Experimenting Outside the Information Center:
Non-Traditional Roles for Information Professionals in Biomedical Research

About the Project

As biomedical research becomes increasingly complex and collaborative in nature, the information needs of users conducting research continue to grow. Several non-traditional roles for information professionals have been established in the sciences to support biomedical research. However, there is little precedent for information professionals to participate in biomedical research collaboration beyond the role of a librarian as an information researcher. In the highly competitive field of scientific research, librarians and information specialists are poised to contribute significant skills to creating, supporting and extending research collaborations. This project will explore emerging roles for librarians in today’s biomedical research collaborations. It will also provide recommendations for optimizing biomedical research collaborations with the inclusion of information professionals.

We Want to Speak with You

If you’re an information professional or librarian working in biomedical research in a capacity other than a traditional information researcher, we want to talk to you! Even if you’re not sure you’d qualify, please contact us, anyway. We’re interested in all the different ways information professionals are working in biomedical research.

We have completed the recruitment phase of this project and have made plans to meet with participants across the United States. If you would like to be interviewed for this project via video conference (or in person, if you happen to be located near one of our research destinations), please send us a message via e-mail.   

About the Investigators

We are two information professionals who identify as “special librarians.” Special librarians are information resource experts who collect, analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate information to facilitate accurate decision-making in corporate, academic, and government settings.

Emily Glenn holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Oregon and an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her coursework at UNC focused on archives and special collections and information management. She also held a graduate fellowship at the US Environmental Protection Agency (RTP). She is currently the Information Specialist and Library Services Coordinator at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI). She was the first librarian at SBRI  as a recipient of a 2007-2008 Learning Partnership fellowship sponsored by the Grace and Harold Sewell Fund Memorial Fund.  SBRI is the largest independent, non-profit organization in the United States focused solely on infectious disease discovery research. By partnering with key collaborators around the globe, the Institute aims to make discoveries that will prevent, treat, and eliminate the world’s most devastating infectious diseases. Contact: emily.glenn <AT> sbri <DOT> org

Betsy Rolland holds a BA in Russian Languages and Literature from Northwestern University and a Master of Library and Information Science from the Information School at the University of Washington. Her coursework at the UW focused on the development of information systems for biomedical research collaborations and included courses in HCI, usability testing and biomedical and health informatics. She is currently employed as the Project Manager for the Asia Cohort Consortium Coordinating Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle, WA. The Asia Cohort Consortium is a biomedical research collaboration comprised of more than a dozen Asia-based cohort studies seeking to build a collective cohort of over a million people. A cohort of this magnitude ensures sufficient power of analysis for statistically rare events like cancer. Data from these studies will be pooled and analyzed at the FHCRC. Contact: brolland <AT> fhcrc <DOT> org

Support and Funding

This research is supported in part by a 2008 SLA Research Grant. SLA is the international association representing the interests of thousands of information professionals in over eighty countries worldwide. This research grant focuses on professional competence and accountability through consciously and consistently making professional-level decisions that are based on the strongest evidence of what works best for our clients.

Read more about the SLA Research Grant at http://www.sla.org/content/resources/scholargrant/resgrant/index.cfm.

This research study has been approved by the Western Institutional Review Board (study number 1108613).

Thank you for your interest in our project.

DISLAIMER: This project is the work of the Authors (Glenn and Rolland) and does not reflect the views of SLA or the views of our employers.