Celebrating Medical Librarians Month

National Medical Librarians Month 2016

 

Every year, the Medical Library Association designates October as National Medical Librarians Month  to raise awareness about the important role  Medical Librarians play. 

We all know what Librarians do but what exactly do Medical librarians do?

Most of our customers are health care professionals. In a teaching hospital we assist with the medical education needs of our doctors, nurses, students and other staff. Medical Librarians also conduct research, build collections, teach how to find and evaluate information, keep on top of technology trends and demands, and much more. In addition, by helping health care providers stay current with advances in their specialty areas, Medical Librarians help contribute to the quality of patient care.

 

Medical Librarians are an integral part of the healthcare team. Studies show that librarian-led information services and resources improve both clinical decision making and patient-care outcomes, so it is a win-win!

Here at Trinitas Regional Medical Center located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, our Medical Library is very active. We have several Residency programs ranging from Internal Medicine to Podiatry to Psychiatry, and medical students, nurses, and allied health personnel all using the Library's services and resources every day, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day!

Over the course of any given year, the Librarian performs hundreds of literature searches on various clinical topics for patient care and research. Plus, our support staff fulfills nearly 4,000 Interlibrary Loan and document delivery requests per year.

However, we're not just a clinical Library. We also offer a variety of services to hospital employees as well, such a family friendly DVDs, world music cds, a spiritual book collection, daily newspapers, tv news scroll, computer stations and even a courtesy charging station for our customers to use for a variety of electronic devices.  

Our Medical Library offers opportunities for consumers to learn about many medical topics, such as prediabetes, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's and  medical terms in the form of an online quiz game. The quizzes are now available in English and Spanish, too.  http://trinitashospital.org/medical_library.htm

To date our quizzes have reached over 10,000 people world wide through our hospital and Library websites plus the virtual platform of Second Life!

 

 

Please feel free to follow us on social media. We tweet daily about consumer health studies, medical breakthroughs, technology trends etc:

Twitter: @TrinitasLibrary

Website: Medical Library: http://trinitashospital.org/medical_library.htm

staff: Elisabeth Marrapodi, Library Director
         Ritza Alexandre, Library Assistant