Chapter Council
Presents
Sharing Roundtables
MLA Annual Meeting
Austin, TX
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Table #: Topic Code H
Table Topic: Integrating You and the Library into the Curriculum
Facilitator: Gregg A. Stevens
Recorder: Suzanne Fricke
Final Report Form
• Please fill in the table #, topic, and names of facilitator and recorder in
the above header.
• Please list names and e-mail addresses of participants.
Paul Bain
Marilyn De Geus
Suzanne Fricke
Iris Kovar-Gough
Ayaba Logan
Dina McKelvy
Melissa Mendelson
David Midyette
Susan Sanders
Gregg Stevens
Janice Swiatek
pbain@hms.harvard.edu
mdegeus@kcumb.edu
suzanne.fricke@wsu.edu
iriskg@msu.edu
loganay@musc.edu
mckeld1@mmc.org
mm4644@cumc.columbia.edu
dmidyette@roseman.edu
sanderssu@umkc.edu
stevens_ga@mercer.edu
swiatekjx@yahoo.com (UConn)
• In a brief format, please list topics discussed and ideas shared.
1) What does the evidence-based medical curriculum look like at
your institution?
a. The nature of programs differs widely. For instance, some
programs are almost strictly biostatistics.
b. Interest in evidence-based medicine programs varies by
discipline, with nursing programs being among the most
receptive. Interest in EBM and embedded librarians in medical
programs increases around the time of curriculum review for
accreditation which may come every 5-10 years.
c. Evidence-based medicine programs are often dependent on a
faculty champion, and may disband if that faculty member
leaves
2) To what extent are librarians currently embedded in the
curriculum?
a. Most librarians at the roundtable are not embedded in the
curriculum currently, and several mentioned frustration with the
minimal amount of time (5-15 minutes) they have for one-shot
M1 library orientations. Access to student class lists may be
helpful for communication with admitted students prior to their
arrival on campus, when they are still excited to learn and have
more time to explore resources.
b. One roundtable participant is embedded in a one credit
asynchronous PhD nursing class thanks to the invitation of a
champion of the library who is a department director. This
librarian cautioned that programs must meet students at their
level. For instance, if students are using Google, instruction
needs to start in Google and expand from there.
c. Curriculum mapping can identify those classes with research
papers, case studies, etc. that may present opportunities for
embedding librarians. Go to curriculum meetings and be visible.
d. Relevancy and timing of an embedded librarian initiative in
relation to current assignments or accreditation visits is
important. As cautioned earlier, some programs will be more
receptive than others. One librarian voiced frustration with a
drug information project among pharmacy students. “You don’t
need to be there unless they want you”
e. Librarians need to be flexible and able to identify new
champions as degree programs evolve (e.g. addition of
RN/DNP program).
3) Have librarians tried interprofessional programs? (Dina) What do
they look like and how successful have they been?
a. Programs can be successful if offered consistently. UMKC had
a topically themed interprofessional case study series that was
successful (topic example: patient safety in the midst of a
medication change)
4) What are your tips for embedded librarians?
a. Get faculty permission for embedding in the Learning
Management System (LMS) used at your institution (ie.
Blackboard (UMKC, WSU), Canvas, Moodle(MUSC),
D2L(Roseman))
b. Give Library Guides a title that users might understand better
like “research guide,” and make sure that these guides are
linked to LMS course pages for assignments.
c. Inspire library coworkers to get out of the library and into
departments. Sometimes faculty/departments may be more
receptive to a new librarian who is able to see things in a
different way.
d. Job titles can be important. Many institutions use
“informationist” or “information specialist”
e. Instruction means different things to librarians than it does to
medical program faculty. Teaching “information literacy” or even
“evidence-based medicine” may be library-centric in focus.
Librarians should strive to use the current clinical guidelines,
competencies, cases, program accreditation language, and
assignments of the medical disciplines they serve.
f. Partner with AAHSL resources and ACRL Information Literacy
Competencies for Nurses
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/nursing.
5) Is anyone involved in information architecture? (Iris) Specifically
mapping instruction to the curriculum for accreditation
purposes.
a. Librarians at UMKC assigned keywords and MeSH terms to
instruction – though they found some topics were not
adequately represented in MeSH terms.
b. Harvard previously tagged class material w/ MeSH terms.
c. MEDLIB recently had a post by a librarian asking about a way
to process large batches of text-filled Excel cells so they could
use MeSH on Demand for tagging learning objectives in the
curriculum.
d. Some schools are using other medical education vocabularies
like “MedBiquitous” http://www.medbiq.org/
6) Do you use a flipped classroom model and how does that impact
the library?(Paul)
a. A flipped classroom model requires reading, viewing of
lectures/tutorials, and self-directed library research by students
prior to in-class discussions. This can place a greater burden
on librarians to negotiate the question as students may not fully
understand their information needs.
b. It is essential that librarians have access to the LMS for the
flipped classroom model. In Blackboard they may be added to a
specific course as faculty, or they can create a channel of
content/tutorials that can be made available for all faculty
members to add to their courses.
c. Schools are using case based primary literature to get students
into clinical clerkships by M1(Michigan) and M2(Harvard)
d. One criticism of flipped classrooms that students have is that
“students are teaching each other.”