What a Health Library Does
This may come as a bit of a surprise, even a nasty shock, but nobody knows everything, not even teachers or doctors. Next time you're sitting opposite your local doctor describing your pretty horrendous symptoms and he starts tapping into his computer while periodically gazing at you over his spectacles, looking like he knows what he's doing, beware, he's probably doing a 'Google search,' and you thought he was making important notes. If 'Google' doesn't come up with the answer to your itchy rash and rather putrid discharge, then next step will be the pet health library (okay, maybe he'll do that one first, but you never can tell). That's what a health library is for, after all, to help a doctor diagnose even the weirdest conditions in pet health.
Health Library
Health libraries (sometimes called medical libraries - same thing) are designed to help all physicians, health professionals, patients, consumers, students and medical researchers to find up to date scientific health information to assess, evaluate, improve and update healthcare techniques. Let's be honest, there's always lots of scientific medical research going on, and what good is it if nobody out there, on the front line as it were, has access to new, life saving and treatment changing information.
Animal veterinarians are also able to use a health library to help them find out more about the treatments that are available for complicated animal cases. For example, when an animal has a rare form of cancer, a health library could be very helpful not only to the vet, but also to the family of the animal.
You'll usually find a health library (even if it wasn't lost) in hospitals, medical schools, medical or health associations, and they will often have access to some electronic and digital journal collections now, as well as printed reference books - now let's see, R for rash and D for discharge, cross reference, hmm, interesting, take two tablets and go to bed for the rest of the week. Google searches have also made a major impact on the way that these health libraries now operate (you thought it was a joke didn't you?) with many online facilities, which can be updated so much quicker than the traditional printed journals of the 'olden days'.
Health Libraries in College
In order for an American and Canadian college to become accredited, they have to have a health library which is 'appropriate to the needs of the school.' This is a rule for all colleges of
- Medicine
- Dentistry
- Nursing
- Veterinary medicine
- Pharmacy
- Public health
An accrediting body, for example the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) lay down the standards that the health library must reach, including having qualified medical library staff available to answer any reference questions and give training for using the electronic resources. Often the health libraries are next to the undergraduate general library, but then again, some are placed in the medical college or faculty.
If you have a hankering to start your very own medical college in the future, you'd better start collecting some books now, it could take some time.