The Start-Up Culture at the “Born Digital” Library

Submitted by Nadine Dexter, AHIP, Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of Central Florida–Orlando, and Bradley A. Long, AHIP, Park Library, Central Michigan University–Mount Pleasant

Series editors’ note: The articles in the “Born Digital” series are written by members of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries Committee on New and Developing Academic Health Sciences Libraries.

The start-up culture for a “born-digital” medical library in a new medical school is unique. Each medical library serves a new medical school, which faces its own set of challenges in meeting the needs of a locally tailored curriculum. This includes dealing with the cultural and institutional challenges surrounding faculty, students, staffing, research initiatives, and patient care programs [1].

The culture and health care background of the nation in the year 2000, when Florida State University College of Medicine was officially created, was far different from the culture and health care climate when Mercer University School of Medicine was officially accredited in 1982. There have been dramatic changes in the national cultural fabric and health care background that frame the creation of these new medical schools and their medical libraries. The creation of the Internet and the rapid use of email, databases, e-journals, e-books, and social media have all been an important part of the new cultural landscape that medical schools and, of course, their libraries are born into.

Here is the historical background for these new medical schools.

• Before the invention of the Internet, the last medical school that was accredited in the United States was Mercer University School of Medicine in 1982.
• The first fully accredited medical school since the invention of the Internet was Florida State University College of Medicine, which was fully accredited in February 2005.
• The librarians at born digital medical libraries at new medical schools that were born after Florida State University College of Medicine draw upon the shared knowledge of other born digital libraries and touched base with librarians who have direct experiences with start-up involvement for graduate-level academic programs in the health sciences [1].
• These born digital medical libraries are engaged with assisting their respective medical schools to achieve each step of the progressive levels of Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation statuses, including the standards specific to medical library services [2].
• Medical library end users expect to be provided instant access to online digital content collections [3].

There are distinct advantages for librarians who are present at the very beginning of the creation of a new medical school. These advantages include working with the architects on designs of the library space; developing an opening day budget based on all e-content instead of print; and designing a staffing plan that grows to meet the school’s needs as more programs, courses, and faculty are added. These services and programs teach information literacy and evidence-based medicine sessions that are immediately incorporated into the medial school curriculum.

Medical librarians and their staff members in a start-up medical school are also being asked to participate in many nontraditional roles. These new roles are not usually found in already established medical schools. Examples include actively participating in course development teams; conducting interviews for the admissions committee; curriculum mapping; managing online required e-textbook platforms for the medical school; and in the case of the inaugural year of a program, serving as surrogate upper classmen to the medical students.

However, there are bumps in the road that must also be dealt with in any start-up medical school. Some born digital libraries may only have one or two staff member;, some may only have a director. Finding ways for the library to fit the organizational structure is always a challenge. Either everyone wants you to report to them or no one wants to own you! This will impact your budget, staffing, services, and function. Additionally, medical libraries at schools with geographically separate medical campuses need almost immediately to become proficient in dealing with digital reference services.

A negative impact for medical libraries in a start-up medical school is the potential loss of a faculty champion for library services. Faculty turnover does happen at new startups and has a negative impact on medical library instructional efforts. This can include losing faculty who are willing to partner with librarians for class time, having to adjust instruction to meet the needs of new faculty, or even leading to a lack of faculty buy-in for having any library-initiated instruction in the curriculum.

These are exciting times for born digital medical libraries in new medical schools. The librarians involved in these endeavors have the opportunity to integrate e-resources and information management knowledge directly into brand new curricula. Furthermore, medical libraries can effectively partner with new faculty colleagues and work directly with students to help meet their digital information needs.

References

1. Association of American Medical Colleges. A snapshot of the new and developing medical schools in the US and Canada: introduction [Internet]. Chicago, IL: The Association; 2012 p. 3–5. [cited 15 May 2016]. <https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/A%20Snapshot%20of%20the%20New%20and%20Developing%20Medical%20Schools%20in%20the%20US%20and%20Canada.pdf>.
2. Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Standards, publications, and notification forms [Internet]. The Committee; 2016 [cited 15 May 2016]. <http://lcme.org/publications/#All>.
3. Shearer BS, Nagy SP. Developing an academic medical library core journal collection in the (almost) post-print era: the Florida State University College of Medicine Medical Library experience. J Med Libr Assoc. 2003 Jul;91(3):292–302.