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Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          61                                  

MLA 2018 Research Section Research Awards  
Congratulations to the Winning Research Papers and Posters from MLA ’18 and the 

Winner of the Best Biennial JMLA Research Paper! 

The MLA Research Section is pleased to announce the winners for best research papers 

and posters presented at the MLA 2018 annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. Thank you to the 

31 judges who volunteered their expertise to help select these deserving awardees. To 

learn more about the awards and selection process, visit the Research Section website at 

http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=938. 

 

Contributed Posters 

1st Place 

Authors:  

Sarah Wright – Clinical Librarian, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 

North Carolina  

Rebecca McCall – Clinical Librarian, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 

North Carolina 
 

Title: Clinical Librarians and Their Essential Services in Academic and Health Care 

Settings:  A Comparative Survey 
 

Objectives: While there are many indicators and models of individual successful clinical 

librarian services and programs in health sciences libraries in the literature, there is no 

recent, comprehensive summary of services provided by clinical librarians. This poster, 

based on a current survey of clinical librarians, provides summary data of clinical librarian 

service models in the US and internationally. 
 

Methods: In February, 2018, we distributed an online survey to librarians who currently 

provide clinical services in academic and/or hospital settings.  Requests to complete the 

survey went to multiple library listservs frequented by clinical librarians.   The survey 

collected statistics in the following areas: clinical team rounding; participation in 

departmental activities; instruction for students, residents, or professional staff; expert 

searching and research involvement; identification of clinical teams served; the ratio of 

clinical librarians to all health sciences librarians at institution, the average number of 

clinical departments served; and their clinical environments and geographic locations. The 

authors asked survey questions regarding clinical librarians’ tasks and their perception of 

service impact on their constituents.  
 

Results: Three hundred and thirty-eight participants responded to the 14 question survey.   

Responses to the ranked questions regarding services were coded by the authors.     

Overall, 180 respondents answered all questions.  The remaining participants answered 

http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=938


Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          62                                  

some of the survey questions.  27% survey responses were from individuals at academic 

libraries, and 63% of responses were from hospital libraries.   52% of respondents were 

from the United States, while 48% were from international respondents, including Canada, 

UK, and Europe. The majority of clinical librarians serve physicians, residents, allied health 

professionals, and nurses. From this survey, the authors can make the following 

statements:    Clinical librarians serve multiple specialties working with a variety of 

clientele.     In ranking their services, clinical librarians feel that they provide these top 

impact services to their clientele:  89% save clinicians time, 87% advance evidence-based 

practice, and 76% increase teaching skills of clinicians. 
 

Conclusions: Our analysis of current trends in clinical librarian services provides an 

overview of service models and the areas of focus clinical librarians have in their current 

positions. These results can be used to: 1) give creative ideas for services to current 

clinical librarians, 2) help justify a clinical librarian service to management, and 3) assist a 

new clinical librarian in providing creative and meaningful services to health care 

professionals.  

 

2nd Place 

Authors: 

Tallie Casucci – Assistant Librarian, J. Willard Marriott Library, Salt Lake City, Utah 

Amy Locke – Associate Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine; Co-Director, 

Resiliency Center, Salt Lake City, Utah 
 

Title: Leading the Way to Transform Burnout among Health Sciences Librarians 
 

Objectives: Measure burnout among health sciences librarians and determine if a wellness 

game intervention improved personal and workplace wellness. 
 

Methods:  A burnout and satisfaction survey was administered to health sciences faculty in 

summer 2016 and fall 2017. A single item assessed emotional exhaustion, validated to the 

Maslach Burnout Inventory. The survey was a part of a Health Sciences initiative to 

address faculty burnout and job satisfaction. Each department selected wellness 

champions to develop programs to meet identified departmental wellness priorities with 

specific metrics. The library wellness champion created a team-based game after 

participatory interviews. Players collected points for activities related to appreciation, 

social, mental, and physical wellness. At the game conclusion, a paper-based survey was 

administered to library employees. The survey included multiple choice and free-text 

questions. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and the grounded theory. 

