The role of health sciences librarians in the teaching and retention of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of lifelong learning.

For the past decade, the medical education community has recognized lifelong learning as a desirable educational outcome. Problem-based learning (PBL) appears to foster the requisite knowledge acquisition, skills, and attitudes. This paper briefly summarizes research that found no differences in perceptions of lifelong learning between graduates of PBL curricula and traditional curricula. The paper analyzes the assumptions that suggest such differences should exist and asserts that these assumptions are invalid within the global context of the education process. The paper concludes by suggesting a new way of looking at the teaching and retention of knowledge, skills, and attitudes of lifelong learning and the essential role that health sciences librarians must play in the process.