Themes in Health Sciences Librarianship Literature, 2016–2020: A Keyword and Subject Analysis

Abstract

Previous investigations into trends in Library and Information Science literature have revealed changes in the topics librarians publish on over time, with older studies highlighting classification and indexing, and information retrieval and more recent studies highlighting keywords such as Internet, information technology, digital libraries, and again, information retrieval. No similar investigation has been conducted on current publication trends by health sciences librarians. This study analyzes the top themes on which health sciences librarians published from 2016 to 2020 by examining the frequency of keywords. Keywords and subject headings were analyzed from The Journal of the Medical Library Association, Medical References Services Quarterly, The Journal of Hospital Librarianship, and The Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries. A total of 8,806 keywords were downloaded for analysis and organized into 292 categories during taxonomy creation. The ten most frequent themes were: libraries, information, education, humans, demography, librarian, geographical locations, research, electronic resources, and technology. The study also found that data, psychiatry and psychology, informatics, and publishing were other key themes, indicating that health sciences librarians are publishing on a wide range of topics. Some keywords that appeared only once, such as telecommuting and flexible staffing, suggest emerging areas of research for librarians.

Keywords:

• Health sciences librarians
• keyword analysis
• publication themes
• scholarship

Data availability statement

The dataset associated with this article is available in the University of Central Florida institutional repository, STARS (https://stars.library.ucf.edu/datasets/5/).

Additional information

Funding

The authors report no funding is associated with the work reported in this article.

Notes on contributors

Shalu Gillum

Shalu Gillum, JD, MLS, D-AHIP ([email protected]) is Head of Public Services at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Terri Gotschall

Terri Gotschall, MLIS, S-AHIP ([email protected]) is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Pamela Herring

Pamela Herring, MLIS, D-AHIP ([email protected]) is the Electronic Resources Librarian at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Deedra Walton

Deedra Walton, MLS, D-AHIP ([email protected]) is Head of the Electronic Resources Department at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Natasha Williams

Natasha Williams, MLIS, AHIP ([email protected]) is the User Services Librarian at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Nadine Dexter

Nadine Dexter, EdD, MLS, D-AHIP ([email protected]) is Director Health Sciences Library at Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, and Co-Director Medical Informatics, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA.