Positioning Health Libraries and Librarians in the health professional workforce and future skills requirements for health librarians
Keywords:
Health LibrariesAbstract
The author translated and presented country data for the study of Dr. Hallam, adjunct professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. The study had investigated the scope of work for the librarianship in the country in order to establish the core competency and basic requirements associated with the librarianship for future improvement.
The study suggested that it was unclear scope of responsibility leading to lack of the specialty in the field. Lack of knowledge in health sciences is also a major weakness since the national board registration does not require this specific set of knowledge relating to health science.
Rigor in professional services in the librarianship working with health area especially in the rapid changing world are needed in the area such as academic skills, management skills, and professional service quality. These skill set may provide improved organizational productivity. As a result, a certificate training to address the need in those skills should be a requirement for all librarian working in the field of medical sciences.
The final suggestions are that the scope of professional work description should be clarified as well as a specific competency set should be established to address the quality of services in the medical area. Continuous self-improvement and administrative management skill are also key necessity enabling the medical librarian to harmoniously work toward the organizational strategic goals. This may yield the improvement in service quality and providing an established professional position of medical librarianship in the Australianûs health care.
*Chief librarian, ASEAN Institute for Health Development Library, Mahidol University
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