Discovering what patrons value in a consumer health library service using laddering interviews.

Background: Librarians at Preston Medical Library sought to understand whether marketing research techniques could be adapted to libraries to better understand what patrons value. Specifically, this study sought to learn why patrons continue using a consumer health information service, develop insights to improve the service, and a methodology to use with other patron groups. Case Presentation: Librarian researchers conducted customer value research using laddering interviews, an interview technique utilized in marketing research to learn users' goals in using a product or service. The PML research team interviewed six frequent users of a medical library's consumer health information service. Researchers conducted laddering interviews, covering patron views of basic attributes of the service, leading on to consequences of their interaction with it, and finally discussing what they hoped to achieve in using the service. The results were visualized in customer value hierarchy diagrams, graphically showing relationships between valued attributes of a product or service, how the patron used it, and how that helped patrons achieve goals. This allowed the research team to identify which features of service contribute the most to patron satisfaction. Conclusion: Customer value learning utilizing laddering interviews enables librarians to see their service through the patrons' eyes, focusing on those aspects of the service that they view as most important. This study allowed librarians to learn that users desired to feel more in control of their health and gain peace of mind by obtaining trusted information. The library's work in providing information leads to self-empowerment for these patrons.

The status of scholarly efforts of librarians on health literacy: a bibliometric analysis.

Objective: In order to determine the status of scholarly efforts on health literacy by librarians, researchers examined the characteristics of health literacy publications authored by librarians from 2000 to 2020. Methods: Bibliometric analysis was used to assess the indicators of productivity, affiliation, collaboration, and citation metrics of librarians in health literacy-related research. Data were collected using the Scopus database; articles were screened for inclusion before importation into Microsoft Excel for analysis. SPSS software was used to run basic descriptive statistics. Results: Of 797 search results, 460 references met the inclusion criteria of librarian authorship. There was a significant linear trend upward in publications since 2001 with an average increase of 1.52 papers per year. The number of publications per year peaked in 2019 (n=59). Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet was the most prolific journal. The majority of references were authored by at least two authors and by multidisciplinary teams. Nineteen percent (n=107) of the librarian authors were responsible for more than one publication, and 84.1% of publications were cited at least once. Conclusions: In the last two decades, librarian involvement in health literacy publications has exponentially increased, most markedly in the years following 2014. The productivity, multidisciplinary collaboration efforts, and consistent growth in literature indicate that librarians are engaged in health literacy scholarship. Further research is needed to explore the work of librarians whose impacts on health literacy may not be reflected within well-indexed, peer-reviewed publications.

Determining COVID-19's impact on an academic medical library's literature search service.

Objective: At many institutions, literature search services are an important aspect of health science librarianship. This exploratory study analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the use of an academic hospital medical library's literature search service. Methods: To evaluate the pandemic's impact on literature searching at The University of Tennessee Medical Center's Preston Medical Library, data were analyzed for changes from the year before the pandemic (March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020) to the first year during the pandemic (March 1st, 2020 to February 28, 2021). This was accomplished using LibWizard, a library feedback and assessment application, to review literature search data during the two periods. Variables of interest included total searches, purpose of searches, affiliation of the searcher, and searches with a pandemic-related research question. Results: A 36.6% drop in literature search service usage was reported from the pre-pandemic year to the during-pandemic year. There was a 55.3% decrease in searches intended for research, as well as significant decreases in the number of searches requested by all patron affiliations. After March 2020, 10% of all searches concerned a COVID-related topic. Conclusion: The overall decrease in literature search requests, decrease in research searches, decrease in searches among all patron affiliations, and increase in searches on a COVID-related topic suggest that healthcare worker and institutional priorities changed during the pandemic. The results revealed research interests during the first year of the pandemic, as well as an overall change in library service functionality.