Game participants celebrated with an awards lunch. 
 

Results: Twelve library faculty completed the wellbeing and burnout survey. They scored 

poorly on burnout indicators in both 2016 and 2017. Emotional Exhaustion increased 

from 43% to 73%. Faculty felt a great deal of stress due to their job (58% in 2016 and 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          63                                  

91% in 2017 compared to 45% among other health sciences employees). Factors 

predicting burnout include sense of control over workload, job satisfaction, stress because 

of job and finding meaning in work. Highest areas of concerns were a chaotic work 

environment, work flexibility, sense of control and team collegiality.30 out of the 59 

employees completed the post-game survey. 70% reported the game encouraged them to 

socialize with colleagues. After coding qualitative data, five categories emerge: socialize 

(19), motivation (6), fun (5), game play (3), and recognize habits (3). Participants found 

the wellness game to be a useful strategy in encouraging a more social culture with fun 

activities.  

Conclusions: Similar to previous studies on bibliometric librarians and health professionals 

(mainly physicians and nurses), health sciences librarians experience burnout. Although 

the game intervention did not improve burnout or job satisfaction, it did build collegiality 

and recognition amongst employees. A wellness game can encourage team building, but 

may not sufficiently address the root causes for health sciences librarian burnout.   

 

Honorable Mention 

Authors:  

Rachel Hinrichs – Health Sciences Librarian, University Library, Indianapolis, Indiana 
 

Title: Evidence-Based Practice Skill Retention and Use by Dietetic Interns: Did Library 

Instruction Have an Impact? 
 

Objective: To determine if dietetic interns retain the evidence based practice (EBP) 

knowledge and skills that they were taught in three library instruction sessions in the fall 

by the end of the 10-month internship, and whether there is a change in their EBP clinical 

behaviors.  

Methods: This non-randomized before and after study will use a validated survey to 

measure EBP knowledge, and EBP clinical behaviors. Dietetic interns (n=16) from a large, 

Midwestern university will be given the survey after EBP library instruction in the fall, and 

at the end of their internship in the spring. Library instruction sessions will cover PICO 

questions, database searching, filtered and unfiltered resources, and critical appraisal. A 

paired t-test will be used to compare interns’ scores in the fall and spring.  

Results: Fourteen interns (n=14) completed both surveys. On the EBP knowledge 

assessment, interns scored an average of 18/24 (75%) in the fall after library instruction, 

and 13/24 (54%) in the spring, a difference that is considered statistically significant 

(t(13)=7.0, p < .0001). The decrease was primarily due to missing questions on statistics 

and advanced Boolean searching. Interns retained and even improved their scores on 

PICO, MeSH, and the evidence pyramid. A slightly statistically significant change in 

evidence-based practice behaviors was found between the fall and spring (t(26)=2.1, 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          64                                  

p=.046). In particular, interns reported that they searched PubMed (t(13)=2.8, p=.016), 

and critically appraised articles more frequently (p(13)=2.2, p=.045).  

Conclusion: Despite the three library sessions occurring early in the internship, these 

results suggest that interns retain information on PICO, MeSH, and the evidence pyramid, 

but not on statistics or complex Boolean searching. It is possible that these skills were not 

used frequently in the internship, so they did not retain the information. Interns did 

report, however, that they more frequently performed all evidence-based behaviors 

including searching PubMed, accessing systematic reviews, and critically appraising 

articles, while decreasing their use of textbooks.  While the sample size is small and not 

necessarily generalizable to other populations, this study suggests that dietetic interns 

retain some information from library EBP instruction, and do make use of the EBP 

resources and skills demonstrated by the librarian during their internship. Future studies 

could examine different health professional students, and test whether spreading library 

sessions over the course of the year would increase retention and evidence-based 

behaviors further. 

