Buoyed by a Rising Tide: Information Literacy Sails into the Curriculum on the Currents of Evidence-Based Medicine and Professional Competency Objectives

This paper discusses how the information literacy efforts at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) have been supported by national trends within health science education to incorporate evidence-based medicine and problem-based learning into the curriculum. In addition, both accreditation agencies and national commissions have published documents supporting information literacy education for health science students. These trends and mandates in academic medicine have re-enforced faculty and administration support. Unlike many college and university libraries, the librarians at MCPHS are now in the position of being asked to provide more instruction than they can support. Responses to this situation have included an increase in reference staff, change in emphasis from reference services to teaching, learning and creating computer-based instruction programs, and enhanced collaboration and involvement with teaching faculty. The future, molded by these forces, holds the potential of offering librarians an opportunity to be key members of the evidence-based health care team; to allow librarians to adopt the same quantifiable research techniques into the practice of "evidence-based librarianship"; and to continue to boost information literacy efforts.