A Study on the Novel Services of Medical Librarians in Health Information Services: A Narrative Review

• Main Authors: Hasan Ashrafi-Rizi, Niloofar Hodhodinezhad, Leila Shahrzadi, Mohammadreza Soleymani
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Vesnu Publications 2017-01-01
• Series: مدیریت اطلاعات سلامت
• Subjects: Medical Librarians; Services; Roles
• Online Access: http://him.mui.ac.ir/index.php/him/article/view/3051
• ISSN: 1735-7853; 1735-9813

Access to valid and new health information as well as capabilities of medical librarians has highlighted their presence in various areas of health. The aim of the present study was to identify the new roles and services of medical librarians in the field of health. This narrative review was conducted in 2014-2016. The Data was collected through studying the articles published on information databases like Magiran, SID, Noormags, PubMed, Science Direct, Emerald, and Web of Science during the past 15 years (2002 to 2016). The keywords used in this search included "medical librarian", "medical librarianship", "clinical librarian", ‎"‎roles‎"‎, ‎"‎services‎"‎, and other similar keywords. The new roles and services of librarians were identified after studying and evaluating the contents of the articles. The results showed that the areas of medical librarians’ activities go beyond libraries and according to their abilities and capabilities, they can offer their new services such as media literacy, information literacy, health literacy, health scientometrics, health information services, clinical services, health research services, and design and development of health information retrieval systems. In framework of their new roles and activities, medical librarians should satisfy patients and their families, medical staff, and students and faculty members in the field of health information.