Changing Roles and Contexts for Health Library and Information Professionals

Citation

Ritchie, A. (2012), "Changing Roles and Contexts for Health Library and Information Professionals", Library Management, Vol. 33 No. 4/5, pp. 334-335. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121211242399

As the title suggests, this is a book about change, structured in two parts, one focusing on roles and one on contexts of health library and information professionals. Each part is divided into chapters contributed by a number of authors who are mostly from the UK, with some from Europe and North America. Given the commonality of issues in health care around the world and the global implications of these trends for all health information professionals one would expect the audience for this book to be international in reach.

The editors clearly state their aim in their introduction: to examine the “different contextual factors that may affect how library and information professionals might work”; they aim to do this by showcasing a range of roles, and examining the skills needed to perform them. Making some initial statements about the context of health care in the NHS and the implications of “fiscal constraints” for health libraries in the UK, they also reveal an underlying tone and purpose when they state: “it is necessary to step back and look at the situation ‘with a glass half full’ rather than empty attitude (or perhaps with ‘rose tinted glasses’!), and find potential opportunities.” (p. xiv, italics are mine) This is the “inner beauty” of the book – the editors are optimistic, seeking to glean lessons from the past in order to help health library and information professionals be proactive and see the opportunities for developing new roles. And what I found most exciting about the book are the examples of new roles they unearthed in the case studies!

The question for this reviewer is thus: do the editors succeed in achieving their stated aims?

In the first chapter, Christine Urquhart poses the thorny question of relevance of health information professionals in a changing world when predicting the future is obviously fraught with difficulties – in order to be relevant into the future, we must first, understand our context and how this is changing, and secondly be able to adapt to fit in with the new world. Three main contextual factors are discussed briefly: empowering patients and the public, “the data deluge”, and integrating health and social care for better quality care. Suzanne Bakker provides a European perspective, reviewing how health librarians have managed to adapt and develop new roles by having a user‐oriented approach and support from colleagues in the European Association of Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL). The illustrative examples in this section of how user needs have stimulated new roles for librarians provide a neat way of linking to ensuing chapters. The chapter concludes: “It is no longer the physical space of the library, nor the digital equivalent, but the value added by the librarians that make the difference.”

The next chapters look at changes in three information contexts – information generation and use; technology to meet clinicians' information needs; and governance, consumers and evidence‐based practice. Some of the opportunities and threats inherent in these environments, and the way that these have affected the roles played by health library and information professionals are described. Although sections within the chapters are contributed by different authors, the interwoven threads of the argument and continuity are maintained by skillful structuring with an introductory overview and a synthesizing conclusion generally written by one of the editors.

Part 2 is devoted to an exploration of roles, and Christine Urquhart opens with a useful discussion about skills, competencies and knowledge. One point of interest for me was the distinction between “competencies”, which focus on the person, behaviour and performance, “competences” which focus on the job (describing minimum standards, or demonstration of performance and outputs), and frameworks of competences (where levels are designated according to degree of responsibility). The UK Knowledge and Skills Framework which applies to most NHS healthcare staff for the purposes of pay and career progression, outlines levels of the core and specific “dimensions” (the equivalent of standards or competences), including the set on Information and Knowledge Processing (applicable to health information professionals). The Medical Library Association (USA) has developed a set of seven professional competencies for health information professionals, two of which could be applied to a broader range of healthcare professionals.

The chapter ends with a list of focus questions designed to help the reader reflect on the case studies in Part 2 Roles, and take advantage of the opportunities that changing circumstances present for developing new roles. There are four main subdivisions – the librarian as information provider and educator; the librarian who analyses information and manages knowledge; the librarian within research and evidence‐based practice; and the librarian as decision maker. Each of these has a number of specific case studies.

And this is where the exciting discoveries begin – there are too many case studies to describe them all, but I can't resist naming a few. In her chapter on the NHS, Debra Thornton states (p. 95):

Library managers are being recognized as valuable assets in other parts of the organization and many are being given specific projects quite apart from their role as library professionals.

Thornton cites various examples of these diverse roles:

e‐learning lead […]; reader in residence coordinator […]; web services manager; records management champion; and projects around patient safety, lessons learned, workforce development and staff appraisal, well being and self‐help, patient and public information, equality and diversity.

These types of initiatives have the potential to raise the profile not only of the health library manager who takes on the new roles, but also open up new opportunities for marketing the health library and its services as a core part of the organization it serves.

Roles described in the case studies in this section also include: clinical information specialist, e‐learning librarian, specialist collections and institutional repository managers, clinical pathways coordinator, reader in evidence‐based information practice, senior lecturer, clinical researcher, advanced informationists, knowledge services leads. Enough to whet your appetite?

Alison Brettle's chapter on the librarian within research and evidence‐based practice, I believe takes us to the heart of the issue. Identified in Chapter 4 as one of the contextual factors affecting the delivery of quality healthcare services generally, evidence‐based practice has provided many opportunities for library and information professionals to demonstrate the information skills which are at its core. Brettle's unpublished thesis (2009) is the basis of the research underpinning the discussion of roles within EBP, and this is encapsulated in a succinct figure (p137) which represents roles undertaken by the health information professional in the stages of finding, appraising, implementing and evaluating information for EBP. This chapter contains five case studies which explore some of these roles in more detail.

To go back to my original question: have the editors succeeded in achieving their aims? I believe they have done this admirably. They have examined the contextual factors affecting how library and information professionals work, showcased a range of roles, and examined the skills needed to perform them.

By focusing on the person (health library and information professionals) rather than the place (the library, whether it is physical or digital), and the opportunities for new and developing roles generated by the contextual drivers for change that are common in all health environments, the editors have achieved a valuable outcome – a book that is optimistic about the future, and provides some ideas about how to get there if health library and information professionals are willing to take up the challenge. And now a challenge for the readers – I am eagerly awaiting the logical next book in this series – about education for specialist health library and information professionals to prepare them to move into and maintain competence to practise in these exciting new roles.