Educating Future Health Sciences Librarians: A Training Program for Graduate Students

Background: This presentation will discuss a novel training program for our graduate students that builds their awareness of health sciences librarianship. The program will teach them skills that will increase their marketability after graduation. In order to train the next generation of health sciences librarians, it’s imperative that we bridge the gap between what students learn in library school and skills needed to excel on the job. The goal of our six-month training program was to help fuel interest in health sciences librarianship and teach entry level skills to future health sciences librarians.

Description: Our medical library was awarded a graduate assistant (GA) for the 2019-2020 academic year. After a GA was hired, we sought to develop a series of trainings that would both enrich the GA’s academic studies in librarianship and enhance their interest in becoming a medical librarian. The courses that were offered ranged from 1.5 to 2 hours in length, and covered topics such as basic and advanced searching, evidence-based practice, scholarly communications, research data management, and systematic reviews.

Conclusion: Feedback will be requested that will gauge whether or not the courses offered were beneficial, what we could improve, if the courses supplemented their academic studies, and whether or not the trainings increased their interest in becoming a health sciences librarian.