Librarians have the following skills and expertise to offer a Literature Review assignment:
- understanding of the organization of information
- knowledge of complex search systems
- expertise in operation of those search systems
- ability to identify databases (and other literature sources) most likely to contain information on a given topic
- can identify appropriate search terms (controlled vocabulary, natural language, subject headings, MARC records, meta data, tags, etc.)
- can devise complex search strategies with the appropriate sensitivity and specificity to optimize results
- easily recognize the different resource types: scholarly, popular, trade, gray literature, as well as research study types and literature formats
- knowledge of citation styles
- knowledge of citation management systems
- ability to access difficult-to-find resources
With these expert skills, librarians can easily become full partners in Literature Reviews
