Providing Information to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Academic Medical Librarians' Roles in Creating an Intelligence Report

Med Ref Serv Q. 2021 Jan-Mar;40(1):23-34. doi: 10.1080/02763869.2021.1873613.

Abstract

In March 2020, the Dean of the George Washington (GW) University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and the GW COVID-19 Incident Management Team asked the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Public Health to initiate a daily report that surveyed COVID-19 literature/resources. This COVID-19 Intelligence Report would serve as a concise, authoritative source of COVID-19 information for clinicians, the Incident Management Team, and operational leaders. The Senior Associate Dean established an Intelligence Gathering Team comprised of clinicians and librarians. Himmelfarb librarians facilitated the collection, distribution, and archiving of COVID-19 resources and Intelligence Reports.

Keywords: COVID-19; emergency response; health sciences library; medical librarians; pandemic; situation report.

MeSH terms

  • Academic Medical Centers
  • COVID-19*
  • District of Columbia
  • Health Services Research / organization & administration*
  • Health Services Research / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Information Dissemination / methods*
  • Libraries, Digital / organization & administration*
  • Libraries, Digital / statistics & numerical data
  • Libraries, Medical / organization & administration*
  • Libraries, Medical / statistics & numerical data*