Getting Librarian Help: Decreasing the Time in Literature Searches

Abstract

Nurse authors and editors no longer need to do their own literature searches. Health care librarians can and want to help, if we are willing to let them. This experienced hospital librarian describes how you can build a strong nurse-librarian relationship. The amount of nursing and health care information printed is increasing each year. Nursing and health care information is exploding. There are over 100 nursing journals and new ones start each year. Hospitals, medical centers, and universities realize the importance of helping their health professionals keep up with this information explosion, so most hire experienced librarians. Yet, many of these librarians are under-utilized by professional nurses. The few nurses who have established a professional relationship with their agency's librarian cannot imagine any other system. For example, a nurse in one hospital has set up a system where the librarian searches monthly in all new publications for articles on “Shared-Governance.” The librarian completes the search each month and sends the most relevant new articles to the nurse for review. If you are still doing your own searches, consider building a strong relationship with your local librarian. Here are some steps to take to build the relationship and get administrative approval for this type of help. Despite the availability of health care librarians in most libraries, many nurses do not utilize the librarians to the fullest. Because most nurses did their own literature searches for school, they often think they have to do the searches themselves. Others think the librarian would not be able to find the correct material because they do not know their specialty. Some think that librarians only do literature searches for physicians. All of these assumptions are false. Librarians are willing and want to do the literature searches. They are trained to select the best key words, use multiple indexes, and search for precisely the right information. They know that nursing is an important part of health care and recognize the need to help nurses find information for their practice or publication. The first step in any delegation is to recognize that you are not the only one who can do the job and that you may not even be the best at it. This holds true for delegating to the librarian. The first step may be the hardest, deciding to let him or her do the search for you. Very busy nursing leaders need to turn over the whole literature search. Your time in practice or writing and editing is too valuable to spend much of it in the library searching for references. Many authors who turn over literature searches can write two articles in the same amount of time as an author who researches and writes one. Successful book authors often hire librarians to do their searches. Librarians are trained in information access. They know where to look for material, are able to find the best key words for computer searches, can link up to computer data bases, and are able to use the most sophisticated information equipment including modems, FAXs, CD-ROM disks, and computers. They are willing to use their abilities to help you in many writing and editing projects. Some of the items librarians do to help nurse authors and editors are listed in Table 1. Here are some ways librarians help nurse-authors and editors. Librarians can: Review the librarian's job description at your agency. You will notice that doing the search is part of the job description for many librarians in medical center or hospital libraries. You will also notice that the librarian is expected to assist all health care professionals, not just physicians. One Clinical Nurse Specialist who noticed the librarian complete a literature search for a physician asked if she would do one for a topic on which she was writing. The librarian said “Of course, you are even a priority because you work here, the physicians are guests.” Notice the qualifications on the job description, or ask the librarian. Librarians in most hospital, medical center, and university libraries have specialized in health information sciences. Most are master's prepared and some may have even done research into a topic of interest to you. Librarianship is a service-oriented profession. We like nothing better than finding exactly what the patron needs. We hunt and search for that elusive piece of information that answers your question most accurately. Unfortunately, though, some of us have a reputation for being frantically busy or unapproachable and our computerized reference services seem mystical and intimidating. Shrinking budgets and staff have made us busy, but don't be fooled; we do want to help! Librarians want to do literature searches for nurses. Identify what services are provided free and which are billed to the user. Information is not free. Avoid surprises by finding out if your institution supports the cost, if your grant will be billed, or if the costs come out-of-pocket. In many hospital and medical center libraries, the librarian's time, computer link-up time and cost, and copying time and costs are covered by the library budget for nurses employed by that agency doing patient or publication projects for that facility. If you do not work at a medical center or need to go to a library where you are not affiliated, there are additional charges. One hospital library charges $20 for a MEDLINE search of one hour or less on one topic. One university librarian charges nothing for the initial literature search, but charges $3 per article plus 10 cents per page to copy the relevant references. The most helpful librarians are going to be the busiest. The librarian who does the entire search from topic identification through analysis of the literature and copying of the best sources, is naturally going to be busy. Give the librarian at least two weeks, and plan on negotiating another week if needed, so she or he can fit your literature search for a publication into her or his other projects. Ask the librarian what is considered usual turn-around time for computer searches, photocopying, inter-library loan requests, etc. Find out under what circumstances and for what additional cost you can get faster access to information. For example, in a