A Sneak Peek of MLA ’25 Contributed Content: Accepted Contributed Papers and Immersion Sessions

Submitted by: Mary Beth McAteer 

 We’re so excited to announce we’ve accepted contributed papers and immersion sessions for MLA ’25! Contributed content shares real-time expertise in health sciences librarianship by your peers and contributes to shaping the future of the profession. It was a rigorous round of reviews, and if you were not accepted in round one, we encourage you to resubmit your abstract in round two for a lightning talk or poster presentation, opening Thursday, December 12, 2024.

Special thanks to the Contributed Content Working Group (CCWG) and reviewers who help make this all possible!

Round 1 Contributed Content Submission Stats 

 Check out the MLA ’25 preliminary program for more details! 

Immersion Sessions 

Academic and Hospital Librarianship in the Time of Transformative Agreements: What Else is There?

Sponsors: Scholarly Communications Caucus, Collection Development Caucus, Rutgers University; Northwestern University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; and Providence Health 

AI Language in Vendor Contracts 

Sponsors: Osteopathic Caucus, New Members Caucus, and A.T. Still University 

AI’s Climate Conundrum: The Environmental Costs of Advanced Technology 

Sponsors: Social Justice and Health Disparities Caucus and Public Health/Health Administration Caucus 

Animal Advocates: Librarians’ Role in Supporting Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC) 

Sponsor: Animal and Veterinary Information Specialist Caucus 

Best Practices and Instruction Methods for Prompt Generation in ChatGPT 

Sponsor: Technology in Education Caucus 

Bridging the Gap for Caregivers: Supporting Those Who Care for Others 

Sponsor: Leadership & Management Caucus 

Bridging the Gap: Developing a Radically Empathetic Practice 

Sponsor: Leadership & Management Caucus 

Building Bridges and Forging Stronger Relationships with Faculty  

Sponsor: Academic Librarians Caucus and Libraries in Health Sciences Curriculums Caucus 

Building Psychologically Safe Work Environments: Enhancing Well-being and Collaboration in Libraries 

Sponsors: African American Medical Librarians Alliance, Leadership & Management Caucus, New Members Caucus 

From Buns to Tattoos: The Portrayal of Librarians in Popular Culture 

Sponsor: History of the Health Sciences Caucus 

Innovation in Reproductive Health Research and Activism 

Sponsor: Social Justice & Health Disparities Caucus 

Making the Invisible Visible: Amplifying the Contributions of African American Health Sciences Librarians 

Sponsors: African American Medical Librarians Alliance, Social Justice & Health Disparities Caucus 

Revising Medical Subject Headings: A Collaborative Project to Improve Access and Address Bias 

Search Hedge Development and Validation 

Sponsor: Pediatrics Librarians Caucus 

Statewide Access to Biomedical Literature: Health Equity Through Information 

Succession Planning for Sustainable Library Leadership 

Sponsor: New Members Caucus 

Surviving Burnout: Strategies for Supporting Well-being in High-Stress Work Environments 

The Big Shift: Making Inclusive Hiring a Part of Everyone’s Everyday Work 

Sponsors: Leadership & Management Caucus, New Members Caucus 

The Library and Medical Humanities: Getting Content into the Medical School Curriculum 

Sponsor: Leadership & Management Caucus 

Contributed Papers 

Contributed papers fall under two categories: research and program description. Research papers report on designing, conducting, and analyzing a research project. Program description papers describe the creation and improvement of products, programs, technologies, administrative practices, or services that librarians and information professionals conduct. 

Artificial Intelligence 

• Anything You Can Do, AI Can Do Better… or Can It? Comparing ChatGPT’s Search Strategy Outputs with Cochrane Review Searches 
• Automated Indexing of the Biomedical Literature in Medline: A Scoping Review 
• Automated Search Translators: Comparative Effectiveness of Polyglot and Embase Query Translators 
• Crafting Your Generative AI Usage Strategy: A Customizable Approach and Toolkit for Researchers 
• Glass Half Full: Mitigating the Environmental Impact of AI Use for Medical Librarians 
• Helping Medicine Faculty Cross the Bridge to Innovative Use of AI in Classroom and Clinical Education

