By CJ Gracia  (Health Science Librarian, Creighton University Libraries, 3100 N. Central Ave., Suite 220, Phoenix, AZ 85012; Phone: 602-812-3148) 

Column Editor:  Michelle Flinchbaugh  (Digital Scholarship Services Librarian, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD  21250;  Phone: 410-455-3544) 

Against the Grain V38#4

In the Spring of 2024, the Creighton University Libraries learned of a newly developed MS program in Health Informatics (MSHI).  This fully online, asynchronous program needed an assigned liaison — a decision complicated by the interdisciplinary and emerging nature of the field, as well as by the newness of the program.  Following several conversations, I was chosen, as our newest health sciences librarian, to be the liaison to health informatics.  I was made liaison for a few reasons.  In addition to my health sciences librarianship background, I have a strong background in research data management.  Given the prominet data science focus of the MSHI program, I was well positioned to meet the needs of the program.  Additionally, my (limited) programming knowledge did help me to understand the more technical, computer science aspects of the curriculum.  I also had experience liaising with asynchronous online programs, so the particularities of virtual reference and instruction were not a challenge.

As an emerging, multidisciplinary field, health informatics has not been well-studied as a liaison area in the LIS literature, nor are there the robust professional resources to lean on like those that you might find for medicine or nursing programs.  As such, it often felt like I was developing a liaison program on the fly, learning what I could from professional organization websites, Google, and what LibGuides I was able to find from other institutions. 

I also had to consider the program’s context within Creighton University — a mid-sized, R2, Jesuit institution.  This was an entirely new, online program with few resources.  At the time the program launched, there were only three enrolled students and two full-time faculty — one of whom left the institution before the first class began.  Additionally, while Creighton University does offer some fully online programs, these are limited, and we do not have a robust support network for online instruction like other, larger institutions. 

As such, the director leaned on the library as a pivotal source of additional support.  This proved to be a great boon for the library, as this laid the foundation for a strong relationship between the library and the health informatics program, turning it into a strong example of what embedded librarianship can look like for an online program.  The program includes an extensive, real-world capstone program that requires students to put their skills to work at the end of the program.  The capstone itself begins in the second year of the program, but students begin brainstorming ideas and approving their projects within their first semester.  Since most students are working professionals, many choose to apply the skills they learn in the program directly to their current place of employment — demonstrating real, employable skills.

This capstone project was quickly identified by the program director as an opportunity for library engagement.  Students might need help finding datasets, managing research data, conducting literature searches, and more.  As students were also encouraged to disseminate the results of their capstone project, there was also an opportunity for the library to provide scholarly communication and research support. 

The first step to this integration was converting a series of Word documents with lists of data sources and resources into a LibGuide.  This enabled the documents to turn into a living resource, gradually expanding as the faculty identified additional resources.  They also directed students to the guide as part of their required coursework, creating greater student exposure to library resources and support services.  This guide was also embedded in all Canvas courses in the program and linked in every syllabus, maximizing visibility and demonstrating program support for the library.

In addition to the LibGuide, I was embedded throughout the capstone process.  My information was included in all capstone documents, I was cc’ed on all related emails, and the faculty directly referred students to me as appropriate.  For the first run of the capstone course, the program required students to meet with me.  However, there were some complications with this approach.  First, depending on students’ project direction and prior knowledge, not all students needed an immediate consultation.  Second, the asynchronous nature of the course made it difficult for some students to find time to meet with me.  As a result, future iterations encouraged but did not require students to meet with me and prioritized asynchronous support that better matched the nature of the curriculum.

Over time, the guide became the go-to resource for expanding support for students.  Given the asynchronous nature of the curriculum, the LibGuide was a favored way of getting information to students.  As students progressed through the program, faculty noted several student skill gaps that there wasn’t room to address in the coursework.  This included a lack of foundational digital literacy skills and a lack of data science and visualization skills.  Consequently, the guide was expanded to include resources on these topics, and faculty shared these resources with students in need.

In addition to the guide, I also collaborated with the program director to implement a library orientation to the introduction course.  Rather than a static video, I proposed a simple digital scavenger hunt that walked students through the library website, introduced key resources, and demonstrated how to contact me.  An answer key was provided to the course’s instructor of record and was implemented as a required, graded assignment.  Feedback from both faculty and students has been positive, and the graded nature of the assignment again puts library resources front and center, demonstrating our value to the students. 

One of the more interesting aspects of being a liaison to a health informatics program is how it sits at the intersection of “traditional” liaison librarianship and data librarianship.  As a data-heavy field and curriculum, being a liaison to these students required me to draw on my data services skills, as well as provided insights into how we can improve our data services university-wide.  One major component of my support for capstone students is helping to find secondary datasets for reuse.  For students without access to their own data through their employer, it is crucial that they have access to high-quality, real-world data to demonstrate their skills.  While data discovery has typically taken a backseat to data management plans and data sharing in the library landscape, my university has seen an uptick in requests for data discovery, including my work with the health informatics students and dedicated instruction sessions for other programs.  Working with the health informatics program to support data discovery has not only demonstrated our value in this area but helped the library refine how we teach these skills elsewhere in our work.

The library’s role in supporting the data work of the health informatics students caught the attention of the program’s director.  She is a well-known figure on campus whom other faculty and staff often come to for help accessing, cleaning, and visualizing data.  As we have worked together and our relationship has grown, she has come to be a library champion, frequently promoting us, connecting us to researchers in need, and making introductions to other people on campus working in the data landscape.  This has led to increased visibility of our data services, an increased number of research data-related consultations, and new relationships formed with individuals across campus who we may never have met otherwise. 

While being a health informatics liaison was a new experience for me, it drew upon my expertise and interest areas and provided an excellent opportunity to develop relationships at the ground level of a new program.  This relationship has grown into a strong partnership with embedded librarianship.  While liaison and functional librarians often work in tandem, my experience has shown that by combining strong liaison relationships with specialty expertise, libraries can build even stronger relationships and demonstrate our value to our university communities.