Hot Topics: Keeping Patrons in the Loop to Promote Research Engagement and Professional Growth.

The creation of the current awareness service, Hot Topics, provides opportunities for research engagement while preventing duplicate literature requests and information silos across three campuses. The service provides additional opportunities for the librarians to promote and enhance library resources and services, support evidence-based practice, as well as participate in research projects and studies. Additionally, the service continues the librarians' support of both the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet and Joint Commission reaccreditation efforts.

Hospital Librarians Meet the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States in early 2020, it caused an information explosion in the health science literature. Researchers wanted to share their results quickly, so they utilized sources that were not indexed in conventional databases. Hospital librarians stepped up to meet the information and public health challenges of the pandemic. They developed alternate strategies to provide services and resources remotely at a time when their physical libraries were closed to comply with the need for social distancing and compliance with public health recommendations.

"Mini-Medical School for Librarians": from needs assessment to educational outcomes.

PURPOSE: This study evaluates the outcomes of the "Mini-Medical School for Librarians" or "Medical School Experience," a continuing education symposium designed to improve librarians' understanding of medicine and medical education. SUBJECTS: The subjects are the symposium participants, a group that consisted of fifty-eight medical librarians and other information professionals. METHODOLOGY: Pre- and post-symposium self-evaluation surveys gauged participants' self-assessed confidence with the course content. A follow-up survey was administered six months after the symposium. A learning action plan recorded both the intended and actual applications of course content to professional settings. RESULTS: T-test analysis of paired pre- and post-symposium responses reveal a significant positive change in the mean self-assessed confidence with course content immediately following the symposium. Pairings of post-symposium and follow-up survey responses indicate a slight reversal in attendees' confidence in the months following the symposium, but pairings of pre-symposium and follow-up survey results demonstrate that the longitudinal impact of the program on self-assessed confidence with course content was positive and significant. Analysis of the learning action plan revealed a disparity in how participants planned to use the information they learned in the course and how they actually used it. CONCLUSIONS: Continuing education programs that address the content and structure of medicine can be an effective means by which to inform both the novice's and mid-career medical librarian's understanding of medicine and medical education.