Planning bioinformatics education and information services in an academic health sciences library

This article describes a planning process for the development of bioinformatics education and information services in an academic health sciences library. The project's five goals were to: (1) understand the changing environment for information related to bioinformatics; (2) understand the information needs of faculty whose work involves bioinformatics; (3) explore potential service offerings; (4) anticipate factors influencing the implementation of new services; and (5) envision strategies for recruiting and training information professionals to fill these roles. The authors describe the library's practice environment and review recent research on the information needs of biomedical researchers and clinicians. A variety of potential library-based services in relation to bioinformatics are enumerated, and the institutional, environmental, and personnel factors affecting the deployment of services are examined. Finally, the authors describe the educational and training context of the library, and explore potential roles for librarians and information professionals in the context of bioinformatics services.