 

Contributed Papers 

1st Place 

Authors:  

Frances Delwiche – Library Associate Professor, University of Vermont, Burlington, 

Vermont 
 

Title: Bibliometric Analysis of Scholarly Journal Literature on the Zika Virus (ZIKV) 1952-

2016 
 

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to characterize the scholarly journal 

literature on the Zika Virus (ZIKV) on the basis of publication date, source journal, subject 

of source journal, country of first author, and publication type. A secondary objective was 

to develop a reproducible method of bibliometric analysis for this topic that would enable 

future updates to this study. 

 

Methods: A search on the word Zika or ZIKV was conducted in PubMed, using both MeSH 

headings and keywords. The search was limited to articles published between 

01/01/1952 and 12/31/2016. Results were imported into an EndNote library using a 

modified import filter, then exported to an Excel file using a customized output style. 

Exclusions included duplicates, off-topic articles, errata or corrections, and articles from 

popular magazines. Data were analyzed by publication date, in five-year increments. A list 

of journals in which the articles were published was generated, and frequency ranked. 

Frequency ranked lists were also obtained for the subjects of the journals and countries of 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          65                                  

first authors. Finally, a comparison of the number of opinion pieces versus research 

articles was conducted for six infectious diseases, including ZIKV. 

 

Results: Approximately 93% of articles in PubMed on ZIKV were published in 2016, with 

the remaining 7% published between 1952 and 2015. Though nearly 600 journals 

contributed articles on the topic, one third of the articles were contributed by just 19 

journals. Conversely, over 81% of journals contributed three articles or fewer, and 55% 

contributed only one article. Articles were contributed by authors working in over eighty 

countries scattered worldwide. The publication type comparison for six infectious 

diseases showed that ZIKV had both the highest percentage of opinion pieces and the 

lowest percentage of research articles. 

 

Conclusions: This study provided a broad overview of the state of scholarly journal 

publishing on ZIKV as of the end of 2016. The analysis revealed a remarkably rapid 

response to the ZIKV epidemic of 2015-2016 by the medical, scientific, and publishing 

communities, drawing contributions from scholars worldwide, working across dozens of 

disciplines. By describing a reproducible methodology, the study provided a mechanism 

for conducting periodic updates that will track the evolution and maturation of the ZIKV 

literature well into the future. 

 

2nd Place 

Authors:  

Julia Esparza, AHIP – Head, User Education and Outreach Services, Medical Library, 

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana 

Grace Dodd – Student Researcher, LSUHSC Library, Shreveport, Louisiana 

Derrick Murcia – Student Worker, Neurosurgery, Frierson, Louisiana 

Jessica Sims, Student, Multicultural Affairs, Shreveport, Louisiana 

Gunjan Kahlon – Chair of Hospital Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
 

Title: Community Knowledge Assessment of HPV Vaccination in Males 
 

Objectives: To ascertain community member perspectives regarding transmission of 

Human Papillomavirus infection, associated diseases and to identify barriers which 

prevent these groups from ensuring that males 9-26 receive the three-shot vaccine series 

to prevent HPV infection.  Using this information develop and implement health 

professional and patient education. 
 

Methods: After Institutional Board Approval at an Academic Medical Center, a community 

survey using a convenience sample of visitors and patients to outpatient clinics was done. 

To establish a margin of error ±6%, 270 paper surveys were needed.  The survey was 15 

questions broken into a demographics section, HPV vaccination status of their children or 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          66                                  

self (if a young adult), their knowledge of transmission of HPV and if they would vaccinate 

their children or self based on the information provided in the survey. Participation was 

sought from visitors in the outpatient Internal Medicine and Pediatric clinics. Over 800 

individuals were approached to complete the survey. Surveys were collected during June 

through July, 2016.  The Medical Library, Internal Medicine, and Pediatric faculty with the 

Hospital and Outpatient Pharmacy spearheaded the project. The Medical Library faculty 

recruited three research apprentices to collect data.   

