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The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information about each source is provided. The paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Area Health Education Center (AHEC) librarians are first, and foremost, outreach librarians. Improving health care and the distribution of health‐care professionals in rural and under‐served areas is the origin of the AHEC program. AHEC librarians play an important role in clinical education and patient care. Their role has characteristics of both academic medical center and hospital librarians. Their primary clientele are clinicians and administrators who have patient care, professional development, or educational needs for information access. In addition, they provide curricular support to the clinical education of undergraduate and graduate health sciences faculty and students. AHEC librarians provide reference service, interlibrary loan, collection management, and perform many administrative tasks for the AHEC. Three areas of librarian expertise are particularly important. clinical reference, educational support, and outreach services.

This chapter reviews significant advances in health sciences librarianship, highlighting developments between 1970 and 2005. During this time Advances in Librarianship published two chapters that dealt with health sciences librarianship. The first appeared in 1971 with volume two. Written by David Bishop (1971), then at the University of Arizona, it focused on developments in the 1960s and provided a review of the MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) system, the beginnings of the regional medical library (RML) program and advances in library services and information resources. The second chapter devoted to health sciences libraries appeared in the ninth volume of Advances in Librarianship. In it Donald Hendricks (1979) from the University of New Orleans highlighted collaborative programs among health sciences libraries, the growing reliance on computer applications, professional development programs, clinical medical librarian services and the accomplishments of the Medical Library Association (MLA).

This study aims to highlight the role of librarians as an essential element in medical research. For this purpose, the primary research process was divided into three phases: before, during and after. Then, the roles of librarians associated with each phase were separated and the viewpoint of researchers and librarians on the importance of these roles were considered and compared.

This comparative, descriptive-causal research was conducted using the census method. Birjand University, a type-2 university in the field of Medical Sciences according to the rating of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, was selected for the study. The participants were all faculty members and all librarians working in the university’s libraries. The data collection tool was a questionnaire made by authors. Its validity was confirmed by four professors of Library Science, and questionnaire design expert and its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89. Data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, using descriptive statistics.

From the perspective of researchers, awareness-raising for open access resources, determination of standard subject keywords on the basis of Medical Subject Headings for articles and scientific texts and using scientific research findings as a basis for preventing duplicate studies in future research are the most important roles for librarians in the three stages of medical research. From the perspective of librarians, the use of knowledge management skills, searching scientific information as review of the literature and also selecting standard keywords to search the databases and providing health-care professionals with the findings of latest scientific research have the highest place in the different stages of the research lifecycle.

The difference between the viewpoints of librarians and researchers about the role of medical librarians at the various stages of the research lifecycle shows that there are significant gaps between the librarians’ services and users’ expectations. It is expected that through learning modern professional skills, medical librarians can assume new roles in medical research and make their capabilities known and available to researchers.

Health sciences librarians no longer find themselves only staffing reference desks or building collections. Their activities range from being active participants in health‐care teams to providing training to the general public. Emerging roles are surfacing in all arenas served by health sciences libraries: educational, clinical, research, and administration. Librarians are meeting new skill demands by re‐educating both on the job and through traditional coursework. New types of positions are being explored and new partnerships with health‐care colleagues are being forged. This article highlights the reasons why these new opportunities exist and provides references to articles contained within this journal issue.

The emerging roles of health sciences librarians are considered within the context of changes and challenges facing both the profession of librarianship and the library. Suggests that the emerging – and increasingly relevant – roles of health sciences librarians contribute to the establishment of health sciences libraries’ centrality within their institutions. Rationale is provided for library and information science professionals outside the health sciences arena to maintain awareness of emerging roles, evolving status, and contributions of their colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the value of the MSLS degree in health sciences library settings.

This is a discourse and preliminary analysis supported with research from the literature.

The value of the MSLS degree in the health sciences library setting is well recognized. Health sciences librarians’ efforts to evaluate and quantify positive impact of services can provide a useful model for the information and library science field.

As this is a preliminary discussion, an exhaustive literature analysis was not undertaken.

A model for empirical-based research, borne out of the health sciences library specialty, can contribute to more effective methods for evaluating general library service and the overall value of the MSLS degree.

Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) evolved from an innovative method of teaching residents to use published literature for patient care. The missing piece to this critical appraisal approach was the skills needed to find the “best evidence” to use. Acknowledgment of this need provided many opportunities for librarians to become partners in the care process, including changes in provision of collections and services, modifications in searching skills (comprehensive vs clinical), and planning and educating undergraduates and graduates across the health disciplines. Librarians have increased their skills, made changes in practice, and become more important in educating and providing resources for practicing clinicians.