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Did you know UCLA science librarians are so integral to the research process that they often are included as coauthors on faculty papers? Systematic reviews—highly specialized and labor intensive research that collates all existing evidence related to the research question—are just one aspect of librarians’ involvement throughout the lifecycle of complex scientific and medical research on campus. Librarians also help UCLA researchers comply with federal open science guidelines that require publicly-funded researchers to make available their research data and publications as well as the methods and outputs of their research, such as code and data sets.
“We have a fantastic team truly dedicated to supporting our students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians,” said Jason Burton, director of sciences user engagement who oversees both the Science and Engineering Library and Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, pointing out that the team has nine full-time librarians—including two new medical librarians—and an instructional design specialist. “One aspect that is, at times, invisible, is the outreach and relationship building that our librarians and staff do.”
The Biomedical Library team collaborates with the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine to provide continuity from undergraduate medical curriculum through continuing education for residents. “Our goal is to be a regular presence for medical students and residents both in the classroom and out, providing traditional services, such as research help and access to digital resources, as well as professional development services, including research support for residency programs,” Burton said. Looking to the future, Burton said the science libraries team is “diversifying our collections, ensuring they are representative of the diverse communities we support and of the broader scientific community, and we are expanding our work, especially in open science, to the physical sciences, and increasing our undergraduate outreach.”
Collection endowments, in particular, enable librarians to purchase requested materials and be proactive in collection development. The Cary Thomas Fund, for example, has supported the expansion of psychology collections. A new endowment, the Michael Thacher and Rhonda Rundle Endowed Collection for Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, is the first Library endowment dedicated to this field and will allow librarians to diversify collections in this area for the very first time.
“Donor support is critical to the Library’s ability to support the groundbreaking medical and scientific research for which UCLA is renowned,” Burton said.