HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 10th December 2025, 11:00 – 11:45am

Our next journal club meeting will be hosted by Gerry McManus, Library & Information Services, St. Vincent’s University Hospital.

View Gerry’s presentation slides

Article:

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 18 July 2024, 11:00 – 11:45am

Our next journal club meeting will be hosted by Delia Foley, Library Learning Support, SETU Libraries.

View Delia’s presentation slides

Discussion Questions

• How do you deal with Google/Google Scholar in your library training?
• Discuss the good side to Google. Does being able to search Google transfer to being able to search library databases?
• Does Google Scholar and its Library Links feature lead students/researchers/healthcare staff to researching with library resources?
• Discuss the importance and value of accepting what students are using and working with that resource to guide students to library resources.
• The article highlights the need for a library training course to be “informative, but light-hearted” (p. 92). Do you have any suggestions on how to do this? What has worked for you?

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 23 May 2024, 11:00 – 11:45am

Our next journal club meeting will be hosted by Nicola O’Shea, Assistant Librarian in CHI at Crumlin.

Nicola’s slides are available to view here: Journal Club E-Book use by healthcare staff

Discussion Questions:

• What kind of e-book provision is in place in your institution, and has it changed in any way since 2020 as a result of pandemic/cyber attack/increasing costs?
• The article found that users value support from librarians. Do you provide support or training materials specific to e-books?
• Do you collect feedback from your users re e-books? Format preferences, barriers to access, purchase recommendations etc. Would this article encourage you to investigate your own users experiences with e-books?
• A number of actions resulted from the research to improve visibility, promotion, and training around e-books. Do you think they could be implemented to improve usage in your institution? Are you doing similar initiatives already?
• Are e-books worth it?

The journal club is always welcoming new members – membership is open to everyone included in the HSLG email discussion list. If you wish to join please email contacthslg@gmail.com.

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 9 November 2023, 11:00 – 11:45am

Our next journal club meeting will be hosted by Bennery Rickard, Area Library Manager for HSE East.

Bennery’s slides are available to view here: VJC Bennery Rickard Presentation

The journal club is always welcoming new members – membership is open to everyone included in the HSLG email discussion list. If you wish to join please email contacthslg@gmail.com.

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 7 September 2023, 11:00 – 11:45am

Hosted by Noeleen Murtagh, Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

Article: Cox, A. M., & Mazumdar, S. (2022). Defining artificial intelligence for librarians. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221142029

Noeleen’s questions for discussion:

1. Does your organisation have an Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy?
2. The authors suggest 5 different types of use of AI in libraries, do you agree with these, or can you think of others?
3. Do you see a role for your library with AI?
4. Should librarians feel threatened by AI?
5. Do you see an impact of AI on equality and diversity in the library profession?

To view a PDF of Noeleen’s presentation please click this link: Journal Club Presentation 07/09/2023

Below are some additional resources mentioned in the discussion:

What is artificial intelligence and how is it used? | News | European Parliament (europa.eu)

CILIP AI hub – CILIP: the library and information association

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 4 May 2023, 11:00 – 11:45am

Hosted by Fiona Lawler, Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services.

Article: Briscoe S. (2023). Errors to avoid when searching for studies for systematic reviews: A guide for nurse researchers. International journal of older people nursing, e12533. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/opn.12533

Fiona Lawler’s Suggested Questions:

1. What are your overall thoughts of the paper and can you identify with the list of common search errors covered in the commentary?
2. Do you have much involvement supporting researchers in the development of search strategies for systematic reviews or any other types of literature reviews? What are the main issues/challenges that you face?
3. Do you have personal experience of reviewing search strategies for peer review? e.g. using the PRESS checklist
4. What further steps can we, in the HSLG community, take to support researchers in avoiding search errors?
5. Any other thoughts, ideas?

To view a PDF of Fiona’s presentation please click this link: HSLG Journal club presentation 04/05/2023

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 1 December 2022, 11:00 – 11:45am

Data tracking in research: aggregation and use or sale of usage data by academic publishers (DFG, German Research Foundation) 28 October 2021: Click to access detentracking papier PDF

Hosted by Caitriona Lee, Health Research Board

For a PDF of Caitriona’s presentation, including some very useful references and sources for further information please click the following link: HSLG_Journal_Club-Data_Privacy_in_our_libraries

Questions to ponder

• What level of awareness do we individually and collectively as a profession have of the issues of data privacy described in this report?
• What level of awareness do we need to have, and how much IT knowledge do we need to understand what is in question?
• What choice can health librarians realistically have on this issue given that 1) we usually have little control over many IT-related questions, and 2) we have to supply e-journals and e-books to our readership.
• We probably trust our vendors with our data, but do we know what they do with it?
• There has been quite a lot of coverage of this topic in the literature from public and academic librarians but not much from health – are there reasons that health librarians might not write about this?
• Is there an expectation that privacy is in practice a thing of the past – that to use any online resources, a person must accept being tracked not just by the library and the vendor but by third parties who purchase the data. Is the philosophy of privacy as a right a fading idea – that as long as purchasers of user data do not leak the data or harm the user directly, they are entitled to track users around the net?
• We typically give library users information about data protection and use of cookies on our library websites – do we think the users read the notices, understand what is implied and perhaps change their cookie settings, or do we all just click OK to all and go straight to what we want?
• This paper is from Germany but a lot of the work on this topic has been published by American librarians – are we less at risk in Europe with our data protection laws, or do we assume we are?
• If this is the current state of play, what data will the publishers/vendors/conglomerates look for next?

HSLG Virtual Journal Club, 16 September 2021, 11am – 11.45am

Niamh O’Sullivan will be presenting on fake news, guided by the following two open access articles:

The Covid-19 ‘infodemic’: a new front for information professionals
Salman Bin Naeem and Rubina Bhatti (2020) Health Information and Libraries Journal doi:10.1111/hir.12311

Infodemic in a pandemic – critical thinking needed By Trish Patton, Assistant Librarian/Information Office, Irish College of General Practitioners
Feature article in Forum Journal for GPs, December 2020, ICGP.

Additional reading (not for discussion): An exploration of how fake news is taking over social media and putting public health at risk Salman Bin Naeem, Rubina Bhatti, Aqsa Khan (2020) Health Information and Libraries Journal https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12320

At the journal club, Niamh plans to discuss the following topics:

• infodemics, types of mis/dis information and the consequences of all three.
• The role health sciences librarians can play to stem the flow.
• The best tools and resources to combat fake news and mis/dis information.

And ask the following questions:

• How much impact can health sciences librarians realistically have on the spread of fake news?
• What resources and tools do you currently use to help users find authoritative information?
• How can we, in the HSL community, better prepare ourselves for the next infodemic?

Niamh’s presentation – Fake News presentation for HSLG Journal Club 16 Sept 2021

Useful websites and tools for evaluating health information (Source, Trish Patton article):
• Informed Health Choices: https://www.informedhealthchoices.org/
• iHealthFacts: https://ihealthfacts.ie/
• Be Media Smart: https://www.bemediasmart.ie/
• CRAP: https://sites.google.com/site/crapcraaptest/
• SPAT: http://www.spat.pitt.edu/
• DISCERN: http://www.discern.org.uk/

The recordings from this year’s LIR seminar series ‘Shining a light in a post-truth era’ have been added to the LIR website https://lirgroup.heanet.ie/index.php/2021/04/01/shining-a-light-in-a-post-truth-era/. The talks are also available on the LIR You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRxbx2KELUTuV5ot_kv1Frw