Medical Sciences Librarian Honored for Contributions to Scholarly Reviews
By Marketing and Communications | 04-16-2024
As a globally-recognized expert in medical research methods that ultimately lead to better public health, Margaret Foster ‘98, an evidence synthesis and scholarly dissemination librarian at the Texas A&M University Medical Sciences Library, earned a prestigious honor today from a leading health information professionals’ organization.
She received the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award from the Medical Library Association in a virtual ceremony. The award recognizes outstanding librarians or library educators in health sciences librarianship and informatics.
“Foster is passionate about medical librarians’ contributions to better public health through their prominent roles in scholarly medical research,” said Emme Lopez, an assistant university librarian who heads the Medical Sciences Library’s research and education department.
Foster’s passion for public health led to innovation and advancement.
“She pioneered Texas A&M Libraries’ support for systematic reviews, a specialized type of study that relies heavily on involvement from a librarian as a researcher discovers and compiles published and unpublished material for a scholarly review.” said Lopez.
To reach a valid result, systematic reviews must be performed and reported according to specific standards. These are the “methods” for performing the review, an area of Foster’s expertise that she provides researchers with.
In a systematic review, said Lopez, Foster assists medical researchers with the sizable task of pooling and synthesizing a trove of material relevant to a specific clinical question. This material appears in a variety of sources, including published literature, unpublished studies, datasets and conference proceedings.
“The goal of a systematic review is to develop a large sample size of evidence that reduces bias and provides the best available answer to the clinical question,” said Lopez. The results of these rigorously performed reviews inform clinical practice guidelines across healthcare fields as well as policy decisions for agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Foster, who also directs the Center for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses at the Medical Sciences Library, also helps train new generations of medical librarians and health information professionals as an instructor in the Medical Library Association’s Systematic Review Services Specialization courses. Lopez said Foster teaches approximately half of the association’s SRSS courses.
With nearly two decades of experience collaborating on reviews, Foster has published in medicine, veterinary medicine, education, agriculture, engineering, and other fields. In 2017, she co-authored “Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review: A Guide for Librarians,” the first book about systematic reviews for librarians.
She also penned “Piecing Together Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Syntheses,” which was published in 2022.
Foster earned a Master of Science degree in Behavioral Sciences and Health Promotion in 2009 at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and a Master of Science degree in Library and Information Science at the University of North Texas in 2003 after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology degree in 1998 at Texas A&M.
About Texas A&M University Libraries
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