Hospital Libraries: Past, Present and Future

Mitigating the infodemic of the pandemic: hospital librarians’ enactment and development of information resilience in healthcare organisations

“…These resources offer healthcare staff access to both the library room, and the opportunity to use library services independently, as well as access to printed books despite geographical distance. In this way, challenges, and barriers to providing hospital library services caused by the pandemic (see also Rhue, 2022) are countered with practical measures. Additionally, a resource connected to both psychological and organisational aspects is tolerance for uncertainty and change , essentially capturing the quality of flexibility among the staff.…”

“…(2020) describe several “bottom-up” solutions due to the top-down decision to close hospital libraries. Digital forms of communication helped the hospital library to remain a relevant service for healthcare staff seeking scientific information in a time when access to information was urgent (Rhue, 2022; Chisita, 2020; Pauwels et al. , 2020).…”

“…During the initial weeks of the pandemic, international library associations mobilized to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19 focusing on issues such as information provision, maintaining services, and workplace arrangements (Kosciejew, 2021). The pandemic created new challenges and barriers to providing hospital library services (Rhue, 2022), but the pandemic also sparked a profound digital development meeting these challenges with new digital solutions enabling hospital librarians to serve healthcare staff (Castek and Novak, 2020;Murphy et al, 2022). Anderson et al (2020) describe several "bottomup" solutions due to the top-down decision to close hospital libraries.…”

“…Anderson et al (2020) describe several "bottomup" solutions due to the top-down decision to close hospital libraries. Digital forms of communication helped the hospital library to remain a relevant service for healthcare staff seeking scientific information in a time when access to information was urgent (Rhue, 2022;Chisita, 2020;Pauwels et al, 2020). The digital skills of librarians expanded while offering continued support to researchers, students, and healthcare staff through virtual tours of the library, digital collaboration and expanded library chat service (Murphy et al, 2022).…”