Xiaomei Gu
9/26/2010
Madison, WI
1.
2.
3.
Best evidence from medical
literature
2
3
Clinical expertise
Patient values
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Formulate the question
Search for answers
Appraise the evidence
Apply the results
Assess the outcome

Two recent empirical studies

Survey of over 200 librarians in the MLA Hospital
Libraries Section



Lack of time was the major barrier to hospital librarians’
involvement in EBM
Most participants had taken formal EBM classes
It was mostly nurses who initiated the request to conduct EBM
literature searches
Pappas, C. “Hospital Librarians’ Perceptions Related to Evidence-Based Health Care.” Journal
of the Medical Library Association 96, no. 3 (July 2008): 235.

Survey of over 500 medical librarians in academic
libraries, hospital libraries, and special libraries in the
U. S.


Medical librarians are playing various roles in supporting EBM
practice
While hospital librarians are the most active in providing EBM
related services, such as providing EBM searches, academic
medical librarians are especially active in teaching EBM
Li, P., and Wu, L. “Exploring the Real World: Medical Librarians’ Involvement in Supporting
Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Practice.” (2009). Available: <http://www.caisacsi.ca/proceedings/2009/Li_Wu_2009.pdf>. Accessed: July 19, 2010.
“an approach to oral health care that requires the
judicious integration of systematic assessments of
clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the
patient's oral and medical condition and history, with
the dentist's clinical expertise and the patient's
treatment needs and preferences”
--American Dental Association (ADA), 2001
 Knowledge
gap: no empirical study in the
literature examining the current roles of dental
librarians in EBD education
 To
describe the current roles of dental librarians
in EBD education including their perceptions of
EBD and barriers to their involvement.
Target population: academic librarians who serve DDS
programs in North America
 58 institutions in the U.S. and 10 in Canada offer
accredited DDS programs
 The directory from MLA Dental Section lists 57 dental
librarians from 57 institutions in the U.S. and 10 in
Canada
 Considering the small size of the population of interest,
no sampling was conducted.

 Email
pre-notifications were sent out to alert
participants and to verify their email addresses
 65
dental librarians in 65 institutions were identified
for survey distribution

55 in the U.S. and 10 in Canada
 Questionnaire:
12 multiple-choice questions
and one open-ended question
 Question



categories
basic work experience
involvement in EBD education
training on and perceptions of EBD
 Pretested
by 3 librarians in North Carolina
 Questionnaire
was programmed and
administered using Qualtrics survey software
(Provo, UT)
A
unique survey URL was send to each
potential participant
 Qualitative
data for multiple-choices questions
was automatically generated by Qualtrics
 Content
analysis of responses to the openended question and text entries for some of
the multiple-choices questions was conducted
manually
 46
librarians responded
 39 from the U.S. and 7 from Canada
 Response
rate: 71%
 79% of all the institutions in the U.S. and
Canada offering the DDS program.
Please take the
EBD survey!
 More
than half (57%) have worked in their
current libraries for 11 or more years
 The
majority (91%) also serve as the primary
contact librarians for other programs besides
DDS programs
Answer
Respons
e
%
The principles of EBD are integrated
throughout an entire curriculum
23
52%
Individual classes
14
32%
Other (please specify)
14
32%
Standalone for credit course
5
11%
Standalone non-credit course
1
2%
Answer
Response
%
Teach students EBD literature
searching skills
32
97%
Offer students individual or group
consultations upon request
29
88%
Train dental faculty on EBD literature
searching
19
58%
Purchase new materials to support the 18
course
55%
Develop/maintain course-tailored
instructional materials
16
48%
Design or help design course syllabus
14
42%
Other (please describe)
3
9%
Answer
Response %
Offer dental students consultations on EBD
literature searching skills upon request
40
89%
Offer dental faculty consultations on EBD
literature searching skills upon request
39
87%
Develop/maintain instructional materials
23
51%
Offer workshops or short classes on EBD
literature searching skills
20
44%
None
5
11%
Other (please specify)
2
4%
 More
than half (52%) reported they assisted DDS
students at least once or twice a year.
 Similarly,
more than half (57%) reported they
assisted dental faculty at least once or twice a
year.
 The
majority (89%) felt competent in teaching
EBD and providing EBD services
 Reason
for incompetency: lack of hands-on
experience in providing such services
Answer
Response %
Self-instruction
41
93%
Conference programs
27
61%
Workshops
25
57%
In-service training
21
48%
Medical Library Association
(MLA) Continuing Education
13
30%
Other (please specify)
6
14%
Library school program
1
2%
Answer
Response
%
Not enough interest from the dental
school or dental faculty
29
64%
Not enough time
16
36%
Not enough training on EBD
11
24%
Not enough subject knowledge
11
24%
Not enough supporting staff
8
18%
Other (please describe)
6
13%
Not enough teaching skills
5
11%
Not enough support from library
administrator in professional development
2
4%
 Widespread
appreciation and enthusiasm
toward EBD
 “It
needs to foster the development of more
effective research to strengthen the evidence
base and (we) must learn how to develop
secondary sources built around how dentist(s)
actually practice”

Dental librarians are playing multiple and diverse
roles in EBD education and other EBD related
services and feel competent in these roles

Despite of the low level of interest from some of the
dental schools/students, dental librarians in North
America are enthusiastic towards supporting EBD
and are also aware of the challenges

Potential training needs on EBD and teaching skills
 Results
 The
are based on self-reporting
listed items in the multiple-choice questions
could potentially restrain participants’ thinking
processes.
 How
librarians can successfully integrate EBD into
the “crowded” dental curricula
 Viewpoints
from administrators/faculty/students
 Survey
 Kate
participants
McGraw, UNC-CH Health Sciences Library
 Joanne Marshall, UNC-CH School of Information
and Library Science
 Connie Schardt, Duke University Medical Center
Library