Medical Library Association | Research : Informationist Web Discussion

Informationist Web Discussion

General Information

MLA hosted a real-time Web discussion about the informationist concept on Thursday, May 9, 2002, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Informationist Task Force Chair Jean Shipman moderated the discussion. Informationist Conference keynote speakers Frank Davidoff, M.D., and Valerie Florance, Ph.D., guided the session and answered questions.

The following background information may be useful prior to reading the transcript of the session:

Keynote slides, Frank Davidoff, M.D. (download , 162KB)
Keynote slides, Valerie Florance, M.A., M.L.S., Ph.D. (download , 1.23MB)
Conference summary, (download , 80KB)

Other materials are also available: a bibliography of informationist materials, and a full list of speaker presentations from the invitational conference.

Topics for the Session

Drs. Davidoff and Florance proposed the following topics for the online discussion:

Davidoff

Florance

The MIT management guru Peter Senge makes the distinction between an "invention" (an important new idea or discovery) and a true "innovation." Senge suggests that "An invention becomes an innovation only when it can be replicated reliably on a meaningful scale at practical costs." As an example, he points out that it took 5 major additional technical advances, and 30 years, before the Wright brothers' invention became the innovation of commercial aviation.

From this point of view, clinical librarianship is an invention, while the informationist profession would be an innovation.

D1) What refinements or further developments of the informationist concept do you think would be needed before it would become a true innovation, in Senge's sense?

D2) From your general experience or, more specifically, experience in a clinical librarian role, what would be the most important contributions an informationist could make in clinical services? In biomedical research?

D3) What areas other than clinical care and research would benefit from informationist participation?

D4) What have been (or do you think would be) the greatest barriers to the development of informationist careers and services? What have been (or are
likely to be) the factors most likely to contribute to successful development of an informationist profession?

An informationist is a cross-trained (information sciences + relevant disciplinary background) information specialist who works in context, as a member of a team in health care, research and education settings. The informationist's role in the team is to select, organize, integrate and present information drawn from diverse resources. The informationist also uses her/his experience to identify new research areas and to improve systems and services. My questions are:

F1) WHO: are there people in your organization now who perform this role? If so, who are they and what do they do?

F2) WHAT: if you perform this role, what are the skills & knowledge you find most important to doing it well?

F3) WHERE: in what kinds of setting is an informationist most likely to flourish? Are there settings where it would not be feasible or needed?

Transcript

Visit the (slightly) edited transcript of the session (participant notes were edited for spelling).