Aligning Information Literacy and Evidence-Based Dentistry Concepts in a Rubric to Improve Dental Education.

Understanding of the alignment of key concepts in both evidence-based dentistry and information literacy could lead to greater collaboration between librarians and dental faculty. To identify these areas of partnership, a group of dental librarians from across North America created a rubric aligning information literacy concepts with competencies from dental education groups in the United States and Canada. The process included identifying relevant competencies, determining information literacy concepts for each competency, and adding learning outcomes scaled by Bloom's Taxonomy. The resulting rubric is useful for advocating librarian involvement in dental education curriculum, communication with dental faculty, and instruction planning.

Types and roles of reviews of the literature in dental education.

Systematic reviews have consistently grown in popularity and reputation. On behalf of the Dental Caucus of the Medical Library Association and with insight from the Director of Faculty Education & Instructional Development at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, we offer guidance on the wide variety of reviews of the literature available to aid researchers in dental education in selecting the best review to suit their question, team size, time, and needs of the profession.

Library instruction in medical education: a survey of current practices in the United States and Canada.

OBJECTIVE: The most recent survey on instruction practices in libraries affiliated with accredited medical institutions in the United States was conducted in 1996. The present study sought to update these data, while expanding to include Canadian libraries. Additional analysis was undertaken to test for statistically significant differences between library instruction in the United States and Canada and between libraries affiliated with highly ranked and unranked institutions. METHODS: A twenty-eight-question survey was distributed to libraries affiliated with accredited US and Canadian medical schools to assess what and how often librarians teach, as well as how librarians are involved in the curriculum committee and if they are satisfied with their contact with students and faculty. Quantitative data were analyzed with SAS, R, and MedCalc. RESULTS: Most of the seventy-three responding libraries provided instruction, both asynchronously and synchronously. Library instruction was most likely to be offered in two years of medical school, with year one seeing the most activity. Database use was the most frequently taught topic, and libraries reported a median of five librarians providing instruction, with larger staffs offering slightly more education sessions per year. Libraries associated with highly ranked schools were slightly more likely to offer sessions that were integrated into the medical school curriculum in year four and to offer sessions in more years overall. CONCLUSIONS: In US and Canadian libraries, regardless of the rank of the affiliated medical school, librarians' provision of instruction in multiple formats on multiple topics is increasingly common.