Hello and Welcome to the SE/A LibGuide for Hospital Librarians.  This is the result of many years of experience, many shared ideas and comments, and a passion to help colleagues facing unprecedented challenges.  In these pages you will find many links to information to help you, the noble hospital librarian, meet the challenges of your day-to-day needs.  Please share this widely, make comments, and offer your suggestions to help maintain and improve this guide for everyone.

The NN/LM SE/A is seeking new tools, methods, and resources to support and advocate for hospital librarians and their libraries.  The information included in this guide comes from a summit of hospital librarians held in Baltimore, MD in early 2010. Librarians from hospitals in the region, SE/A coordinators, and experts from across the United States came together to discuss the crisis facing hospital libraries and how best to support librarians facing new and often daunting challenges. Several key themes came from the summit: 

• Identify important new vital roles for hospital librarians that will further align them with their institution’s mission and strategic direction.

• Develop a toolkit of information resources, promotional ideas, return on investment strategies, survival ideas, etc. to promote the value of health science librarians and libraries within hospitals.

• Recommend strategies the SE/A can employ to assist hospital librarians increase visibility in their institutions as well as gain knowledge, technical and research skills needed to address the changing health landscape and new vital roles.

To address the second theme, this toolkit has been developed to create an dynamic resource of ideas, connections, and resources to help meet the needs of hospital librarians. The goal is to involve everyone in the process of evaluating and updating this guide through comments, suggestions, and continual revision. We welcome your input on this guide as we strive to meet the information needs of hospital librarians in our region and across the United States.

At the 2010 Hospital Libraries Summit, sponsored by the NN/LM SE/A, attendees voted the following issues as the most important ones currently facing hospital librarians. 

• Monitor and interpret hi-tech, ONC, REC, Info buttons (11 votes)
• EHR w/patient portals; case studies of librarians' involvement (10 votes)
• Transition to virtual library, organic continuum (10 votes)
• Planning: business, strategy, communication. How to write business, strategic, communication plans, boilerplates and examples, how to read contracts, negotiating with vendors in a world of decreasing control/less money and choices (9 votes)
• ROI (return on investment) assistance (8 votes)
• Eliminating old/previous roles, streamlining, role assessment (6 votes
• Assessing new technologies. Decision tree. (5 votes)
• Assessment of user needs: new ways, not surveys (4 votes)
• Reading contracts, negotiating with vendors (combined with the plans section) (4 votes)
• Cost of e-licensing (3 votes)
• Advanced social media (2 votes)
• Expert search skills (2 votes)