Poster presented at the 2017 Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC) Assembly

Background: Librarians contribute expertise to faculty projects but often experience uncertainty around the extent of their involvement in research teams. The librarian’s role, while crucial in many projects, can be ambiguous at best, dismissed at worst, and misunderstood in many cases. Lack of librarian acknowledgement in completed projects highlights the fact that librarians are a highly utilized but undervalued resource.

Objective: Systematic reviews are a relatively new method of research that require in-depth librarian involvement, but there are no standards within librarianship for negotiating place within systematic review research teams. This poster aims to address key issues librarians face when collaborating on systematic reviews and other research projects.

Methods: A health sciences librarian, new to health sciences but experienced in academic research and librarianship, created a systematic review service at her library and explored the issues that arose around establishing the librarian’s place in research teams. Issues included confusion about the librarian’s role, a lack of understanding about the systematic review process, and potential awkwardness around librarian acknowledgement and coauthorship.

Results: Several strategies were utilized to address issues of uncertainty in research collaborations, including the development of a memorandum of understanding that outlined expectations and responsibilities, documentation about the systematic review research process, and the enforcement of mandatory requirements to receive librarian assistance. This poster will report on the current state of the systematic review service, including the librarian coauthorship rate and number of reviews that have reached completion.

Conclusions: A variety of lessons learned are presented, including tips for addressing key issues in the early phase of establishing the librarian’s role and addressing uncertainty or resistance from research teams. The information presented in this poster is not unique to the health sciences field and can be applied to all academic librarians’ work with faculty. A discussion of strategies for librarians working in a variety of disciplines and settings will be presented.

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