Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Clinical Librarian definitions

There have been quite a few emails recently on mailing lists about clinical librarians and what exactly the job entails. There seems to almost be an air of mystery shrouding the profession! Therefore in order to offer some clarity we have been trying to come up with our own ideas and definitions of what it is exactly that a clinical librarian does.

The most immediate definition that springs to my mind is the Peter Hill (2008) definition from 'Report of a National Review of NHS Library Services in England'.

"Clinical Librarians seek to provide quality assured information to health professionals at the point of need, to support clinical decision making"

I came across this quote when researching an essay at library school and it gave me some introductory insight into clinical librarianship.

Obviously this quote is not the ultimate. Therefore we would love to hear your definitions of clinical librarianship. They can be your own, or ones that you have read and thought were interesting. Please do share!