Competency 5: Tagging/Cataloging

Library thing tags: evidence based practice(1) evidence-based medicine(1) gps(1) hadwebutworldenoughandtime(1) information literacy(1) mechanics(1) Medical(1) Medical Reference(1) Medical Writing(1) Medicine(2) Psychosocial(1) reading(1) reference(1) research(2) Statistics(1) unowned(1) unread

Library thing link: http://www.librarything.com/work/655633

I picked How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine by Trisha Greenhalgh. I chose it because it explains how read the evidence-based paper: it explains the meaning of terms, such as critical appraisal, it discuss how to perform literature searches, and how to evaluate the different types of papers.

I chose this book because, just by looking at title, I could tell that it is something that I need to read and learn about since my goal is to be a medical librarian.

Competency 4: RSS Feed

I added the RSS feed from Davidrothman.net (name & link). The website/blog is dedicated to exploring medical librarianship and web geekery. I added this feed since I find his site informative and helpful for medical librarians (health-related, up-to-date information), which I am studying to become. I also think the site would be helpful for non-medical librarians when they help clients with questions about finding health-related information.

Competency 3: Podcasts

I used Google.com to perform the search. I found this podcast: Evidence-based Medicine with Paul H. Keckley, Exec. Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-based Medicine, which is located at this url: www.soundpractice.net/article.cfm?id=250

I chose this podcast because it is an informative overview of the development of evidence-based medicine (ebm). Mr. Keckley traces the development of ebm from the 1970s to now. He discusses the acceptance of ebm by medical practitioners and provides advice to practitioners on how to stay current. He also discusses how patients are educating themselves and the effect that this has on the doctor-patient relationship.

Competency 2: Related Blog

I used Google.com to search for blogs. The selected blog, Library Link, is maintained by the staff of the Moody Medical Library. According to their website, the blog is concerned with tracking the trends in technology information, scholarly publication, and library service. I chose the blog because it talks about topics of interest to medical librarians (open access journals, etc.) and because it also may contain useful information for academic and public librarians. It also contains various links that may be of interest to medical librarians, such as the link to the Open Access Now website, which campaigns for the freedom of research information. I chose the following excerpt since it explains what evidence-based medicine (ebm) is and what it is about, which is the topic (ebm) chosen for this blog.

Excerpt is chosen from the LibraryLink: Evidence Based Medicine/Practice webpage located here: http://blog.utmb.edu/abienkow/?page_id=161 :

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is the name given to a relatively new direction in medical thinking and action. EBM has as its mainstay the principle that health care providers actively investigate which of the various diagnostic and therapeutic measures they apply actually work. They should do this by reviewing claims of efficacy through critical analysis of the biological rationale and experimental justification (”the evidence”) of whatever intervention is under consideration. The “evidence” is to be found in the clinical research literature, so the practice of EBM requires a certain facility in retrieving this material. It also presupposes the ability to evaluate clinical research literature effectively, and to separate stronger studies from weak ones. In turn, this skill requires some degree of mathematical competence, especially in basic statistics. It also implies a working knowledge of the elements constituting a strong study, and something that perhaps is best called “practical logic”, that is, the ability to ask the right questions at the right time.

Competency 1: Introduction

This blog is created by the graduate assistant for TWU's LS class 5013 Information Storage and Retrieval in order to help provide an example of the competencies and in order to satisfy the requirements of ISAR. The required competencies will be posted here during the semester and will be turned in for a grade by emailing the graduate assistant when the blog is complete and ready for grading.

I am a dual degree student in library science and health studies. Since my goal is to work as a librarian in the medical field, the type of library I am interested in are medical libraries. The topic that I have chosen is evidence-based medicine and librarians.