Documentary Practices of Hospital Librarians in Evidence-based Medicine: the Example of Health Technology Assessment in Swedish Healthcare

Abstract

Today’s healthcare rely on a basis of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and in modern healthcare there are demands for rational decision-making about new methods, technology and treatments. HTA (Health Technology Assessment) supports decision-making in healthcare and in this study we turn to documentary practices of hospital librarians in HTA, as well as how documentary practices shape and are shaped by the work and roles of hospital librarians. Five central documentary practices were identified as initial searching, negotiating a search strategy, the main searching, making a selection, and documenting the search process. These practices construct the work and roles of hospital librarians through different documents, for example formal guidelines for systematic reviews and various tools used for searching, selecting and documenting the search process.