Librarian support for researchers in Ontario hospitals

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Ontario hospital librarians and library resources, support research and explore the librarians' participation in research capacity building within their institutions. Methods: 53 potential participants received via email, a 16-question web-based questionnaire (SurveyMonkey™). Results The response rate was 60%. Librarians have supported anywhere from 10 or less to 76 or more researchers in the past 12 months. Librarians supported a variety of scholarly research outputs, assisting research authors with journal articles being the most frequently supported activity. The top 3 library resources used to support researchers were licensed electronic journals, print collections and expert librarian searches. One of the reported ways librarians received training to better assist researchers was via online continuing education. Discussion: As other studies have reported, there was a predominance of support for literature studies including literature reviews and systematic reviews. It was surprising to find that some librarians reported that they had all the databases or resources they needed to support research. Shrinking library budgets in Ontario hospitals has been the trend for several years, so it was unexpected that some respondents felt they had sufficient resources to support research activities. It was alarming that 79% of respondents reported not having access to all the databases and resources they needed to conduct research. Lack of access to databases or online resources may have a negative effect on the quality of research support librarians provide. Raising the awareness of the role of librarians in supporting researchers in the hospital setting can inform the health sciences librarians' professional practices and provide evidence of the library's participation in building research capacity in the organization.