Assessing the Quality of Consumer Information Services Through Daily Log Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the resources and services of a pediatric consumer health library by analyzing data collected over a two-year period. Data gathered from May 1998 to May 2000 was analyzed under four major fields: number of requests, origin of requests, subjects of requests, sources of answers. There were a total of 359 reference questions asked. Some were initiated by patients or for patients by hospital staff (292); some were made by hospital employees (43), school nurses (11), insurance companies (8), and health agencies (5). Nurses made the most referrals to the library (78), followed by social workers and physicians (10). Birth defect questions were asked most often (88), followed by psychology (61), cancer (31), pulmonology (31), surgery (25), and others (123). Gale's Health Reference Center database was used 143 times, National Organization of Rare Diseases database was used 56 times, consumer books and videos were used 64 times, Internet was used 28 times, medical books and MEDLINE databases were used 47 times. There were seven questions that were not answered well, and seven others were not answered at all. Conclusion: Data gathered from the analysis demonstrated that the library collection was adequate in meeting the consumer health information needs in Arkansas Children's Hospital.

Key Words:

• Consumer health information services
• hospital libraries
• service analysis