Career Development 

• An Evidence-Based Approach to Developing a Health Science Librarianship Concentration 
• Bridging the Gap in Liaison Support Through Enhanced Professional Development 
• Data Dilemma: Evolving Roles and Skills for Medical Librarians 
• Developing an Online Immersive Fellowship Training Program in Health Sciences Librarianship 
• Easing the Transition: A Mentoring Program for New Hospital Library Managers 
• Modern Time Capsule: Shaping the Future and Building a Better Tomorrow 
• Professional Development Among Medical Librarians in the Developing World: Nigeria as a Case 
• Turning Pages: Exploring Library Onboarding Experiences to Cultivate New Hire Preparation

Clinical Support 

• A Semi-Automated Process to Assist with Clinical Expert Identification 
• Bridging Tradition & Innovation: Utilizing Expert Knowledge and Peer Review Process to Re-Imagine the NAHRS Nursing Essential List 
• Building Bridges: Connecting Medical Librarian Services to Organizational Priorities 
• Evaluation of Library Session in a Health System RN Research Fellowship Program 
• Health Literacy and Picture Books: Analyzing Selection Practices and Professional Perspectives, a Scoping Review 
• Leveraging the Collective Strength of Librarians: Increasing Clinician Awareness of Literature Through the Delivery of Curated Literature Alerts 
• Supporting Physicians in Training via Quality Improvements Projects Using Evidence-Based Library Services for Residents’ Development and Wellbeing

Collection Management 

• Animating a Collection: Efforts to Describe and Bring a Unique Collection Into the Public Eye 
• Bridging Gaps by Building Bridges: Enhancing DEIAB Language in Health Sciences Library Collection Development 
• Expanding Wellness Horizons: Integrating Innovative Dimensions into Our Library Collection 
• Filling the Gaps: Collecting DEIA Healthcare Materials for a Health Sciences Library Collection 
• Print Journals – Do We Still Need Them? 
• Revitalizing a Graphic Medicine Collection: Assessing Usage and Increasing Representation of Marginalized Communities 
• Pharmacists in the Know: Leveraging Scholarly Resources

Consumer Health 

• Bridging Gaps: A Pilot Program to Expand CHIS Training 
• Check It Out! Blood Pressure in Public Libraries: A Consumer Health Library’s Role in a Community-Based Blood Pressure Screening Program 
• Helping Alabama Public Librarians Support Health Literacy in Their Communities: A Mixed Methods Needs Assessment 
• Librarian-Led Health Literacy: Developing a Bilingual Activity Booklet for Spanish-Speaking Children in a Free Clinic 
• Librarian Led Zip Code Analysis to Target Underserved Communities 
• Pursuing Leadership in Literacy to Ameliorate HEAd and Neck Cancer Disparities: Bridging Tradition with Public Librarians 
• Readability and Understandability of Online Patient Education on Semaglutide: Recommendations for Consumer Health Librarians 
• Searching in the Dark: Understanding the Information Needs of People with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome 
• “Social Media Is Imperfect, but It’s the Best We Have”: Understanding and Addressing Sexual Health Information Seeking Challenges Among Young Adults 
• The Faces of CHIS: An Evaluation of CHIS Recipients

Data Services and Management 

• Bridging Data and Disciplines: Supporting Secondary Data Use and Collaboration through a Librarian-Led Workshop Series 
• Creating Structured Gene Metadata in an Institutional Data Catalog Using Researcher Feedback 
• Empowering Biomedical Research Through Library-Led Bioinformatics Support: Insights from the Molecular Biology Information Service 
• Enhancing All of Us Data Utilization Through Innovative Library Initiatives 
• From Data to Decisions: Visualizing Open Access Publishing Trends to Inform Institutional Strategy 
• Implementing the NLM All of Us Academic Libraries Program at a Minority-Serving Institution Pursuing an R2 Designation 
• Mapping Research Impact Services: An Observational Study

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility 

• Building a Bridge to Burnout Reduction by Proactively Incorporating Workplace Accommodations for Neurodiversity 
• Disability and Neurodiversity in Library and Information Science Research: A Scoping Review 
• MLA: Who Is Publishing and Presenting? 
• Troubling Knowledge Hierarchies: Facilitating Critical Engagement with Information Searching in the Health Sciences 

Evidence-Based Practice 

• Developing a Disaster Information Service Framework for Information Professionals 
• Leveraging Embedded Librarians within Project ECHO to Address Public Health Crises 
• Working to Close the Loop – Contextualizing EBP for First Year Medical Students

Expert Searching 

• Development and Validation of a Search Filter to Identify Research on Bisexuality 
• Evidence Synthesis on the Rise: A Citation Analysis of Publications from an R1 Institution Published 2014–2024 
• Using Near/ To Go Far: Optimization of Proximity Operators in Comprehensive Literature Searches 
• Validated Modular Pediatric Age Group Search Hedge: An MLA Pediatric Librarians Caucus Initiative to Support Practice and Research

