From Clinical Librarian to Informationist

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From Clinical Librarian to Informationist

• T. Scott Plutchak
• Editor, Journal of the Medical Library
  Association
• Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health
  Sciences
• September 8, 2004
• Belfast

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The Bishop LeFanu Memorial Lecture

• William J. Bishop (1903-1961)
• William R. LeFanu (1904-1995)

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Clinical Librarianship

• Concept formulated by Gertrude Lamb in the 1970s
• University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1971
• Numerous programs in the US, Canada, Australia,
  the UK
• Clinical Librarian Conference, March 2002

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Clinical librarians

• The review of the actual journal article for its
  appropriateness sets the clinical librarian apart
  from a library service that provides a
  bibliography or a list of citations in response
  to a question. (Arcari Lamb, 1977)

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Systematic reviews

• Winning MA, Beverley CA. Clinical
  librarianship a systematic review of the
  literature. HILJ. Jun 200320(S1)10-21.
• Wagner KC, Byrd GD. Evaluating the effectiveness
  of clinical medical librarian programs a
  systematic review of the literature. JMLA. Jan
  200492(1)14-33.

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The Informationist A New Profession? Davidoff
Florance, Annals of Internal Medicine, June 2000

• Why should a program with such obvious promise
  remain so marginal?

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Informationist must

• have a clear and solid understanding of both
  information science and the essentials of
  clinical work
• have the practical, working skills of
  retrieving, synthesizing, and presenting medical
  information and the skills of functioning in a
  clinical care team

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Informationists must

• come from training programs that are accredited,
  and graduates of those programs must be certified
  
• answer directly to clinical directors and chiefs
  of staff, and their services should be paid for
  directly, as is done for other health care
  providers

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Reactions

• Editorial Symposium in JMLA
• Informationist Conference at NLM
• Much positive and negative comment within the
  library community
• Little response at all from the medical community

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The Informationist Conference

• Facilitate a national discussion
• Derive a consensus definition
• Develop recommendations for an action agenda

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Conference conclusions

• Informationist concept meets a critical need
• We need successful and visible model projects
• Creating model programs requires creating
  awareness, acceptance, and commitment among
  funding agencies

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The Information Specialist in Context

• Research roles
• Identify models
• Identify funding opportunities
• Seek partnerships
• Contract by the Medical Library Association
• Eskind Library at Vanderbilt University

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Working definition

• Individuals with thorough background knowledge in
  clinical medicine, laboratory research, public
  health, or other healthcare/research specialty
  who are also versed in research methodology,
  critical appraisal of literature, and information
  seeking
• ISICs may come from numerous professions library
  and information science, informatics, pharmacy,
  nursing, etc.

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ISIC Study

• Open forums and focus groups
• Online survey at
• http//www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/isic/
• Status report due in May 2005

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Where does this leave us?

• What kind of training is required to be effective
  as we explore new roles?
• Does the ISIC model describe the future of
  librarianship?
• Will there continue to be a place for
  generalist librarians?

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Whats in a word?

• In my professional heart, I hope their
  information-providing partners are called
  librarians, but as my mothers son, I simply want
  them to be called
• EXCELLENT