Developing Pathways to Health Sciences Librarianship with an Introductory Course and Mentoring Program

ABSTRACT

Because of gaps in the offerings of Library and Information Science programs and librarian continuing education programs, library students and early-career librarians may not be aware of opportunities in health sciences librarianship. There is a need for introductory educational offerings on the foundations of health sciences librarianship. There is also a need to address barriers that may obstruct members of underrepresented groups from becoming health sciences librarians. The article explores the possibility that online education and mentoring can address gaps in introductory educational offerings in health sciences librarianship. The article describes the development of a pilot program for an online Introduction to Health Sciences Librarianship course and mentoring program, reflects on results from a survey of program participants, and identifies areas for further research and program development. The article also discusses the potential implications the program may have for addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion in health sciences librarianship.

KEYWORDS:

• Health sciences librarianship
• library and information science education
• online learning
• mentoring
• professional development

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Network of the National Library of Medicine for supporting the course and mentoring program with funding from NIH Subaward No. CNVA00050256 (134222-15). We thank Kelsey Cowles at the NNLM and Rory Litwin and Lacey Torge at Library Juice Academy for their support in making the program possible. We especially thank the mentees and mentors who participated in the pilot program, and are grateful to the mentees and mentors who granted permission to quote anonymously from their evaluation responses.

Disclosure statement

For development and coordination of the course and mentoring program discussed in this article, the authors received payment from Library Juice Academy with funds provided by the NNLM through NIH Subaward No. CNVA00050256 (134222-15).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [NIH Subaward No. CNVA0050256 (134222-15)].