Each May, the Medical Library Association (MLA) holds its annual conference where librarians in health sciences settings come together to share and learn from each other. Several librarians from the Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) were at the conference to share their insights on key facets of academic health librarianship through posters, papers, panels and immersion sessions.

Academic librarians in HSL have position expectations to provide service to the profession and share their scholarship in the same way faculty do. The Medical Library Association is the main professional home for HSL’s academic librarians to provide service and share their scholarship. This year seven staff members traveled to Milwaukee, WI to participate in the conference and its very cheese-forward theme! 

Librarian expertise in evidence synthesis projects

Librarians bring expert searching skills to teams engaged in evidence synthesis projects such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and narrative reviews (to name a few methodologies). HSL librarians are heavily involved in this work and partner with research teams across the health sciences who need to systematically search literature to answer clinical questions or are looking to map the literature on a broad topic and write a scoping review.

Because evidence synthesis is considered core work for HSL’s librarians, the library has engaged in a collaborative learning environment to bring together experienced and newer librarians to learn about the process. HSL librarians Nicole Theis-Mahon, Melissa Ernst, Brooke Olson, Merete Christianson and Ryn Gagen (along with colleagues from the University of Buffalo) shared their reflections on how our apprentice-model of learning the best practices of how to support evidence synthesis made a difference to their skill-level and confidence at an immersion session that was well attended and prompted good conversations.

Melissa Ernst led a team of dental librarians to present on their project Post PRISMA-S: Librarian Involvement in Dental & Oral Health Systematic Reviews.  “This research looks at how reporting of systematic review searching has changed since the introduction of the PRISMA-Search (PRISMA-S) guidelines in 2021, and whether adherence to these guidelines correlates to having a librarian on the project,” Ernst explained. “While in progress, this project will provide important information on overall adoption of the search reporting guidelines, and common mistakes and misconceptions on evidence synthesis projects that dental librarians can look for,” she added. 

Identifying retracted articles before they make their way into a completed systematic review article is important for scientific integrity and accuracy. Nicole Theis-Mahon shared findings on her work with two former HSL librarian colleagues on how to identify retracted articles in their session called Identifying retractions in systematic review searching: Five approaches. 

“This research used a sample of 43,544 retractions from the Retraction Watch database, with publication dates of 19470-2024, and assessed a based search hedge, optimized search hedge, Zotero, EndNote, and indexing terms across eight databases to determine which method was most effective in identifying retracted publications,” said Theis-Mahon.

Ultimately the research team found that Zotero was the best tool for identifying retractions, with a recall of over 99% across all databases. And now others can reproduce the work, with the protocol and search hedges are available in the Open Science Framework. 

Library involvement in accreditation

The health sciences accrediting bodies have criteria for access to library resources and expertise.  Our team of librarians for the Medical School, Brooke Olson, Merete Christianson, and Ryn Gagen shared their experience of providing librarian expertise to the Mortuary Science Program, including the expertise they provided through the program’s recent accreditation review.  

Michael LuBrant, Program Director, along with the accreditation team shared the value of the work of the library and librarians in this process with this commendation in their review: “The mortuary science program library collection of current publications, historical collection and virtual lab is unique to the university and not found in many other programs. The library staff shows enthusiastic support for Mortuary Science students, MSP instruction and research.” 

New ways of thinking about the liaison librarian model

HSL uses what is known in librarianship as a liaison librarian model where a librarian or a team of librarians are assigned to work with each health science college/school at UMN.

The liaison model is undergoing shifts nationwide due to limited financial resources for library hiring and HSL’s Senior Director Erinn Aspinall and Associate Director Lisa McGuire were part of an immersion session at MLA with other colleagues to share insights on how the liaison model is evolving to incorporating a team approach for providing instruction, consultation and evidence synthesis collaboration. “It’s so valuable to learn how our peers across the nation are addressing common challenges,” said McGuire. “Together, we’re learning and sharing ways of leverage constraints to make our work more sustainable and impactful,” she added. 

New ways of thinking about the liaison librarian model

You cheddar believe that a gouda time was had by all the librarians from HSL at the 2026 Medical Library Association Conference. We’re looking forward to the 2027 conference in Denver.

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Medical Library Association 2026 sessions by HSL librarians:

• Brooke Olson, Ryn Gagen, Melissa Ernst, Merete Christianson and Nicole Theis-Mahon – Cheddar Together: The Power of Evidence-Synthesis Apprenticing  (Paper)
• Brooke Olson, Ryn Gagen, Merete Christianson – Integrating Medical Librarians into a Mortuary Science Program (Paper) 
• Melissa Ernst – Post PRISMA-S: Librarian Involvement in Dental & Oral Health Systematic Reviews (Paper)
• Nicole Theis-Mahon – Identifying retractions in systematic review searching: Five approaches (Paper)
• Nicole Theis-Mahon – Adaptation and Navigation: Collections in a Time of Change (Panel)
• Erinn Aspinall & Lisa McGuire – Reframing the Liaison Model for Sustainability & Impact (Immersion Session)