strong theoretical support, and we shall collect existing tools, evaluation grids and procedure rules that might be useful during any step of the project. We shall organise them into a structured and pragmatic working strategy that could be used by any library interested in a marketing approach. It should integrate the different topics previously mentioned such as the library’s missions, the evaluation and optimisation of services, as well as the visibility of the teaching activities and the professional education programmes developed by academic libraries

Vaginal delivery: how does early hospital discharge affect mother and child outcomes? A systematic literature review

Abstract Background There is an international trend to shorten the postpartum length of stay in hospitals, driven by cost containment, hospital bed availability and a movement toward the ‘demedicalization’ of birth. The aim of this systematic literature review is to determine how early postnatal discharge policies from hospitals could affect health outcomes after vaginal delivery for healthy mothers and term newborns. Methods A search for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and primary studies was carried out in OVID MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Econlit and the Cochrane Library (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, DARE and HTA databases). The AMSTAR checklist was used for the quality appraisal of systematic reviews. The quality of the retrieved studies was assessed by the Cochrane Collaboration’s tools. The level of evidence was appraised using the GRADE system. Results Seven RCTs and two additional observational studies were found but no comprehensive economic evaluation. Despite variation in the definition of early discharge, the authors of the included studies, concerning early discharge and conventional length of stay, reported no statistical difference in maternal and neonatal morbidity, maternal and neonatal readmission rates, infant mortality, newborn weight gain, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, or breastfeeding rates. The authors reported conflicting results regarding postpartum depression and competence of mothering, ranging from no difference according to length of stay to better results for early discharge. The level of evidence of the vast majority of outcomes was rated as low to very low. Conclusions Because of the lack of robust clinical evidence and full economic evaluations, the current data neither support nor discourage the widespread use of early postpartum discharge. Before implementing an early discharge policy, Western countries with longer length of hospital stay may benefit from testing shorter length of stay in studies with an appropriate design. The issue of cost containment in implementing early discharge and the potential impact on the current and future health of the population exemplifies the need for publicly funded clinical trials in such public health area. Finally, trials testing the range of out-patient interventions supporting early discharge are needed in Western countries which implemented early discharge policies in the past