Translating Expertise

The Librarian's Role in Translational Research

By: Marisa L. Conte

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eText | 29 August 2016 | Edition Number 1

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In 2005, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program – an institution-based grant intended to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise, speeding the time from pre-clinical discovery to the development of therapies to improve human health. As universities competed for CTSA funding and often struggled to develop or recalibrate institutional infrastructures and research support services, the face of pre-clinical and clinical research changed dramatically.

These changes (and their intended and unintended consequences) introduced the possibility of new roles for health sciences librarians, creating novel opportunities to engage with researchers, research administrators and community members as active partners in the research enterprise.

This book demystifies translational research by providing a comprehensive historical background and context on the CTSA program, including the impact of funding reductions and administrative changes. The highlight of the book are case studies by librarians from CTSA Consortium institutions. These case studies, including successes, challenges, and lessons learned, will detail specific routes to librarian involvement in translational research, including collection development, creating and maintaining relationships with researchers and administrators, instruction and training, data management, team science and more. The variety of case studies, including challenges and lessons learned, will help libraries that are looking for ways to engage the translational research audiences at their institutions, or those who currently work with CTS but face new challenges due to declining federal research funds, shifting institutional priorities, or other factors.

The book will not be a comprehensive accounting of librarian engagement at each institutions but rather a sample of “best practices” to help librarians develop programs and relationships relevant to translational research, and a look at newly emerging opportunities to leverage skills in information organization and dissemination.

Industry Reviews

I have worked at a Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) institution for over 5 years and I am very glad to have a resource such as this. While there are other resources that collectively could provide some of the same type of information, what I found to be the most useful is the compilation that allowed me to explore the many facets of the clinical translational science world through the lens of accomplished librarians who are leading the way in this field. Real-world examples that relate to many of the CTSA Key Function Groups are carefully detailed offering unique perspectives on many complex problems. This work has helped me to personally clarify the things that our library is already doing to support our institutional CTSA and more importantly identify the next steps that we can reasonably take to expand on what we already do well and to look outside of our institution for the additional opportunities that exist for collaboration. I plan to share it with my department as we plan for future service and program development