A needs assessment survey for improving library support for chiropractic faculty research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the services and resources health sciences libraries and librarians can provide to support chiropractic faculty in conducting research and increase institutional research capacity.

A one-time, anonymous, online survey was administered to a convenience sample of 120 faculty at a North American chiropractic college in December 2024. The 11-item questionnaire was adapted from prior research in academic health sciences libraries and included both quantitative and qualitative questions about respondents' research interests, experience, needs and library use. Descriptive data analysis was completed.

The survey was completed by 39 faculty (response rate = 32.5%). Seventy-four percent (n = 29) of respondents had sought research assistance from the library. The areas of greatest interest in library research support were literature searching (56%, n = 20), citation management (53%, n = 19), data analysis (53%, n = 19), research design (39%, n = 14), and journal selection (39%, n = 14). Fifty-six percent (n = 22) of respondents were interested in library research workshops, particularly asynchronous video training. Respondents reported the following research interests: educational research (62%, n = 24), case reports (46%, n = 18), clinical research (44%, n = 17), evidence synthesis (38%, n = 15), historical research (23%, n = 9), and other (5%, n = 2).

Most respondents had sought research assistance from the library in the past, and more than half were interested in future research training from the library which suggests that the library supports research capacity building within the organization.