The impact of COVID-19 on reference services: a national survey of academic health sciences librarians.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the scope and adaptive nature of reference services provided by academic health sciences librarians over a one-year period (between March 2020 and March 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In March 2021, academic health...
| Publicado en: | Journal of the Medical Library Association Vol. 110; no. 1; pp. 56 - 63 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
University of Pittsburgh, University Library System
Jan2022
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=155262518&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 155262518 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 15365050 PI8 jtl: Journal of the Medical Library Association issn: 15365050 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2022 vid: 110 iid: 1 pid: 60406 pub: University of Pittsburgh, University Library System place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 155262518 155262518 155262518 10.5195/jmla.2022.1322 155262518 ppf: 56 ppct: 7 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: The impact of COVID-19 on reference services: a national survey of academic health sciences librarians. aug: au: Charbonneau, Deborah H. Vardell, Emily affil: Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI sug: subj: COVID-19 Pandemic Library Reference Services Evaluation Health Sciences Librarians Human United States Telephone Text Messaging COVID-19 Therapy COVID-19 Epidemiology Patient Safety Vaccines Misinformation Libraries, Academic Creativeness Information Needs Questionnaires Software Surveys Quantitative Studies Data Analysis Software Descriptive Statistics Librarians Research Personnel Faculty Students ab: Objectives: The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the scope and adaptive nature of reference services provided by academic health sciences librarians over a one-year period (between March 2020 and March 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In March 2021, academic health sciences librarians in the United States were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their experiences providing reference services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey was developed, pretested, and distributed to various listservs. Results: A total of 205 academic health sciences librarians and other information professionals with health sciences liaison responsibilities in the US (N=205) responded to the online survey. The scope of reference services provided during the COVID-19 pandemic included email-based reference services (97%), virtual reference (89%), telephone (80%), text-based (33%), and in-person (31%). The most common types of COVID-related reference questions included COVID-19 treatments (53%), safety precautions (46%), vaccines (41%), and prevalence (38%). Additionally, the identification of challenging reference questions and examples of misinformation were provided by respondents. Conclusions: The results of the survey characterize the evolving nature and scope of academic health sciences reference work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians reported an increase in reference questions during the pandemic and are answering them in creative ways despite barriers (e.g., limited time and reduction in resources). There is an opportunity for librarians to continue to address COVID-related misinformation. Overall, these findings provide useful insight for library practitioners and administrators planning reference services during public health crises. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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