Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

McGowan Recognized by National Library of Medicine

May 25th, 2017

Purdue University Libraries Assistant Professor and Medical Librarian Bethany McGowan has been tapped as a “Rock Star Librarian” by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). McGowan was featured, along with four other medical librarians, on the National Library of Medicine’s website Wednesday. You can read the article at infocus.nlm.nih.gov/2017/05/24/rock-star-medical-librarians-todays-headliners/.

Last month, McGowan was also featured in the VOLUMe, Purdue University Libraries’ bi-annual newsletter. Her contribution to the Spring 2017 issue is just below.

Information Literacy and Improved Health

by Bethany McGowan

At Purdue University Libraries, I am in the unique position to teach health-care providers the information literacy skills that lead to better-informed clinical decisions.

In my role as Health Sciences Information Specialist, I teach the information literacy competencies and evidence-based practices that health-care professionals need to recognize and use quality health information. One of my favorite things about my work is teaching students with a range of research experience, from undergraduates, who are just beginning to explore their interests in entry-level nutrition classes, to graduate nursing students, who are able to put what they have learned to use in clinical settings immediately.

Most of my teaching is focused on conveying the link between health information literacy and evidence-based practices. The Medical Library Association defines health information literacy as the “set of abilities needed to recognize a health information need; identify likely information sources and use those sources to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of information and its applicability to a specific situation; and analyze, understand, and use information to make good health decisions.” Evidence-based practices complement health information literacy by supporting the integration of clinical expertise, patient values, and current research evidence into the decision-making process for patient care.

Noteworthy projects I have been involved in include a collaboration with the Purdue Discovery Learning Research Center, in which we presented hackathon opportunities that encouraged participants to use open health data. I shared the experience in a recent publication, “Hackathon Planning and Participation Strategies for Non-Techie Librarians.”

I also attended the 2016 Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Immersion Teaching Track Program and served as a teaching assistant for the Spring 2017 cohort of IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) Faculty Fellows. Both opportunities are helping me transform my teaching approach. In addition to instructional design principles, I am exploring how information and data visualizations, such as maps, can be used to convey complicated health information.

Finally, I am interested in encouraging health equity by accommodating for learner diversity. In the Fall of 2016, I attended the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Congress in Columbus as a Congress Fellow. This experience encouraged me to consider the global implications of my work, and I subsequently joined the American Library Association International Relations Committee. My future research will focus on exploring how empowering women and adolescent participation in open technology and culture can improve health information literacy, health literacy, and health outcomes.