Current and future directions in Belgian medical and health sciences librarianship: a user‐tailored approach

Abstract

This article is part of a new series in this regular feature. The series intend to serve as a road map by sharing expertise and drawing together trends that are relevant to both health science librarians and health informatics professionals. The present article is a collaboration of six medical and health sciences libraries in Belgium and the Flemish library and archive association (VVBAD, n.d., https://www.vvbad.be/). It aims to elucidate the extended, user‐tailored approach provided by medical and health sciences libraries in Belgium motivated by the recent changes in user expectations and behaviour.

Medical and health informatics services during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic should be virtual, tailored, responsive and interactive: a case study in Belgium

“…Over recent years, the physical library has evolved into a more social environment where students gather to study and work on group assignments. Researchers, on the other hand, rarely visit the knowledge centre to consult literature but prefer digital access (De Meulemeester et al, 2018). In order to slow down the spread of the COVID‐19 and to protect health workers at the hospital campus as much as possible, given its location it was decided to close the learning centre while the pandemic was a major threat.…”

“…Activated learning through remote exercises is more challenging to organise. Writing a report of their search strategies and results (preferably in combination with (interdisciplinary) student peer‐review), (De Meulemeester, Peleman, & Buysse, 2019) could be a way to decrease this burden. However, with growing student numbers and limited funding for staff, it would be challenging for the teachers to evaluate all written reports.…”

“…We earlier described the difficulties for library staff to meet researchers in person (Ann De Meulemeester et al, 2018). Organising seminars about challenging topics such as research visibility and grant writing specifically aimed at this target group might be a way to overcome this problem.…”

“…Any library needs staff with a range of experiences covering interdisciplinary knowledge of librarianship, technology, research and education (Ann De Meulemeester et al, 2018). For example, skills in educational technology, and the ability to use and allocate a platform to the appropriate target group are increasingly important given to the increased reliance on remote learning.…”

“…At times of peril librarians – particularly those working in health sciences – need to find ways to adapt their services (Featherstone, Lyon, & Ruffin, 2008). User expectations and behaviour have changed over time as is illustrated by the COVID‐19 outbreak in Europe (De Meulemeester et al, 2018). This paper describes how ‘The Knowledge Centre for Health Ghent’ (which is both a faculty library for medicine, health sciences and pharmaceutical sciences and a hospital library) created new roles for offering help and advice to existing and previously unrecognised user groups.…”