Changing the Conversation from Avoiding Predatory Journals to Finding and Evaluating the Right Journal

Objective: Predatory publishing is a trending topic in academia. Librarians all over are having conversations with faculty on how to steer clear of predatory publishers. But helping avoid predatory journals doesn’t meet the goal of having an article published. Now is the time to explore changing the conversation from predatory publishing to finding and evaluating the right journal. Methods: Last year librarians went to departmental meetings to present a cautionary tale of the predatory publisher. Outlandish emails from predatory journals were shared, along with what to look for when determining whether or not a journal publisher is legitimate. But just knowing how to steer clear of the predators did not answer the question, “Which journal should I publish in?” To help faculty answer this question, the library held two hands on workshops for faculty, staff and residents. Librarians taught participants how to determine their goals and criteria for publishing, how to compare their article to the aim and scope of a journal and make a determination on whether or not the journal was the right fit for them. As participants answered the questions on the worksheet they built a list of criteria for selecting the right journal for their article. Results: Participants were able to find and evaluate journals for their manuscripts, while still steering clear of predatory publishers. Conclusions: In the “publish or perish” era, it is important for faculty members to publish in reputable journals, but it is equally important for them to find the best journal to meet their publishing goals. Librarians can move the conversation beyond predatory journals by giving faculty the tools and skills they need to find and evaluate the right journal

Keeping Up with Trends in Your Library: Simple and Speedy Ways to Assess Users’ Needs

Objective: To find simple, fast, and easy ways to assess library users’ needs and to get real-time responses in order to shorten the interval between deploying surveys, gathering responses and implementation of solutions. In the past the library employed email surveys to assess user needs but the process was inefficient and ineffective due to low response rates and time spent creating online surveys. Methods: The library team began using paper “micro-assessments” to understand users’ needs. Short paper surveys of no more than five questions, were deployed at three different times throughout the academic year: (1) Medical students were handed surveys during one of the library’s weekly events about their use of library-issued iPads; (2) Surveys were left on each study space in the library quiet room over the course of one week asking about students’ opinions on food being allowed in the library quiet room; (3) Faculty were handed surveys during departmental meetings to assess their interest in scholarly publishing topics. Completed surveys were collected and results were tabulated the same day. Results: Results of the student iPad micro-assessment helped librarians understand students’ use of library-issued iPads. Feedback from the second student survey informed policy decisions in regards to allowing food in the library quiet room. Finally, results of the faculty micro-assessments led to the development of short presentations on scholarly communication topics, delivered by librarians during faculty departmental meetings, as well as one-on-one EndNote training sessions and a Getting Published Workshop

Creating a Medical Library Terms Taxonomy for Citation Analysis

Objective: To create a medical library terms taxonomy in order to find trends in the medical library literature. In order to explore trends in scholarly publishing by health sciences librarians in the last five years, we endeavored to examine keywords used in articles published in four health sciences library journals during this time. From our initial review we determined that: author-created keywords are not always based on a controlled vocabulary; MeSH subheadings do not include terms unique to the library field; and Library of Congress taxonomy is too broad. Thus, it was necessary to create a taxonomy by grouping similar keywords into categories in order to accurately identify trends. Methods: Citations from four health sciences library journals from 2016-2020 were exported from PubMed and EBSCO Academic Search Premier into EndNote X9. Keywords from all citations were exported from EndNote as a text file and then imported into Microsoft Excel. Pivot tables were used to determine the number of times each keyword was used and to aggregate identical keywords. A team of six librarians with a variety of skill sets and backgrounds reviewed each keyword to determine how to categorize and group terms to create a taxonomy. Results: 8,806 keywords from the journals were downloaded into spreadsheets and aggregated. Pivot tables were used to combine identical terms resulting in 2,801 unique keywords which are currently being categorized to complete the taxonomy. Conclusion: While choosing keywords without use of a controlled vocabulary when submitting a manuscript allows for flexibility and customization, and might result in better retrieval during natural language searching, what we discovered through this project is that choosing keywords without the use of a controlled vocabulary makes it difficult to see trends and to conduct a bibliometric analysis

Themes in Health Sciences Librarianship Literature, 2016-2020: A Keyword and Subject Analysis

Previous investigations into trends in Library and Information Science (LIS) literature have revealed changes in the topics librarians publish on over time, with older studies highlighting classification and indexing, and information retrieval and more recent studies highlighting keywords such as internet, information technology, digital libraries, and again, information retrieval. No similar investigation has been conducted on current publication trends by health sciences librarians. This study analyzes the top themes on which health sciences librarians published from 2016 to 2020 by examining the frequency of keywords. Keywords and subject headings were analyzed from The Journal of the Medical Library Association, Medical References Services Quarterly, The Journal of Hospital Librarianship, and The Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries. A total of 8,806 keywords were downloaded for analysis and organized into 292 categories during taxonomy creation. The ten most frequent themes were: libraries, information, education, humans, demography, librarian, geographical locations, research, electronic resources, and technology. The study also found that data, psychiatry and psychology, informatics, and publishing were other key themes, indicating that health sciences librarians are publishing on a wide range of topics. Some keywords that appeared only once, such as telecommuting and flexible staffing, suggest emerging areas of research for librarians

When One Library Door Closes, Another Virtual One Opens: A Team Response to the Remote Library

The University of Central Florida Health Sciences Library is a digital library with 98% of resources being electronic and available online. Though almost all aspects of the library’s operations were impacted by the closing of the physical space during the coronavirus pandemic, being a digital library helped the library team transition quickly to remote reference, programming and instruction services

The True Benefit Of Faculty Status For Academic Reference Librarians

Faculty status means having the same privileges of rank, promotion, tenure, compensation, leaves, and research funds as other faculty. Arguments against faculty status include that focusing on status detracts from librarians\u27 mission of providing access to information; that the rigorous requirements of faculty status are not something that librarians are prepared or qualified to pursue; and that good librarians would be just as good without faculty status. These arguments can also be used in favor of faculty status, especially as it relates to increasing the quantity and quality of library and information science literature and contributions by academic librarians. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Specialized Librarianship

This panel will address the unique aspects of working in a Law or Medical library

A Practical Guide to Scholarly Activity for Health Sciences Librarians

This guide to scholarly activities provides early- and mid-career health sciences librarians with a path to immersing in scholarly activities. The four levels walk librarians through increasing stages of scholarship. Early-career librarians will begin at the first level, navigating from discovering mentors and areas of research interest to level two, publishing a resource or book review and finding their first public speaking opportunity. More experienced librarians will find where they are on the path and continue to build their scholarship all the way to conducting and publishing original research and becoming leaders in their field

Data Set: Themes in Health Sciences Librarianship Literature, 2016-2020: A Keyword and Subject Analysis

Data set for Themes in Health Sciences Librarianship Literature, 2016-2020: A Keyword and Subject Analysis