Search

The article discusses themes that emerged from open forums hosted by the Medical Library Association's Vision 2048 Task Force from 2021 to 2023. Topics discussed include the importance of focusing on the needs of communities served by health information professionals, the recruitment of the next generation of health science librarians, and the use of data and artificial intelligence tools in library collections.

There is often a disparity for new hospital librarians between formal Library Information Science (LIS) education and the skills required for doing the job. To bridge the gap, new medical library professionals search out Medical Library Association (MLA) classes and webinars, find courses on the Internet, or link to National Library of Medicine (NLM) training. The MLA Hospital Library Caucus tasked an Education Task Force to ascertain what new librarians needed to help them in their early careers. The Task Force created a survey, which was sent to hospital librarians with less than 5 years' experience. Respondents were asked to rate their top five duties and responsibilities and indicate with which they needed help. Using the results of the survey as a guide, the task force created a LibGuide for new hospital librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]