Lesley Christiansen , Health Sciences Librarian — Ebling Library
Lia Vellardita , Health Sciences Librarian — Ebling Library
up the opportunity to post information that gives a better sense of findings . That information can be passed to health systems to consider data and make adjustments .
The task of gathering supporting information to develop these pieces carries significant weight in providing information that ultimately guides critical decision-making .
“ A systematic review comes with tremendous responsibility ,” says Safdar . “ You have to demonstrate that you truly have found everything that is of relevance , and you have evaluated it and left no stone unturned . If we were to do that ourselves , we might do a cursory search . However , there would be a high risk of missing important literature because we do not have the same expertise of librarians in conducting a comprehensive search for information .”
So , precisely what roles did librarians take on in research teams needing information on COVID-19 ? From developing exhaustive search strategies to obtaining articles through library subscriptions and Interlibrary Loan ( ILL ), librarians
assisted researchers with many aspects of the systematic review process .
“ Clinically , the one question that came up was how often do you find influenza with COVID . That was immediately clinically relevant because if it was happening commonly , then we needed to treat people with influenza before we knew they had it . If it was rare , then we did not need to .”
Clinical Librarian Leslie Christensen , MA , worked closely with Jackson Musuuza , MPH , MS , Ph . D ., a member of Dr . Safdar ’ s team , on upper airway anti-sepsis research in conjunction with COVID-19 as well as the prevalence and outcomes of coinfection and superinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens .
“ We found that the prevalence of influenza was very low in patients with COVID ,” says Safdar . “ What that did was reassure our institution and others that you did not have to treat for influenza necessarily .”
This practical , actionable advice that could be provided in a relatively rapid manner was critical
8 | Libraries Spring 2021