A Librarian by Any Other Name: The Role of the Informationist on a Clinical Research Team

Abstract

In 2012, the Lamar Soutter Library (LSL), Univer-sity of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), successfully collaborated with two principal in-vestigators from UMMS, as well as their research team, to receive a supplemental grant from the National Library of Medicine. The grant, an " NLM Administrative Supplements for Informationist Services in NIH-funded Research Projects, " was one of eight awarded nationally. It provides fund-ing to support an informationist – or in-context information specialist – who serves the research team by offering expertise in the areas of data and information management. For 18 months, the informationist is serving as a member of the research team on the grant, " Promoting Breast Cancer Screening in Non-Adherent Women " (R01 CA-132935, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health), working to develop data management tools, providing an in-depth literature review, and report on the issues facing researchers and internet technology professionals when building and im-plementing research tools. They will also assist with a systematic review on the effectiveness of telephone intervention protocols for preventive screenings, and will instruct members of the team in advanced searching techniques and bib-liographic management. This role serves as a new model of embedded librarianship for the LSL. It also provides oppor-tunities for new services from the Library in the role of data and information management. Fur-ther, the acceptance of an informationist into a well-funded research team demonstrates a level of commitment by researchers to receiving re-search support from the Library that it has not experienced to date. This brief paper describes the study and the accomplishments to date.