LIBRARY FACULTY ROLE IN PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING - FACILITATING SMALL-GROUPS

Since 1986, the library faculty of the McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has participated in small group activities during the week-long orientation for first-year medical students. This involvement paved the way for library faculty members to act as facilitators for small groups of medical students wi thin the new problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum introduced in 199 2 by the College of Medicine. The UNMC curriculum consists of traditio nal PBL groups as well as Integrated Clinical Experience (ICE) small g roups. The ICE groups provide opportunities for discussion of the soci al and behavioral issues that arise in medicine, with the majority of the sessions designed to give students interviewing practice with simu lated patients. The ICE small groups meet once a week with either one or two facilitators. Several library faculty members act as facilitato rs for ICE groups. As a result of this involvement, librarian contacts with College of Medicine faculty have grown in number and depth, ther e has been a corresponding increase in related activities with the fir st-and second-year medical students. Participation in ICE groups has c aused some difficulties with respect to library work schedules, but it has been immensely rewarding and enriching in terms of professional g rowth. This paper describes the UNMC curriculum, the evolution and ext ent of the librarians' involvement, and the future involvement, ramifi cations, and challenges envisioned for McGoogan faculty and their medi cal library colleagues.