Category: Library facilities

Up north

Fränzi and I visited two medical libraries this week, both well respected amongst medical librarian colleagues, but each with its very own preferences and focus.

The library of the AMC (Academisch Medisch Centrum) in Amsterdam has to focus on resources for research, as its director, Dr. Lieuwe Kool, explained: funding does not allow licensing e-textbooks, nor the purchase of multiple print copies. On the plus side, the AMC library’s team of four information specialists offer an extensive programme of training courses and one-on-one support, especially for advanced publications like systematic reviews.

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The Münster Zweigbibliothek Medizin – voted Germany’s best special library by users – supports medical education better than probably any other medical library in Europe, with a substantial collection of multiple copies, e-books, apps, and even hundreds of borrowable iPads with the learning materials preinstalled. With the ‘Easyphysikum‘ project – all resources for the 1. Staatsexamen accessible on an iPad, Dr. Oliver Obst, the librarian, consolidated Münster’s role as innovative leader in medical education resources. Database training and enquiry services are available, too – and the building is comfortable, spacious, modern and well-lit.

It will be a long way until we here in Bern can compete against libraries like these…

Evidence Based Librarianship: a nice example from Norway

Marion Mühlburger reported a lovely example how the medical library at Bergen university used the methodology we are all familiar with from our EBM literature searches, which also shows where our professional approach may hit difficulties. When an overhaul of their facilities was required (in the usual context of print journals disappearing and leaving space vacant), the library team decided to give the needs of those who actually use that library space, a prime rôle in the planning.

Evidence was created in the form of a student survey and other user involvement the findings of which informed the planning for the re-purposing of the existing space. However, a major obstacle in the process turned out to be that the hierarchy which had to approve the decisions, did not always agree with the evidence gathered from the actual users. This resulted in a six-months delay between planning and implementation.

Oliver Obst’s advice in the discussion was best not to involve those in power before the library had shored up strong support from its clients…