Sangeeta Narang
All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. narang.sangeeta@yahoo.co.in
Bimal Kanti Sen
Indian
National Science Academy, New Delhi, India. bksen1938@gmail.com
Archana Shukla
Indira Gandhi National Open University, New
Delhi, India. archana@ignou.ac.in
Everyone needs health
information but with the diffusion of information from various print,
electronic and human sources its quality, authenticity and reliability has
become a matter of concern for all, especially among the health professionals
who need current information to provide treatment to the patients. Therefore, in
order for the librarians to assist students and health professionals in a
better way, it has become essential to enhance their information literacy
skills. Many medical school libraries in the US, the UK and other European
countries have well-defined teaching curriculum for students to train them on
various aspects of information literacy, and have designed online tutorials to
enhance information skills. Though in India there are large numbers of
government and private medical colleges offering undergraduate and postgraduate
medical degrees, very few of the medical colleges have considered information
literacy as an important aspect of the curriculum. In our studies of various
medical library websites (very few institutions have library webpages) and searches on the Google, PubMed and IndMed, it is
noticed that this topic has received little attention in India amongst medical librarians
and medical professionals. Also, it is observed from entry register record and
our personal observations that there are fewer visitors to physical libraries,
few students attend library instructions/orientation programs and there is less
use of valuable resources. Therefore, this study becomes crucial to
enhance the library resources usage and to raise interest and improve
information literacy skills among the students and health professionals.
This paper is based on a
pilot study that was conducted in July and August 2011 through an online
survey. The questionnaire was designed using Kwik survey and the link was sent
to the Medical Education Unit (MEU), a Google group. This group constitutes of
over 2000 members that include primarily medical educators as well as students,
scientists, etc. The survey consisted of a set of twenty questions that
investigated and analyzed the current attitudes and practices of medical
professionals when they search for health information. These were assessed on
the basis of awareness about resources and services, their search skills,
search strategies, knowledge, and desire. Since it was the first time such a
survey was conducted there were 28 respondents to the survey. The main findings
of the survey were as follows: (i) medical professionals stated that their
first choice to access to health information is the Internet and very few
stated that they visit the library or use library-subscribed electronic
resources; (ii) they use library catalogues, union catalogues, consortia or
interlibrary loan/document delivery services the least; (iii) they have a high
understanding about open access, institutional repository and high impact
journals; (iv) many of the respondents are unable to conduct advanced
database searches; (v) medical professionals do not ask for assistance of
librarians for their research work. They also stated their difficulties and
expectations from medical librarians. The overall result of the study shows
that there is a need to address their problems and, as suggested by many, there
is a need to develop guides and incorporate training to enhance the level of
information literacy skills. It concludes that with the support of faculty,
librarians’ information literacy curriculum for the students and health
professionals must be strengthened and integrated for improved research and
career advancements in medical sciences.
No comments:
Post a Comment