LIBR 534: Health information sources and services – COURSE SYLLABUS
Program: Master of Library and Information Studies
Year: 2006-2007 Winter Session, term 1
Course Schedule: Tuesday evenings, 6-9pm
Location: Koerner 217 (other locations TBA)
Instructor: Dean Giustini and Greg Rowell, Health Sciences Librarians
Office location: Please see website for details.
Office phone: Dean (604) 875-4505; Greg (604) 520-4755
E-mail address: dean.giustini@ubc.ca ; greg.rowell@fraserhealth.ca
Course website: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr534/06-07-wt1/
Course Goal: This goal of this course is to provide students with a strong foundation in health sciences librarianship.
Course Objectives:
At the end of the course, students will have a foundation in:
- Using print and electronic sources of health information, and databases;
- Expert searching of the health literature;
- Reference services in health libraries, and the information needs of users;
- Relevant practice issues for Canadian health librarians;
- Biomedical trends (ie. evidence-based practice, medical informatics, open access);
- The impact of computer technologies in health, and in libraries;
- Management of collections, document delivery, services, personnel.
- National and international associations, consortia, initiatives and trends.
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Search bibliographic databases (ie. MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, search tools);
- Provide reference and information services using biomedical databases, print and electronic sources (including blogs, and wikis) in health;
- Address the specific information needs of health library groups;
- Analyze evolving information needs in biomedicine, including publishing and media;
- Design end-user instruction, and mediated-search services for academic and clinical medicine (students and faculty), government, industry, health consumers;
- Discuss the value of health libraries in supporting academic and clinical activities;
- Discuss national and international trends, and media supporting health libraries.
Sample topics covered in LIBR534:
- Searching biomedical databases; using various interfaces, and tools; controlled vocabularies; print sources of information; electronic access; grey literature.
- Reference services to health library users.
- End user groups & instruction in health libraries.
- Technologies used in health libraries (ie. blogs, handhelds, wikis).
- Teaching experts (and perspectives) from the field.
- Consumer health and complementary & alternative medicine ( CAM ).
- Entrepreneurial work in health libraries.
- Management of hospital, medical and health libraries.
Prerequisites: LIBR 500, 501, 502 & 503 [LIBR 500, 510, 540, 560]. Limited to students in the MLIS program unless permission granted by SLAIS Graduate Advisor
Format of the course: One lecture session per week, and IT Labs in selected weeks.
Required and Recommended Reading:
There is no textbook. For each class, readings are assigned as mandatory or suggested.
Course Assignments, Due dates and Weight in relation to final course mark:
Assignments |
Due Date |
Weight |
Class participation |
|
5% |
Old media, new media #1 |
12 September 2006 |
10% |
Biomedicine database searching #2 |
26 September 2006 |
15% |
Expert searching topic #3 |
24 October 2006 |
15% |
Online journaling (blogs) #4 |
2
posts for 10 weeks |
20% |
Wiki - paper #5 |
Anytime |
20% |
Presentation #6 (20 minutes) |
Last 2 classes |
15% |
Course Schedule:
Date |
Topic |
Lab Topics |
Assignment Due |
5 September 2006 |
Health libraries – overview to course, old vs. new media |
News services, medical blogging and wikis |
Set up blogs |
12 September 2006 |
MEDLINE, biomedical literature, interfaces |
Searching - OVID |
#1 media assignment due |
19 September 2006 |
EBM questions and tools |
Beyond OVID |
|
26 September 2006 |
Reference Services in Health |
“Back to print I” |
#2 search assignment due |
3 October 2006 |
Teaching of Medical Informatics |
Guest speaker - TBA |
|
10 October 2006 |
Searching in Pharmacy |
Guest speaker – Pharmacy |
|
17 October 2006 |
Searching in Nursing – EBSCO CINAHL |
Guest speaker – Nursing |
Field trip to PNCMLA, Seattle, Wash. October 14th |
24 October 2006 |
Expert Searching – systematic reviews and grey literature |
Guest speakers |
#3 search assignment due |
31 October 2006 |
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) |
“More print II” |
|
7 November 2006 |
Consumer health perspectives from the field |
Guest speaker, Consumer health |
|
14 November 2006 |
Management of health libraries Health Library 2.0 – technologies in health |
Guest speakers |
|
21 November 2006 |
Presentations (1 of 2) |
Presentations |
|
28 November 2006 |
Presentations (2 of 2) |
Presentations |
Final paper and wiki assignment |
Attendance: The calendar states: "Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations. Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability should report to their instructors on return to classes."
Students must attend class regularly and be on time for class. Repeated absences or tardiness will result in a lower course mark or in a request from the instructors that you drop the course. The instructors will determine the size of an attendance-related course mark penalty. Please alert the instructors if you know that you will be arriving late. If you ARE late for class, please enter the classroom rather than waiting for the break.
Evaluation: Assignments will not be accepted late unless prior arrangements are made with the instructors. Consideration will be given to legitimate emergencies. If an extension is granted, a late penalty may be imposed at our discretion; this will be discussed when you request an extension. All assignments will be awarded letter grades using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/RESOURCES/slais-marking.htm. If you receive a mark such as A-/B+ you should interpret it as a low A-, likewise a mark of B+/A- should be interpreted as a high B+. [The top mark represents the awarded letter grade, and the bottom mark indicates the relative position of the numerical equivalent in the range for the letter grade as given on the SLAIS web site.
Other Course Policies as Relevant - Each student must sign-up for the class internet discussion list.
Written & Spoken English Requirement: Written and spoken work may receive a lower mark if it is, in the opinion of the instructor, deficient in English.
Additional Course Information: The course homepage is mounted at the SLAIS WWW site: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr538f/04-05-wt2/index.htm
