The Clinical Librarian/Informationist

The Informationist: Ten Years Later

“…The literature skims over the issues of acquiring funds to retrain. If librarians are to retrain to become informationists, where does funding come from (3,7,9,12,13)? Does the institution provide free tuition?…”

“…Some have a social science background, but have "retrained" through taking graduate-level biomedical or medical informatics courses. Some are not required to possess a MLIS degree, but are expected to improve their information seeking skills (3,7,11,14). Davidoff and Florance argue that informationists are professionals but do not necessarily hold a library and information science degree (1).…”

“…The literature indicates that physicians and clinical staff do not have the time to search the medical literature and in addition, they may not have the skills to critically evaluate the vast amounts of information (3). Librarians are expected to support this service by selecting the best search tools and providing the most current and credible resources so clinical staff can make the best decisions for patient care (3).…”

“…Librarians are expected to support this service by selecting the best search tools and providing the most current and credible resources so clinical staff can make the best decisions for patient care (3). Guessferd argues in her article, "the CML has developed specialized information finding skills that even the most library literate physician may not possess.…”

“…Guessferd argues in her article, "the CML has developed specialized information finding skills that even the most library literate physician may not possess. Physicians just don't have the time to research the way librarians do and still care for patients" (3).…”