Academic health sciences library research support.

On September 3, 2003, the Medical Library Association adopted a policy statement on the role of expert searching in health sciences libraries. The policy highlighted the need for more thorough literature searching following the unfortunate death of a healthy research volunteer in a clinical trial that might have been prevented by a more complete literature review [1–3]. In light of this policy, the John A. Prior Health Sciences Library at The Ohio State University created a position for a dedicated research librarian in 2004 to better support the organization’s focus on the research mission. The newly hired librarian identified comparable positions at other academic health sciences libraries and the roles and responsibilities assigned to these positions to find out how these librarians supported the researchers at their institutions. After this investigation, a survey was undertaken to investigate more fully how academic health sciences libraries across the country provide support to the researchers at their institutions.