Genetics Home Reference: A Review

Genetics Home Reference is a free, online resource created and maintained by the National Library of Medicine. It is designed to provide genetic information to a wide variety of audiences, particularly the general public. The site consists of original information and links to other curated resources

Leveraging Survey Results In Support of a Library Renovation: A Case Study

The Health Sciences Library (HSL) at Stony Brook University along with the School of Medicine were motivated to make improvements in seating and hours based on survey results from an LCME self-study. Preparation for the site visit from the Liaison Committee for Medical Education helped to garner resources and support for this initiative. To meet the evolving needs of the HSL patrons, librarians completed an overdue collection assessment project which allowed for 142 new seats, including newly designed spaces and furnishings. Ongoing assessment of the redesigned space will be conducted to evaluate success and areas for continued improvement

While Most Information Literacy Research Is Included in the Fields of Library Science and Education, a Considerable Amount Is Found in Medicine and Health

A Review of: Aharony, N. (2010). Information literacy in the professional literature: An exploratory analysis. ASLIB Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 62(3), 261-282. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531011046907 Abstract Objective – To describe the published literature on information literacy from 1999-2009. Design – Statistical descriptive analysis and content analysis. Setting – N/A Subjects – 1,970 publications from the Web of Science database. Methods – The Web of Science database was searched using the term “information literacy” in the advanced search under “topic,” and was limited to articles published from 1999-2009. Next, information such as document type, subject areas, authors, source titles, publication years, languages, countries, keywords, and abstracts was collected from each document. A statistical descriptive analysis was conducted using the data. A content analysis was performed on the keywords and abstracts from a sampling of the results. Main Results – Information science/library science and education were the top subject areas of the identified articles, while the third largest subject area was “public, environmental and occupational health.” Nine out of ten journal titles focused on library science, however the journal title containing the second largest number of articles was Patient Education and Counseling. The content analysis revealed that the most common categories for keywords were “miscellaneous,” “health and medicine,” followed by “education.” Conclusion – The results indicated that information literacy research had been published mainly in journals associated with library science and education; however, a considerable amount of literature was published in health and medicine

Essential Evidence Plus

Essential Evidence Plus (EEP) is a point-of-care tool that was created to assist clinicians with evidence-based practice. According to the creators, the database was designed with the work-flow of health care providers in mind in order to facilitate clinical decision making [1]. It contains information on 9,000 common diagnoses and offers access to over 13,000 individual resources [1]. The intended audience is medical doctors, nurses, and any other health care providers that interact directly with patients [1]. EEP can, therefore, also be a valuable tool for pharmacists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and more. In addition, students in the health sciences as well as health sciences librarians can benefit from having access to the information that EEP provides