Results: The survey was completed by 385 (95% confidence interval with a ±5% margin of 

error) participants. Over 80% of the participants were female (80%) with most being 

African American (65%) or Caucasian (29%). Results show that 50% of the survey 

participants never had a physician discuss HPV vaccination, 39% didn’t know the diseases 

associated with persistent HPV infection and only 39% knew that sexual contact is the 

mode of transmission. “Other” comments demonstrate the information needs of the 

participant population with statements such as “heard the vaccine doesn’t work” and 

“don’t trust vaccines” still a part of the community knowledge.      

Conclusions: To date this is the largest study United States face-to face (not telephone) 

study of community knowledge on male HPV vaccination, knowledge of the results of 

persistent infection, methods of transmission, and change in vaccination acceptance.  The 

results provided crucial insights. Healthcare providers were not always having 

conversations about vaccination of males against HPV and that there was a gap in 

community knowledge on the cancers associated with persistent infection with HPV, and 

how HPV was transmitted. With this data a grant was obtained to create a comprehensive 

educational plan for healthcare providers and the community. 

 

Honorable Mention 

Authors:  

Kaitlin Costello – Assistant Professor, Rutgers University, Department of Library and 

Information Science, New Brunswick, New Jersey 

Norris Brown – Research Assistant, Department of Library and Information Science, New 

Brunswick, New Jersey 
 

Title: Coverage of Core Competencies for Health Information Professionals in American 

Library Association Programs 
 

Objectives: What health-related courses are available to students in master’s programs 

accredited by the American Library Association? Which of the core competencies 

necessary for work in health informatics, as defined by both the Medical Library 

Association and the American Medical Informatics Association, are covered in these 

classes? What curriculum gaps should instructors in these programs focus on for future 

course development?  



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          67                                  

Methods: A list of 60 accredited programs was obtained from the American Library 

Association directory in January 2017. During a six-month period from February 2017 

through July 2017, the research team visited program websites and institutional course 

catalogs, and searched for course listings covering health-related topics between Fall 2014 

and Fall 2017. Course descriptions and other related data (e.g., date of last offering, 

number of credits, whether the class was part of a larger concentration in health 

informatics or similar, last available syllabi) were collected when available.  The Medical 

Library Association and American Medical Informatics Association competencies were 

discussed among the research team and six codes, each corresponding to one of the six 

objectives outlined by both frameworks, were created. Deductive quantitative content 

analysis was then applied to the available course descriptions to determine the main 

competency addressed in each class.  

 

Results: Thirty-nine of the 60 schools offer at least one class focused on health. Nine 

programs offer a concentration in health informatics, while 18 of them offer one health 

class. Most (32) classes focus on health information services and health reference. 

Nineteen are related to the development of the health information professions; 16 cover 

leadership, management, and organizational communication; 12 address technical skills 

like data structures and programming; 8 are on instructional design and the design of 

sociotechnical systems; and 5 focus on evidence-based medicine and fundamental 

theoretical frameworks.  Programs with concentrations in health offer more 

comprehensive coverage of the competencies. 

 

Conclusions: Students in these programs will often need to supplement the health-related 

course offerings with classes in programming, coding, instructional design, human-

computer interaction, and theoretical frameworks in information science and health in 

order to gain the core competencies required for a career in health information. 

Instructors in these programs looking to develop classes in health information should 

focus on developing those that address competencies that are not currently addressed 

fully, including the design of instructional programs and of sociotechnical systems for 

health; theoretical frameworks in information science, evidence-based medicine, and 

health behavior; and on technical skills like structuring data and coding. 

 

Best Hospital Paper/Poster 

Authors:  

Marilyn Teolis – Clinical Medical Librarian, Library Service (142D), Tampa, Florida 

Priscilla Stephenson – Chief, Library Service, Library Service, Tampa, Florida 

Mary Virginia Taylor – Retired Librarian, Library, Shreveport, Louisiana 

Edward Poletti – Chief, Learning Resources, Learning Resources, Little Rock, Arkansas 

 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          68                                  

Title: Leading the Way: Evaluating Health Information Professionals' Satisfaction with 

Discovery Systems  
 

Objectives: Libraries are using discovery services to provide users with a one-box search 

engine to consolidate library content using a centralized index.  The literature discusses 

use in academic libraries, but there is little data on usage in hospital libraries. We 

evaluated the experiences and satisfaction of hospital library staff concerning the 

purchase, implementation, and maintenance of a discovery service.  

