Librarian and Information Professionals’ Contributions to Health Literacy: Scoping Review Protocol
Creators: name: Morgan, Jane
name: Ansell, Margaret
name: Houk, Kathryn
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Library and Information Science
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Rationale Hospital libraries have a long tradition of serving patients and the public through the provision of consumer health information. This service has been occurring long before the concept of health literacy was coined and defined in the early 2000s. Trends in declining hospital libraries and librarians, as well as expanded scope and programming in medical schools and training hospitals has led to diversifying roles in medical librarianship. Academic health libraries seem to be hiring and creating new librarian positions focused on health literacy, consumer health, and community engagement or outreach. The Network of the National Library of Medicine has also historically had positions focused on consumer health and outreach, as well as provides MedlinePlus, one of the premier online consumer health information resources in the United States. All of this change in medical librarianship, along with an increased focus on health disparities and social, environmental, and systemic factors that lead to poorer health outcomes in some communities, has put a larger focus on health literacy and how to improve it. The concepts of health literacy and the growing acknowledgement of its importance has led to training, research, and projects across multiple health fields. To date, there has been no review of how medical librarians are supporting health literacy efforts, what types of libraries and librarians are doing this work, and even whether librarians and information professionals supporting health literacy efforts recognize it as such. Review Objectives To determine what types of librarians and information professionals are working within health literacy; which types of people most often receive health literacy-related services; where the work is primarily taking place, determine earliest mention of health literacy librarianship in literature and chart development of job role overtime; to determine how health literacy librarianship is defined and how it relates to definitions of community engagement, community outreach, and consumer health librarianship; determine how health literacy and impact are assessed; and perceived barriers and facilitators to job performance. This scoping review will seek to gain a better understanding of the past and current landscape of health literacy work being undertaken by librarians and information professionals across all library sectors. During this review, we also expect to uncover the primary audience for health literacy-related services from librarians, perceived barriers and facilitators to the work being done, and how impact of the work or participation by information professionals is measured and evaluated. A map of the evolution of position titles and library types, areas of focus in health literacy support, and the role of outreach and engagement in the work will inform a report on the current state of health literacy work in librarianship and future areas for research.