On April 19-21, 2010, HSLS offered another session of its popular Systematic Review Workshop: The Nuts and Bolts for Librarians. The focus of this intensive 2.5 day workshop is on literature search techniques for completing a successful systematic review. The first day examined why systematic reviews are done and how they contribute to the evidence base; publication bias and how a well-done literature search can overcome it; and, the librarian as collaborator and key player in the development of the systematic review’s literature search methodology. Day two examined which databases and grey literature resources to search as well as how to harvest literature search vocabulary. The last day looked at handsearching, project management and search delivery, and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines.
This is the second time the course was offered. Course evaluations have been very positive and include the following accolades:
“While I’ve done systematic reviews this course was invaluable in terms of new resources and validating past experience. It’s one of the most worthwhile workshops I’ve attended in a long time.”
“It’s rare that I attend a CE that I get excited about-but this is one of them! Great information. I learned new things and validated things I’m already doing. The instructors are great hosts and I’ve really enjoyed my time in Pittsburgh!”
April 2010 workshop participants came from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and San Francisco, California. Participants also included librarians from the University of Miami, University of Pennsylvania, University of Alberta, East Carolina University, Indiana University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, Kent State University, Midwestern University, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, UCSF Medical Center at Mt. Zion, Christiana Care Health System–Delaware, the Children’s National Medical Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and the Technology Evaluation Center–Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in Washington, D.C.
HSLS faculty librarian instructors were Linda Hartman, Mary Lou Klem, Melissa Ratajeski, Ahlam Saleh, and Charles Wessel.
HSLS will offer this course again in July 2010 for librarians and informaticians from the National Institutes of Health and other Department of Health and Human Services facilities. Another session is planned for November 2010.
For more information about this course, see “Supporting the Evidence: HSLS Systematic Review Workshop for Librarians” in the December 2009 issue of the HSLS Update.
~ Charlie Wessel