A Qualitative Study of MLIS Graduate Students' Perceptions of and Interest In Health Sciences Librarianship: Final Results

Objectives: At a health sciences library on a medical campus, the library has two to three employment positions available for MLIS graduate students. Despite having two MLIS programs close to the medical campus, the graduate assistant supervisor generally sees few applications for the positions when they are available. The supervisor hypothesized that students were generally uninterested in health sciences librarianship. This study seeks to understand what students think of graduate employment in health sciences librarianship using a think-aloud protocol with structured follow-up questions.

Methods: Eighteen interviews were conducted. Participants were asked to read and think-aloud about four health sciences graduate employment position descriptions. Following the position descriptions, three follow-up questions were asked about students’ interest in health sciences librarianship before and after reading the position descriptions. The interviews were coded inductively by two researchers who used thematic analysis to look for themes.

Results: Results will look at what MLIS students think health sciences librarianship entails and their understanding of specific health sciences terminology in position descriptions. Specifically, results about the understanding of job titles, job duties, and qualification of students will be explored. Finally, themes will be reported about student desires for general position details, such as location, salary, and working hours.

Conclusions: While there is research about the benefits of graduate employment in libraries for MLIS students, there is little research about what student preferences are for graduate employment positions. We hope that this study will provide insight about how to provide desirable graduate employment opportunities within health sciences librarianship to improve the pipeline to health sciences librarianship.