Health Equity 

• How Important Is Health Equity to the Evidence Synthesis Process? Results From a Quantitative Survey of Librarians and Information Specialists 
• Identifying Strengths and Gaps in Health Equity Research: A Portfolio Analysis of Federally Funded Grants Utilizing Community Engaged Research Methods 
• Medical Libraries Supporting Outreach to Agricultural Communities and Broadband Planning with Public Libraries: A Qualitative Research Study 
• Opportunities and Challenges of Building and Evaluating a Large National Program to Foster Health Literacy 
• Take Pride in Your Health: Improving Access to Health Information through Collaboration with an LGBTQ+ Community Center 

Instruction 

• Academic Health Sciences Librarians & Video Consultations: Once Rare, Then Required, Now Preferred 
• Bridging Health Sciences Colleges Through Interprofessional Education Using Simulation 
• Bridging the Gap: Evaluating and Redesigning a Library Department’s Subject Guides to Align Resources and Services with the Research Data Lifecycle 
• Creative Arts & Storytelling for Health and Wellness 
• Educational Method Terms: A Standardized Language to Describe Instruction and Assessment Across Health Professions 
• Educational Programming to Promote the Use of a New Research Analytics Product 
• Innovative Clinical Education and Embedding Library Services 
• Innovative Instruction: Teaching a Systematic Review Lesson Through Candy Sorting 
• Melodic Pedagogy: Transforming Library Instruction with Performance Arts 
• Librarian Involvement in DNP Education: A Literature Review 
• Self-Paced Learning Modules Prepare Nursing Students to Lead Conversations About Health Misinformation with Patients and Colleagues 
• The Summer Scoop: A Resource to Support Medical Student Research

International 

• Decentralized Approaches to Infodemic Control: Wikipedia as a Tool for Information Diplomacy

Leadership and Management 

• Developing a Collaborative Space to Contribute to Student Success: A Case Report 
• Embracing Care: Rethinking Grief in Health Sciences Libraries 
• Hospital Librarians on Clinical Ethics Committees: Enhancing the Role and Perceived Value of Hospital Librarians 
• Leveraging Diverse Data Collection Methods to Better Understand Students’ Preferences for Library Renovations 
• Metrics That Matter: Bridging Individual Workflows to Comprehensive Program Evaluation 
• Passing the Torch – Building a Transition Strategy Using Flow Chart Software 
• The Essential Evolution of a Library Service Model for Sustainable Growth 
• Using the Big Five Personality Test as Indicators of Librarian Career Choice and Satisfaction 
• “We Want to Hear from You!” Understanding Preferences, Perceptions of Benefits and Needs of Active Member Organizations in the Network of the National

Outreach 

• Building a Bridge While You’re Crossing It: Testing New Tools & Practices for an Established Exhibition Programming Team 
• Empowering Postdoctoral Scholars: Insights from Library Focus Groups 
• Environmental Justice as Catalyst for Intracampus Dialogue and Capacity Building in Intercampus Systems 
• Expanding Outreach: The Impact of Librarian-Authored Research Briefs 

Research 

• Assessing the Impact of NIH Rigor and Reproducibility Policies on Early-Career Research: Opportunities for Librarian-Led Interventions 
• Connecting the Dots: The Library as a Pathway from Traditional to Innovative Practices in Academic Publishing 
• Dissemination of Medical Research Findings for Improved Health Outcomes: A Case of the Alliance for Medical Research Communication (AMRC) 
• Exploring the Experiences of Librarians Working with Physician Associate Programs: A Mixed Methods Study 
• “I Am Not Alone”: A Quantitative Analysis of Infertility Patients’ Health Information Sharing and Social Engagement on Reddit 
• Standards for Working with Research Librarians- on Systematic Reviews (SWIRL-SR) 
• Supervision in Evidence Synthesis Projects in Health Sciences Education: Experiences of Librarians, Students, and Faculty 
• Where Have All the Librarians Gone? A Bibliometric Analysis of National-Level Systematic Reviews 

Scholarly Communication 

• Launching a New Institutional Repository to Collect Faculty Publications: Honoring the Past While Planning for the Future 

Systematic Reviews 

• Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Has Building an Evidence Synthesis Service Improved Librarian Perceptions and Experiences?