clinical emergency involving patient care, the library may perform your search immediately and be able to receive critical articles by FAX within 30 minutes. But, publication projects are usually a secondary priority to patient-care projects and may take several weeks. Tell your areas of interest to the library staff. Let them know that you would like them to assist you by forwarding any new materials they run across in your area. Library staff usually order, receive, check-in, copy from, and shelve all the journals that come to your organization and, therefore, may be the first to notice a recently published article relevant to your research or interest. Librarians like to help; they want to do a successful search for you. If they are successful on one search for you, they are more likely to want to help you on a later one. Helping does not mean you have to be with the librarian or there for the search. Helping includes pinpointing and narrowing your topic. In order to find all of the articles related to your topic, give the librarian as many synonyms as possible for key points (such as heart, coronary, cardiac). Think of variant spellings (for example, tumour and tumor), different endings (mentors and mentorship), and clarify abbreviations (Continuous Quality Improvement versus CQI). Also, be sure to explain any related terms or concepts like Epstein-Barr virus and chronic fatigue. If you know an author who has written on the subject, request that an author search be run. Also, mention what you do NOT want, for example “HDL lipoproteins” but not “LDL lipoproteins” or “information systems for ambulatory care not hospitals.” If your topic is too broad, the search will result in too many references and will be very time-consuming for the librarian to complete. If you want the librarian to continue to do the literature searches for you, make sure to specify several key words which occur together. For example, a search of all references mentioning “aged” or “substance-abuse” will find hundreds of references while one of “aged” and “substance-abuse” will result in a smaller number of very, relevant articles. Communication and dialogue are the keys to getting the information you need from a library. The librarian may or may not have done research in your area. Therefore, it is important that you both have a clear understanding of what the question is before starting. Try to be specific. Offer as much background about the question as you can, including the purpose of or use for the request. This gives the librarian a frame of reference. Be open and pleasant. Ask the question you really want answered—not just the question that you think the librarian will understand. Have the librarian paraphrase your request and listen carefully to see if your request was understood. For example, we recently had a request for information on “positive coaching.” My staff delivered a great list of articles related to natural childbirth, when in fact our patron was interested in grade school sports! If you do not think your search is complete, if you need to refine your topic, or if your initial reading leads you in a different direction, go back to the librarian and ask for more help or another search. Librarians need feedback. We are more than willing to try again. If you were not present during the first search, you may want to be at the second one. If you don't give up, we won't. If you appreciate the service, let your administration know. These are hard times for most institutions and libraries are usually viewed as “non-revenue producing” departments. A letter of praise will endear you to your librarian and support your new relationship. Librarians will be proud to see the published work. Librarians like to see the results of their work. Show them the article before you send it. Give them a complementary issue or reprint of the article or book you wrote. Talk to them about the editorial board meeting you just attended for a journal you review. They will be proud to see your work and happy that what they did helped. In one library, the librarian started a bulletin board to post nurse as well as physician-authored publications. Although the primary reason most nurse authors still do their own literature searches is because they are not willing to give up this task, some librarians are not funded sufficiently to provide these services. If you have asked the librarian what services they provide and how they can help you with your writing and editing and you still do not get the help you need, write a proposal for these services. Here are some points which support the request for funding of these services. Librarians save staff time. Today, no one can keep up on the vast amounts of literature available. Librarians are trained to sort through it all. Librarians speed up access to information. Libraries have access to established networks for locating materials (many are electronic) and cooperative agreements for sharing resources. By 1992 the standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will require that materials be “readily available” and in 1994 the focus will be on “rapid provision” of information. Librarians improve the quality of patient care. Quality and outcome are key phrases of the 90's for hospital accreditation. Up-to-date information found on a literature search can be used for staff inservice education, diagnosis, locating new drugs or treatment techniques, marketing new services, management decision-making, etc. All of these uses improve patient care. Reviews of the literature also locate important research studies necessary to implement or justify new procedures and/or improve cost savings. Librarians keep you up to date. Librarians provide an awareness of “hot topics” to all members of the organization through scanning, clipping, and photocopying of new journal issues. You will have more time for nursing practice, research, and writing, if you turn your literature search over to the professional librarian. Like other professional relationships you need to build the nurse-librarian relationship, but once you do, you will wonder how you did without this help before. — Kim Tyler, MLS, Library Director, Sacred Heart General Hospital, Eugene, Oregon. For more information on developing library services call the author at 503-686-6837.