Hospital Libraries: Stand Up and Be Counted!

Abstract

Hospital librarians must ensure they are contributing positively to the organization's goals and are proactive in meeting user needs while making the best use of scarce resources. Therefore, effective communication with library clients is essential. Client audits are useful tools, but response rates are often poor as the audit can get lost in the overwhelming amount of unsolicited mail received by clinical practitioners, who quickly become expert at selecting and culling. This column shares lessons learned through conducting the audit, highlights key findings from the audit itself, and examines ways to use the audit process to promote and develop a library's services.

KEYWORDS:

• Audit design
• audits
• hospital libraries
• library impact
• marketing and promotion
• qualitative research
• resources

Acknowledgments

Comments and suggestions should be sent to the Column Editors: Cheryl R. Dee ([email protected]), Jane Bridges ([email protected]), Margaret Bandy ([email protected]), and Hope Leman ([email protected]).

Notes

*Westbrook, J.I. “Critical Incidents and Journey Mapping as Techniques to Evaluate the Impact of Online Evidence Retrieval Systems on Health Care Delivery and Patient Outcomes.” International Journal of Medical Informatics 76(March 31, 2006): 234–245.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Breda Bennett

Breda Bennett, MA, Dip Lib, Dip Inf St ([email protected]) is Librarian, St. Michael's Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Anne Madden

Anne Madden, BA, BSc (Mgmt), DLIS ([email protected]) is Assistant Librarian, St. Vincent's University Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4, Ireland.