Abstract

SARAIVA, Rosa; ALONSO AREVALO, Julio  and  LOPES, Carlos Alberto. Hospital libraries in Portugal: a librarian's view. Rev. cuba. inf. cienc. salud [online]. 2019, vol.30, n.4, e1422.  Epub Dec 31, 2019. ISSN 2307-2113.

The purpose of the study was to identify the professional perspective of hospital libraries and librarians in Portugal and their future projection. A qualitative non-experimental descriptive study was conducted of a sample of 13 professionals related to / acquainted with the work of hospital libraries. The sample was intended to cover the entire country from north to south, so that the results obtained would be representative of Portuguese reality. Results show that professionals from health libraries in Portugal consider that no specific professional training is available for this field, which is characterized by very particular features unique to this library type. They also think that health professionals working at libraries should be incorporated into the clinical and research teams of their institutions. On the other hand, and given the current importance of evidence-based medicine, it is necessary to develop new roles to be undertaken by librarians. They also consider that librarians should accept the challenges, invest time and energy in permanent skill acquisition and update, and strengthen their role at their institutions, thus justifying the added value of the profession.

Keywords : hospital libraries; medical libraries; library services; librarians; Portugal.

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