Trends and Innovation@HSL 2013-2014

  • University Library strategic plan completed – The Library and the Mission of the University: A Plan for Supporting Research Teaching, and Service, 2013-2018 was completed. HSL’s planning priorities have been and will continue to be aligned with the University and the Library.
  • Campus leadership – Chancellor Holden Thorp’s resignation and the appointment of Carol Folt effective July 1, 2013; appointment of James Dean, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, UNC’s chief academic officer who also oversees the University Library. Warren Newton will replace Tom Bacon as Director of the Area Health Educations Centers Program (NC AHEC). A new head of UNC Development will be named in Fall 2013.
  • HSL leadership – Carol Jenkins retired on June 30, 2013 and Jim Curtis is serving as interim HSL Director.
  • HSL staff changes – Staff changes bring opportunities and challenges as new staff get to know and establish relationships with individuals and the groups served by the HSL.
  • Campus environment – In Fall 2012, HSL management council met with liaisons and reviewed changes in the campus environment and implications for HSL. After the January retreat, we prepared this summary of the major changes across all HSL constituent groups.

Research Lifecycle Trends

  • The Schools of Dentistry and Nursing are experiencing a heightened focus on research; the Department of Allied Health Sciences (AHS) is moving toward comparative effectiveness research; and AHS and the Schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Medicine are focusing on quality improvement and interdisciplinary research.
  • Seventy-five percent of the total $777,838,265.98 research awards to the University in 2013 was acquired by faculty with primary appointments in the five health affairs schools.
  • As libraries serve at every stage of the research cycle, new needs for knowledge and data management resources and services are emerging in team science.

Transformative Teaching and Learning Trends

  • Collaboration – Fran Allegri created a Sakai site for UNC faculty and staff interested or working on initiatives to create transformative teaching and learning experiences for students and participants of educational programs. The site is open to anyone interested. Allegri and Carol Hunter are co-leaders of a new group of collaborators that include representatives from University Libraries, the School of Information and Library Science (SILS), the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE), and Information Technology Services – Teaching and Learning (ITS-TL).
  • The focus of UNC Chapel Hill health professional education programs is on training educators and researchers.
  • Health manpower shortages are driving enrollment increases and regional campuses.
  • Curricular reform is evident in the development of new programs (Physician Assistant program in AHS), regional campuses (two in Medicine and two in Pharmacy) and revisions in all UNC health professional educational programs. These provide changing roles for libraries in teaching and providing access to both resources and services on and off campus, and in clinical practice settings.
  • More distributed community-based clinical rotations and development of quality teaching practices are occurring in AHEC, Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Public Health.
  • Inter-professional education to work in health care teams, expanding members and titles for the teams, e.g. health coach (AHEC, Medicine, AHS, Social work, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health)
  • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and open educational resources (OER) are being discussed across campus and four MOOCs are currently under development. Brad Hemminger initiated an OER group that includes SILS, CFE and Libraries (Emily King and Fran Allegri). Librarians have offered to serve on all 4 MOOC development teams. Music and Law accepted offers; Public Health and SILS did not need library services.
  • No deficits in information resources were identified by constituent groups except Allied Health.

Service to UNC Community and Beyond Trends

  • A trend in expanding health care systems is driving large hospitals to buy out smaller hospitals and consolidating under large systems.
  • Health manpower shortages especially in primary care and in rural areas of NC (not Pharmacy).
  • New positions in health care are emerging like nurse navigators and health coaches.
  • An increasing interest in informatics (Medicine, UNC Health Care, and Public Health) is occurring.
  • Implementation of Health Information Technology and an interest in training, meeting certifications is occurring in AHEC, SILS, the School of Medicine and UNC Health Care.

Implications: HSL is challenged to meet increasing demand for liaison services and providing access to resources needed by changing programs, expanding health care systems, and remote users. As a library, we need to rethink collections and service models.

HSL’s liaison program focuses on outreach. The problem with being out of the library is that liaisons are out of the Library. This presents special challenges for communications and collaboration. Some faculty members complain they cannot reach their liaison by phone. Scheduling meetings are a challenge, and lately liaisons have little opportunity to coalesce as a team, share best practices, challenges and updates. Phones and Skype conferences work in outreach and are used in some cases for collaboration with library staff. It is evident that libraries have opportunities for new roles despite uncertain expectations, which can be challenging and stressful.

HSL faces major challenges in building staff expertise to meet emerging needs in knowledge and data management. Strategies may include recruitment, reallocation, training and staff development. As schools and programs put more emphasis on research, outcomes measurement, and informatics, this has implications for our collections, services, and technologies.

Licensing and access issues run across all groups that we serve. Many in the UNC community are working around existing access systems in order to give their colleagues and students access to resources needed in research, teaching, learning, and professional practice.

Investing in Success

Development

  • The number of donors increased for the third consecutive year and we increased our total dollars-raised as well. Both of these occurred during a down year for the University as a whole. HSL donor base increased 6 percent while UNC Chapel Hill saw a 3 percent decrease in donors. HSL raised 49 percent more money in 2012/2013, while UNC’s total dollars decreased 15 percent.

Demonstrating and Communicating our Value

  • National Study Illustrates HSL’s Value for Clinical Decision Making and Patient Study – An independent North American study conducted in 2011 found that clinicians based at UNC Hospitals placed a very high value on HSL, higher than the average across all 56 participating institutions. Responding UNC clinicians told interviewers that our resources and services played a role in avoiding misdiagnosis, adverse drug reactions, medication errors, mortality and unnecessary surgery.
Last modified: 12/08/16