Educational services in health sciences libraries: a content analysis of the literature, 1987-1994.

Full Abstract

The recent literature (1987-1994) describing educational services of health sciences librarians was analyzed for content. Variables examined included publication journal, country, type of article (description, review, or advocacy), target audience of education services, and subject of article. Articles that reported research results also were identified. Of 123 articles studied, 82.1% were descriptive, 14.6% advocacy, and 3.3% reviews. Library users were the primary target audience (85.1%), an increase over the percentage reported in an earlier study of the 1975-1986 literature. Librarians were the target audience in 12.8% of the articles, a decrease from the previous study's findings. There was an increase in educational offerings by academic libraries, which sponsored 83.2% of programs, while hospital libraries' sponsorship decreased to 5% of programs reported in the literature. The analysis identified a major need for research related to educational activities in health sciences libraries.

Author information

Author/s: Dimitroff, A (A);

Affiliation: School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 53201, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (Bull Med Libr Assoc), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1995-Oct; vol 83 (issue 4) : pp 420-4

Dates: Created 1996/02/20; Completed 1996/02/20; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 8547899, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.