Web-based library instruction for a changing medical school curriculum

Library Trends, Summer, 2001 by Joan R. Kaplowitz, David O. Yamamoto

ABSTRACT

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES HOW LIBRARIANS AT THE UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library adapted to changes in the Medical School's curriculum, developed new ways to support the school's instructional goals, and provided information literacy instruction. Encouraged by the school's growing awareness of, and reliance upon, computerized information to support the educational process, librarians worked with faculty to develop new approaches that would meet the, changing needs of both student and teacher. Advances in information technologies provided alternative instructional delivery methods that accommodated both the numbers of students (1S0 for each of the four years of medical school) and the range of issues being explored by these students.

BACKGROUND

Delivering information literacy instruction to students who generate their own problems, do not meet in large groups, and who study topics that change on a monthly basis can be problematic. This was the challenge faced by reference librarians at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library when the UCLA School of Medicine's curriculum began to evolve from the traditional lecture-based approach to one that focused on a more interactive self-directed mode of instruction known as problem based learning (PBL.)

An initial survey of available options revealed that live classroom instruction would not be adequate in addressing the problem based learning approach with the large number and variety of topics being explored. An ideal medium would deliver information and instruction when and where the students needed it. But, if you build it, will they come? This has been the age-old question facing information professionals who develop and provide instruction. The most successful instruction programs are those that teach skills relevant to the learners' immediate needs and whose objectives are linked to those of the academic or professional program the instruction is supporting. As with

most things in life, timeliness tends to be everything. For librarians at the UCLA Biomedical Library, the move toward PBL offered both challenges and opportunities. Just as information literacy was becoming a major theme in librarianship in the mid-to-late 1980s, medical educators were exploring ways to reframe their methods and curriculum to promote the development of a different, more responsive, self-directed type of physician.

Although information literacy was first named by Paul G. Zurkowski (1974), it was the publication of the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy Final Report in 1989 that focused the information profession's attention on this concept. A few years earlier, the American Association of Medical Colleges had published "Physicians for the Twenty-First Century" (AAMC, 1984), which highlighted the need to develop students who were active independent learners and problem solvers rather than passive recipients of information. Just as the ALA defined the information literate person as one who had developed lifelong learning skills, the AAMC encouraged medical educators to re-examine both the priorities underlying the traditional content of the curriculum and the ways in which instruction was being delivered. As medical schools around the world began to revamp their programs, problem based learning was explored as a way to address the concerns raised by the AAMC report (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993; Donner & Bickley, 1993; Braunstein, 1997/1998).

Problem based learning is a student-directed active learning approach. Cases are presented in a small group setting, and students are encouraged to work in a collaborative fashion to identify and solve learning issues related to these cases. Two of the major goals of PBL are to enhance problem-solving and lifelong learning skills (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993; Barrows, 1985, 1986; Kaufman et al., 1985, 1989; Neufeld, Woodward, & MacLeod, 1989; Walton & Matthews, 1989; Wilkerson & Feletii, 1989). Medical educators expected that students who engaged in PBL would not only be able to solve the immediate problem, they would also develop the strategies and skills necessary to solve problems they encountered in the future. These students would have learned how to learn.

An examination of the goals of information literacy as defined in the ALA 1989 report revealed a number of similarities. The emphasis here is also on problem-solving and lifelong learning. As the report indicates: "Ultimately information literate people are those who have learned how to learn" (ALA, 1989, p. 1).

These two parallel lines of thinking offered medical librarians an excellent way to incorporate teaching information literacy skills into the newly evolving medical education curriculum. Because students in PBL environments are encouraged to research and uncover answers on their own using resources outside the standard textbook material, they tend to make more use of the libraries associated with their schools. As a result, these students are more likely to need instruction in how to best access and locate the information needed to ,solve their PBL cases (Marshall et al., 1993).