The new roles of medical librarians in medical research. A comparison of the viewpoint of researchers and librarians in Iran

Pages682-696
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-06-2018-0046
Date12 November 2018
Published date12 November 2018
AuthorReza Safdari,Hamideh Ehtesham,Narges Ziaee,Mehri Robiaty
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library & information services
The new roles of medical
librarians in medical research
A comparison of the viewpoint of researchers
and librarians in Iran
Reza Safdari
Department of Health Information Management,
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Hamideh Ehtesham
Department of Health Information Technology,
Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran and
Department of Health Information Management,
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, and
Narges Ziaee and Mehri Robiaty
Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to highlight the role of librarians as an essentialelement in medical research.
For this purpose, theprimary research process was divided into three phases:before, during and after. Then,
the roles of librarians associated with each phase were separated and the viewpoint of researchers and
librarianson the importance of these roles were considered and compared.
Design/methodology/approach This comparative, descriptive-causal research was conducted
using the census method. Birjand University, a type-2 university in the eld of Medical Sciences
according to the rating of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, was selected for the
study. The participants were all faculty members and all librarians working in the universityslibraries.
The data collection tool was a questionnaire made by authors. Its validity was conrmed by four
professors of Library Science, and questionnaire design expert and its reliability was conrmed with a
Cronbachs alpha of 0.89. Data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, using
descriptive statistics.
Findings From the perspective of researchers, awareness-raising for open access resources, determination of
standard subject keywords on the basis of Medical Subject Headings for articles and scientic texts and using
scientic research ndings as a basis for preventing duplicate studies in future research are the most important
roles for librarians in the three stages of medical research. From the perspective of librarians, the use of
knowledge management skills, searching scientic information as review of the literature and also selecting
standard keywords to search the databases and providing health-care professionals with the ndings of latest
scientic research have the highest place in the different stages of the research lifecycle.
Originality/value The difference betweenthe viewpoints of librarians and researchersabout the role of
medical librariansat the various stages of the research lifecycle shows that there are signicantgaps between
the librariansservices and usersexpectations. It is expected that through learning modern professional
This research was supported by Birjand University of Medical Science (BUMS/2015744). The
authors would like to thank all faculty members and librarians working in the universitys libraries
for their participation in the survey, supporting this work and helping to obtain results of better
quality.
ILS
119,11
682
Received7 June 2018
Revised16 August 2018
Accepted8 September 2018
Informationand Learning Science
Vol.119 No. 11, 2018
pp. 682-696
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2398-5348
DOI 10.1108/ILS-06-2018-0046
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2398-5348.htm

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