In defence of librarian-mediated searching: a skill that supports evidence-based research and practice

Abstract

Librarians at the Bracken Health Sciences Library, Queen’s University, Canada support evidence-based research and practice in a number of ways. Teaching sessions are offered as part of the curricula in Nursing, Medicine and Rehabilitation. Librarians also teach accredited sessions as part of the Faculty Development offerings. Although there is a strong emphasis on teaching end-users to perform effective searches, librarians still perform a large number of literature searches, provided at no cost, for faculty and for the clinical staff at seven partner institutions in Southeastern Ontario. Research teams often ask librarians to become part of their systematic review research projects or to present jointly at professional conferences. This paper will posit that literature searching continues to be a critical part of librarians’ work, that it is a vehicle that demonstrates librarians’ skills and encourages faculty and clinicians to seek our expertise to support evidence-based research and practice.