Reevaluating Point-of-Care Resources: Community Engagement in Difficult Collection Choices

Area of Science:

• Medical Librarianship
• Health Sciences Information Management
• Evidence-Based Practice

Background:

• Academic medical libraries face budget constraints necessitating difficult decisions on popular clinical point-of-care resources.
• Subscription costs for digital health information resources are rising, impacting library collection development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a community engagement strategy used by a medical library to manage the cancellation of a popular clinical point-of-care product.
• To assess user perceptions and outcomes following the cancellation of UpToDate in favor of DynaMed Plus.

Main Methods:

• A year-long community engagement campaign was implemented to inform library users about the impending cancellation of either UpToDate or DynaMed Plus.
• User feedback and engagement were central to the decision-making process regarding resource allocation.

Main Results:

• DynaMed Plus was selected for continued subscription, while UpToDate was canceled.
• The engagement campaign increased user awareness of library budget limitations and fostered discussions on scholarly publishing and evidence evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Community engagement can effectively manage user expectations and mitigate negative impacts during resource cancellations.
• Involving users in collection management decisions enhances their understanding of evidence-based practice and resource value.