Creating and sustaining a library journal club at a French-language university

Abstract

A library journal club was initiated at Université de Montréal (UdeM), a French-language university in the province of Quebec, with the objectives of improving librarians’ critical appraisal skills, integrating evidence into participants’ practice and creating a space for discussion and collaboration. An initial workshop session on critical appraisal was offered and five one-hour meetings were held during the 2016-17 academic year. Librarians working at the UdeM libraries have no faculty status and they are not required to keep current on published research nor engage in research and publication. Therefore, it was considered a success that there were at least 6 participants at each meeting and that the initial workshop was attended by 15 librarians. After one year of activities, a survey was sent to all UdeM’s librarians to measure the participants’ satisfaction and to determine how to improve the attendance at journal club meetings. Results of the survey, facilitators and barriers to the journal club success and impact of implemented changes during the second year will be presented.