Need Quality Health Information? Ask a Medical Librarian

8th Oct, 2009

Did you know we're in the middle of National Medical Librarians Month, a month-long observance established by the Medical Library Association "to raise awareness of the important role of the health information professional"?

So, what is this important role played by the medical librarian? We'll let one tell you in her own words. Mimi Guessferd, MLIS, has written the following about what medical librarians do and, specifically, what she does as the medical librarian at Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H.

Medical Librarians Play Important Role In Health Care

Mimi Guessferd These days, when health care and health care options can be more confusing than ever, patients and those working in the health care community need the specialized services that medical librarians provide.

Medical librarians assist health care providers, students, and members of the community in locating and retrieving health information. We also organize resources so information seekers can more easily find and use them.

Working in a variety of settings from hospitals and other health settings to universities and even in private industry, medical librarians may also serve as web designers, or in medical informatics, as catalogers, or as instructors.

Within HCA facilities, they meet their mission in a variety of ways: offering reference and cataloging services, doing systems management, searching for and retrieving clinical articles; developing and sharing staff education in the use of on-line and other resources, and supporting new programs such as bio-ethics. Some medical librarians also coordinate CME programs within their facilities, which is true here at Parkland.

"HCA has some outstanding hospital libraries and many individuals are accomplishing extraordinary tasks in supporting the growth of evidenced-based information for the building of evidence-based practice," said Sheila Hayes, MS, AHIP, who heads Library-Knowledge Information Services at Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, N.H. "Hospital librarians are highly trained, advance-degreed professionals who support staff in every aspect of health care."

Librarians also serve the larger hospital community by working on committees, and contribute scholarship to the field by presenting and publishing papers in the library literature and in the fields of medical and health sciences education.

Parkland and Portsmouth Regional Hospital are searching for ways to share knowledge-based information services. For now, we are sharing databases for staff to use on a trial basis, including EBSCO, a database that provides full-text articles; Dynamed, a point-of-care system; Lippincott Nursing Procedures and Skills; and the New England Journal of Medicine.

In case you're wondering, I did not set out to be a librarian. I entered college for nursing, much to the chagrin of my guidance counselor. But I liked getting A's in English classes and switched to that major instead, wishing there was a way to combine both my interests. Little did I know that life would bring me into health care in a supporting role perfectly suited to me!

Our hats off to Mimi and medical librarians everywhere during this, their month of recognition!

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