View the table of Contents Standards for Irish Health Care Libraries and Information Services here

To order copies of this report please email Louise Farragher, HSLG Committee louise@hrb.ie or Niamh Lucey, Librarian, St Vincents hospital
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 LAI President Ruth Flanagan launches HSLG Standards in Irish Healthcare Libraries (September 2005)

Health information is a valuable resource…Information is generated at such a pace that there is a serious risk of information gaps opening up between the public, clients/patients, the professionals, the planners, the policy makers and the research community. Keeping abreast of new information and applying it on a daily basis will remain an ongoing challenge. (Department of Health and Children. Health Information: A National Strategy, 2004 p. 3)

(Dublin) The Health Sciences Libraries Group of the Library Association of Ireland today at 1.45pm launches the Standards for Irish Health Care Libraries and Information Services, 2nd edition.

The launch, hosted by the Dublin Dental School & Hospital, coincides with the recent appointment of Professor Brendan Drumm as the first Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive and the transition to a single health authority in Ireland.

The health sector depends on a continually growing body of knowledge to deliver a quality service. However, the sheer volume of information available presents its own difficulties and health librarians have a vital role to play in helping to build a useable knowledge base.

In an ever-changing information environment the skills of librarians and other information professionals are becoming increasingly important. Librarians have adapted quickly to developments in this field and are meeting the new responsibilities that these bring.

Standards for Irish Health Care Libraries and Information Services provides a blueprint for how a modern health care library should be designed and what services it should provide to all its users. This document will benefit librarians, clinicians, administrators, managers and accrediting bodies. Compliance with these standards will ensure that healthcare libraries and information services will have the appropriate resources and services to meet existing and anticipated educational and research needs, and most importantly to contribute to high standards of patient care.

Standards Steering Group, Health Sciences Libraries Group. September 2005

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