Abstract
This study is intended to (1) identify emerging roles for biomedical librarians and determine how common these roles are in a variety of library settings, (2) identify barriers to taking on new roles, and (3) determine how librarians are developing the capacity to take on new roles. A survey was conducted of librarians in biomedical settings. Most biomedical librarians are taking on new roles. The most common roles selected by survey respondents include analysis and enhancement of user experiences, support for social media, support for systematic reviews, clinical informationist, help for faculty or staff with authorship issues, and implementation of researcher profiling and collaboration tools. Respondents in academic settings are more likely to report new roles than hospital librarians are, but some new roles are common in both settings. Respondents use a variety of methods to free up time for new roles, but predominant methods vary between directors and librarians and between academic and hospital respondents. Lack of time is the biggest barrier that librarians face when trying to adopt new roles. New roles are associated with increased collaboration with individuals and/or groups outside the library. This survey documents the widespread incorporation of new roles in biomedical libraries in the United States, as well as the barriers to adopting these roles and the means by which librarians are making time for them. The results of the survey can be used to inform strategic planning, succession planning, library education, and career development for biomedical librarians.
Highlights
Background and purposeNew roles for medical librarians are discussed at conferences, on blogs, in email discussion list conversations, and in the published literature
We conducted a survey of practicing biomedical librarians to (a) identify emerging roles and determine how common these roles are, (b) identify barriers to taking on new roles, and (c) identify ways that librarians are developing the capacity to take on new roles
Respondents indicated a variety of work settings: the most common were academic health sciences libraries (294, 46%) and other hospital, health facility, or health system libraries (248, 39%) (Appendix, Table 1)
Summary
Background and purposeNew roles for medical librarians are discussed at conferences, on blogs, in email discussion list conversations, and in the published literature. Though the literature contains many case studies and surveys of various subpopulations of biomedical librarians, the authors were unable to find any studies that included a broad snapshot of emerging roles across biomedical settings and positions. We conducted a survey of practicing biomedical librarians to (a) identify emerging roles and determine how common these roles are, (b) identify barriers to taking on new roles, and (c) identify ways that librarians are developing the capacity to take on new roles. The results of this survey could be used to inform strategic planning, succession planning, library education, and career development for individual librarians or potential librarians. That criterion is subjective, but the selection of roles was informed by the
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