 

Methods: This study is based on a previous survey from 2015. An online questionnaire was 

sent to various health library mail groups, requesting participating librarians’ level of 

satisfaction regarding discovery products.  Participants were queried regarding which 

discovery products they had evaluated and whether a discovery product was purchased.  

Respondents rated specific features, their satisfaction, and whether the tool met their 

expectations as a single search box resource.   

We inquired about the factors which influenced their purchasing decisions.  Individuals 

who purchased a discovery service were asked if the time to implement and maintain the 

product was what they had anticipated.  Participants were given the opportunity to share 

lessons learned during the process.   

Finally, we invited health information professionals to share their experiences and 

questioned respondents regarding their perceptions of user acceptance and usage.  

 

Results: Over 87% of the responding librarians were satisfied with discovery services.  In 

the current study, 92% of respondents said they planned to purchase or had purchased a 

discovery product, in comparison with only 41% of health information professionals who 

reported purchases or purchase plans in the 2015 study.  Many participants said discovery 

services not only increased utilization of the libraries’ owned resources, but also enabled 

patrons to find underutilized resources they might not have located without a discovery 

service. Academic librarians said discovery services were essential to their libraries, 

because they integrated resources with link resolvers, and they revealed doctoral 

dissertations and other information in their collections which led to increased usage. 

 

Conclusions: We anticipated librarians’ satisfaction would increase as discovery services 

evolved, but we didn’t expect the results would show a such a large, positive shift in 

librarians’ attitudes regarding the purchase and utilization of discovery tools.   

Future research efforts should focus on several barriers librarians mentioned, such as 

enabling discovery tools for mobile devices, improving the platform to work seamlessly 

with different vendors products; refining search filters to find the most specific, relevant, 

and high-quality resources; and simplifying maintenance and updating procedures.   

 

 



Research Section Spotlight 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          69                                  

Best Biennial JMLA Research Paper 

Mi M, Zhang Y. Culturally competent library services and related factors among health 

sciences librarians: an exploratory study. J Med Libr Assoc. 2017 Apr;105(2):132-138. doi: 

10.5195/jmla.2017.203. PMID: 28377675; PMC5370603. 

Authors:  

Misa Mi, PhD, MLIS, AHIP – Associate Professor and Medical Librarian, Oakland University 

William Beaumont School of Medicine Library Rochester, MI 

Yingting Zhang, MLS, AHIP – Research Services Librarian, Robert Wood Johnson Library of 

the Health Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 
 

Objective: This study investigated the current state of health sciences libraries’ provision 

of culturally competent services to support health professions education and patient care 

and examined factors associated with cultural competency in relation to library services 

and professional development. 

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected with a survey 

questionnaire that was distributed via SurveyMonkey to several health sciences librarian 

email discussion lists. 

Results: Out of 176 respondents, 163 reported serving clients from diverse cultural 

backgrounds. Various services were provided to develop or support initiatives in cultural 

competency in health professions education and patient care. A considerable number of 

respondents were unsure or reported no library services to support initiatives in cultural 

competency, although a majority of respondents perceived the importance of providing 

culturally competent library services (156, 89.1%) and cultural competency for health 

sciences librarians (162, 93.1%). Those who self-identified as nonwhites perceived 

culturally competent services to be more important than whites (p=0.04). Those who 

spoke another language in addition to English had higher self-rated cultural competency 

(p=0.01) than those who only spoke English. 

Conclusions: These findings contribute to our knowledge of the types of library services 

provided to support cultural competency initiatives and of health sciences librarians’ 

perceived importance in providing culturally competent library services and cultural 

competency for health sciences librarians. The results suggest implications for health 

sciences libraries in fostering professional development in cultural competency and in 

providing culturally competent services to increase library use by people from a wide 

range of cultures and backgrounds. 

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