Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Canadian Standards For Hospital Libraries
Canadian Standards For Hospital Libraries
FOR
HOSPITAL LIBRARIES
These Canadian Standards for
been accepted by:
Hospital
Libraries have
Board of Directors
Ontario Medical Association
Board of Directors
Canadian Medical Association
Associate Committee on Libraries
Association of Canadian Medical
Colleges
December, 1974
STANDARDS FOR HOSPITAL LIBRARIES*
Introduction
The lack of standards for Health Libraries in Canada
has been acutely felt for a long time. Many different
drafts have been written and guidelines indicated by a
number of bodies and individuals, but no one document
has been accepted by the various associations concerned
with Health Libraries in institutions in Canada. This new
document is an attempt to produce minimum standards
which will meet the need. It is obvious that some libraries,
particularly in teaching hospitals, should already have
surpassed these standards, which apply to personnel as
well as materials.
It is not, indeed, an original piece of work, since it is
based on many others. Acknowledgement must be made to:
Library Association: Recommended Standards for
Libraries in Hospitals. London, 1972.
Association of Hospital and Institutional Libraries. Hos
pital Library Standards Committee. Standards for
Library Services in Health Care Institutions. Chicago,
American Library Association, 1970.
Great Britain. Dept. of Health and Social Security.
Welsh Office. Library Services in Hospitals. April,
1970. H.M.(70)23.
Association Canadienne des Bibliothecaires de la Lan
gue Francaise. Project for the Establishment of Stand
ards of Library Service in Canadian Hospital Librar
ies. 1966/67.
Bunch, Antonia J. & Cumming, Eileen A. Libraries in
Hospitals; a review of services in Scotland. Edinburgh,
Scottish Hospital Centre, February 1969.
United States. Health Services and Mental Health Ad
ministration. Administrative Services and Facilities
for Hospitals: a planning guide. Washington, U.S.
Govt. Print. Off., 1972.
The format adopted is modelled on the Canadian docu
ment GUIDE TO HOSPITAL ACCREDITATION, pub
lished by the Canadian Council on Hospital Accredita
tion in 1972. The chapter on "Staff Library Services" in
this publication gives a straightforward and simple prin
ciple but does not detail graduated standards sufficiently.
These have been expanded and added to in an attempt
to round off the description of requirements in a manner
which conforms to the other chapters of the GUIDE.
?Prepared by the Ontario Medical Association in co-operation with other health agencies and approved (1975) by the Canadian Medical Association.
programs.
Principle
provide library
Interpretation
The library should be organized to give active support
to the philosophy and day-to-day activities of the hos
pital. The rapid advance in medical and scientific research
has produced an enormous quantity of literature in medi
cine and related subjects and hospital staffs should have
the same ease of access to information as they do other
diagnostic and therapeutic services.
To accomplish this objective, all hospital libraries
should be capable of providing information:
1) in support of patient care
2) in support of the educational and continuing educa
tion programmes of medical and other hospital staff
3) to keep personnel aware of new developments in
their own fields
4) in support of any special function of the institution
5) in addition, certain hospital libraries should be
capable of providing information in support of
clinical research.
The extent and scope of library service will vary with
the size and responsibilities of the hospital, and must be
considered in relation to other local, community and re
gional resource libraries.
The library should be conceived as a line department
of the hospital, directly responsible to the administration.
It should have its own independent budget funded by the
hospital. All library services, including budget preparation
should be combined under the administrative control of
the librarian.
An advisory committee should be established to aid the
librarian. Its members should include representatives from
clinical, research, technical and administrative depart
ments, and over a period of time should represent all
levels of hospital personnel. This committee should fulfil
two roles. As an advisory body it should help to formulate and evaluate the policies for library services and
should find ways to solve problems of interaction and
finance.
In many cases the Education Committee of the hospital
could act as its Library Committee. As an interdisciplinary
Interpretation
Services and supporting technical functions of the
library should include:
the selection, acquisition and organization of books,
journals, reports, audiovisual and nonprint material
the provision of reference and bibliographic ma
terials and indexes and the ability to provide from
these, citations and answers to questions
the development of relationships with other libraries,
both local and regional, for their mutual benefit and
to establish a system of interlibrary borrowing and
lending.
The quality of the collection of books, journals and
other materials is more important than the quantity, al
though it must be recognized that a small collection will
have only limited use. There should be available current
and basic texts reflecting the interests of the hospital with
emphasis on any special service, such as bibliotherapy in
a psychiatric hospital, or regional service, such as dialysis
units, poison centres, ete.
Journal titles, both general and special should be ap
propriate to the size and function of the hospital. They
should provide information well beyond immediate pa
tient care requirements. Indexes to the journal literature
are of utmost importance and should include those to the
medical, nursing and hospital administration material.
Numbers of books and journals appropriate to the func
tion of the hospital and a bibliography of basic book and
journal lists may be found in Appendix IL
.
Standard IV
the library.
Interpretation
The library should be conveniently located and readily
accessible to all potential users. The area should be
reserved for library purposes.
Space is required for:
1) users, with suitable seating and writing tables, and
areas for using nonprint material.
2) collection according to kind: books, journals, refer
ence books, indexes and audiovisual aids.
3) work space for library staff.
It is essential to recognize that work space is necessary
for library functions such as acquisition, cataloguing, typ
ing, filing, processing new material and preparation of
volumes for binding.
In planning library quarters, consideration should be
given to potential growth for several years. Physical con
ditions such as lighting and heating must be adequate.
Library materials must be protected against loss or dam
age.
Some formulae for space requirements are to be found
in Appendix III.
APPENDIXES
specialties.
Category
c,
of Category 1.
a medical staff of at least 100 persons, and
appropriate supporting staff.
b) It has
Category 3
a) The hospital does
Category
1
1 Librarian
1 Library Tech.
2 Clerk/Typists
Category
2
1 Librarian
1 Library Asst.
1 Clerk/Typist
Category 4
1 Library Asst.
Category
3
1 Librarian
1 Clerk/Typist
Category 5
part-time
or Technician
Library Asst.
The Librarian in charge should be a fully qualified
professional librarian with an academic and a professional
degree, preferably Medical Library Association certifica
tion, as well as experience in health sciences libraries. A
library technician can be a graduate of a Community Col
lege; Library Technician's course, or in some cases a
Library Assistant who has had three or four years of
health sciences library experience supervised by profes
sional librarians.
Although it is not likely that the very small hospitals
can afford to hire a full-time professional librarian, every
effort must be made to have a full-time assistant who has
at least a year's experience in a health sciences library,
and who can be supervised and directed by a professional
librarian. This supervising librarian may be employed
jointly by a group of libraries or by a provincial body.
Even when only one assistant is looking after the library,
some arrangement should be made for help in keeping
the library open and supervised during lunch and coffee
breaks.
A part-time library assistant in a very small hospital
should also be supervised by a professional librarian.
"Part-time" should mean regular hours for library duties,
A
Hospital Category
Current book titles
4
312
5
1000
Journals
Medical
Nursing
Administrative (Hospital)
Other Allied
750
500
200
50
2000+ 75
35
5
5
5
20
3
3
3
15
3
2
2
20
10
15
10
10
10
Reference Works
In addition the following reference works should be
available to every hospital library:
1. a current standard dictionary
CMA JOURNAL/MAY 17, 1975/VOL. 112 1273
Abridged
International
Nursing
Index
1, 2 and 3
categories
or
4 and 5
Cumulative Index to
Nursing Literature
Hospital Literature Index