Changing Roles For Health Sciences Librarians: A Synopsis of Current Trends
As modern technology stimulates increasingly savvy and complex electronic innovations, the role of health science librarians has continued to adapt and change year after year. Whereas in days of old health sciences librarians served as information keepers, today they serve more as partners, educators, creators and information mangers in a new sense. As Ralph A. Wolff once stated, "forging librarian/faculty partnerships will require new roles for librarians... events within and outside higher education are changing our fundamental conceptions of the library" (Dunn, 1). Nothing could be more true. As technology continues to change the way anyone and everyone does business and conducts daily affairs, so too has technology changed the fundamental working of the library and the roles of librarians. Health science librarians are adopting various changes in response to technologically stimulated trends that include the need for web design and Internet knowledge. Dunn (1997) suggests that change must occur beginning with the center of higher education's "information enterprises" which for many is its libraries (p. 4). Trends include changing roles for library staff. Up until recently most information was stored on pap
Librarians roles specific to health sciences research may include enabling health systems organizations to better utilize and understand health services, design tools for managing and researching information and working in collaboration with other faculty and staff to understand or discover new information sources and methodologies (NLM, 1999). Health Services librarian's roles no include improved ability to respond to question but also support and conduct research, and may even include participation on "health services research teams" (NLM, 1999). More and more health sciences librarians face new opportunities and can now define how information and instruction "are communicated to students and faculty" (Dunn, 10). Librarians also may serve as counselors teaching people how to maneuver in an electronic environment, and serve as advisors instead of teachers rather than 'custodians of collections" (Dunn, 10). Trends for health science librarians also include requiring librarians to establish standard guidelines for constructing and maintaining a cyber library over time, as this ensures a strong foundation as one might expect from a conventional library system (Craver, 2002). Cyber libraries much like traditional libraries must ensure users have constant reference materials. Librarians roles may include developing a mission statement, specific goals related to their library, and establishing an overall design and maintenance plan (Craver, 2002). The roles of the health sciences librarian of the future may include: (1) supporting research, informational and curricular needs of students and faculty, (2) inform and inspire students and staff, (3) provide programs, services and information that will improve the value of the Internet and library materials, (4) serve as supplemental research faculty and staff and (5) provide links to resources on the Internet (Craver, 1). Rather than collect, organize and store information librarians of the future will face new challenges that may include partnering with specialists to deliver information instruction, designing instructional or educational programs that enable information access, teaching users how to
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Approximate Word count = 1466
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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