For the Medical Library Association (MLA), partnering with providers and other healthcare professionals to encourage critical evaluation of medical evidence goes hand-in-hand with its members’ daily work promoting use of reliable research and connecting clinicians to trusted informational resources and research tools, explains Tomi Gunn, Senior Manager of Community Engagement.
A number of MLA members suggested avoiding health misinformation as a potential theme for the 2021 National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM), Gunn reports, and it continues to be a topic of interest for the association as it prepares for its 2022 annual meeting and exhibition.
“The hopes for this or any NMLM campaign are to encourage and assist health sciences information professionals in marketing their value and expertise within their own institutions and communities,” she explains. “Themes and materials are created for them to bring awareness of their skills and library’s resources.”
MLA provides infographics and posters for its membership to share, touting the value of health sciences library services, and how librarians can have a verifiable impact on care outcomes when clinicians partner with them in decision-making. The primary campaign poster is a roadmap reminding healthcare professionals to consider the questions they need to ask before trusting a source, such as: Is this journal credible? Is my research study reproducible? What do I do if a source I cited was retracted?
