Hospital Library Management

Abstract

There are approximately 7,000 hospitals in the United States and some 2,000 libraries in these hospitals. Traditionally, libraries provided for information needs of the medical staff in research, teaching, and patient care when hospitals were freestanding, acute-care institutions. In recent years, however, libraries have been caught in the great technological, economic, and organizational changes that hospitals are undergoing today. Within their own information-handling area, they are also faced with a computer and communications revolution that has required an almost completely new orientation.<i>Hospital Library Management</i>addresses these issues and has come at a time when guidelines are needed by hospital libraries. This practical, pragmatic guide to providing library service in hospitals was written by hospital librarians and superbly edited. It is divided into four sections, beginning with an overview of the functions and structure of the modern hospital and then moving to the hospital library within this setting. Subsequent sections