Grant Program to Partner Medical Faculty with Information Specialists

The College of Medicine’s Office of Research has partnered with the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library on a grant program to facilitate research collaborations between full-time faculty and librarians/information specialists (informationists). The program seeks to enhance collaborative, multi-disciplinary basic and clinical research by integrating an informationist and/or librarian into the research team in order to enhance research success. In addition to directly impacting a research project, this program is designed to help College of Medicine faculty take advantage of new capacities in the Libraries that can enhance study design, data collection and data presentation.

Please join us in congratulating the College of Medicine-Health Sciences Library Grant Recipients:

• Silvi Shah, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology; Tiffany Grant, PhD and Emily Kean, MSLS, UC Health Sciences Library. Project Title: Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Chronic Kidney Disease.
• Bain Butcher, M.D., M.F.A., Department of Family and Community Medicine; Don Jason, MLS, MS, UC Health Sciences Library. Project Title: Transdisciplinary Collaboration between HSL (informationist) and the UC Social Innovation Lab.
• Jeffery Hill, MD MEd, Department of Emergency Medicine; Don Jason, MLS, MS, UC Health Sciences Library. Project Title: Integrating Clinical Informationists into a Knowledge Translation and Quality Improvement Project Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Residents.
• Nanhua Zhang, PhD, Department of Pediatrics; Tara Rhine, MD MS, Department of Pediatrics; Tiffany Grant, PhD and Emily Kean, MSLS, UC Health Sciences Library. Project Title: Serum Biomarkers for Traumatic Brain Injury in Children: A Meta-Analysis of Accuracy.
• Halima Moncrieffe, PhD, Department of Pediatrics; Tiffany Grant, PhD, University Libraries, Don Jason, MLS, MS, UC Health Sciences Library. Project Title:Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) Viral Load and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries’ mission is to empower discovery, stimulate learning and inspire the creation of knowledge by connecting students, faculty, researchers and scholars to dynamic data, information and resources. As part of this mission, the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library hired informationists who work closely with health researchers and clinicians. Informationists are health sciences librarians who have graduate training and practical experience in the biomedical, behavioral or biological sciences and in library and information sciences/informatics. Their cross training provides them with a unique perspective on the acquisition, synthesis, management and use of data in research. Informationists work with research scientists and health professionals as team members. The Health Sciences Library employs informationists and several librarians with expertise in areas ranging from data management, health informatics, bioinformatics, systematic reviews, molecular biology and a number of other data and literature related fields.

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In other grant news…UC Libraries’ informationists Don Jason, Amy Koshoffer and librarian Sharon Purtee are recipients of a National Institutes of Health Administrative Supplement grant. The project, led by Erin Haynes, associate professor of environmental health and titled “Developmental Effects of Manganese Exposure in Rural Adolescents: The CARES Cohort Comes of Age” will utilize the research and data expertise of UC Libraries informationists and librarians.

“The faculty and staff of UC Libraries are dynamically engaged partners with colleges, departments and units throughout the university,” said Leslie Schick, senior associate dean of library services and director of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library. “These two grant initiatives show the vital role librarians and informationists play in research, teaching, learning and clinical practice as we facilitate and foster new collaborations and partnerships that advance the university’s mission.”

For more information on how informationists can partner in and facilitate research, contact Tiffany Grant at joffritm@ucmail.uc.edu or (513)558-9153.