Creating an Interactive Guide to Support Health Disparities Competency

Purpose: This paper describes a novel method for teaching users how to better search, find, and interact with literature on health disparities, while highlighting resources from the library collection.

Setting: A R1 health sciences library serving medicine, nursing, pharmacy, health sciences, public health, dentistry, agriculture, food, and environment.

Brief Description: In 2021, our medical library purchased a collection of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) eBooks. Instead of merely folding them into our digital collection, our librarians built a resource guide that highlights those purchased eBooks alongside newly created tutorials. These tutorials include topics such as searching nuanced literature, defining vulnerable populations in controlled vocabularies, and finding population-based resources. These tutorials center around questions researchers, students, and clinicians may ask when first conducting research and/or providing healthcare to those of diverse backgrounds. In addition, our librarians developed three modules focused on specific population groups, which provide detailed examples and tips for searching the literature.

Outcomes and Future Evaluation: The guide will launch Fall 2023. After launch, we hope to share the guide with constitutes and DEI groups to seek informal and formal feedback. Using this feedback, we will implement changes to the modules and materials.