Dataset Information

Knowledge sharing practices among African health sciences librarians.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge sharing practices among health sciences librarians in African countries.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey design was employed. The study population consisted of African health sciences librarians that attended the 16^th Biennial Conference of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa on October 14-18, 2019, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results

The types of knowledge most commonly shared by respondents were information on conferences, workshops, and seminars as well as information on new trends and technologies in librarianship. The main avenue of knowledge sharing was face-to-face interaction. Unwillingness to share knowledge and a lack of awareness about current trends and issues were the top identified challenges to knowledge sharing.

Conclusion

These survey results establish the existence of a low level of knowledge sharing among health science librarians in Africa and suggest that concerted efforts should be made to overcome barriers to knowledge sharing within and across African countries.

SUBMITTER: Olayemi OM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8608209 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Knowledge sharing practices among African health sciences librarians.

Olayemi Olalekan Moses OM Olayemi Kemi Jummai KJ

Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA 20211001 4

<h4>Objective</h4>The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge sharing practices among health sciences librarians in African countries.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional survey design was employed. The study population consisted of African health sciences librarians that attended the 16<sup>th</sup> Biennial Conference of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa on October 14-18, 2019, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Data were collected using a questionna ...[more]

PMID: 34858093

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Project description:ObjectiveWhile many librarians have been asked to participate in systematic reviews with researchers, often these researchers are not familiar with the systematic review process or the appropriate role for librarians. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and barriers that librarians face when collaborating on systematic reviews. To take a wider view of the whole process of collaborating on systematic reviews, the authors deliberately focused on interpersonal and methodological issues other than searching itself.MethodsTo characterize the biggest challenges that librarians face while collaborating on systematic review projects, we used a web-based survey. The thirteen-item survey included seventeen challenges grouped into two categories: methodological and interpersonal. Participants were required to indicate the frequency and difficulty of the challenges listed. Open-ended questions allowed survey participants to describe challenges not listed in the survey and to describe strategies used to overcome challenges.ResultsOf the 17 challenges listed in the survey, 8 were reported as common by over 40% of respondents. These included methodological issues around having too broad or narrow research questions, lacking eligibility criteria, having unclear research questions, and not following established methods. The remaining challenges were interpersonal, including issues around student-led projects and the size of the research team. Of the top 8 most frequent challenges, 5 were also ranked as most difficult to handle. Open-ended responses underscored many of the challenges included in the survey and revealed several additional challenges.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the most frequent and challenging issues relate to development of the research question and general communication with team members. Clear protocols for collaboration on systematic reviews, as well as a culture of mentorship, can help librarians prevent and address these challenges.

Dataset Information

Knowledge sharing practices among African health sciences librarians.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Knowledge sharing practices among African health sciences librarians.

Similar Datasets

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