News

To change or not to change – Are library systems in the health sector meeting expectations?

Jul26

An interesting and worthy two days were spent at this year’s Health Libraries Group conference held in Manchester.    In light of the imminent health service re-organisation, when it came to discussing library systems, fear of change was apparent amongst librarians.   Just as noticeable was considerable dissatisfaction of present library systems, even some recently implemented.

A general fear of changing the status quo, founded on the expectation that changing a system brings to the library massive upheaval and disruption.   On catching up with us at the conference, a health sector customer that recently purchased SoutronSOLO described this very reason for their delayed purchasing decision, only to be pleasantly surprised when SoutronSOLO was implemented so smoothly and quickly.

On the surface, librarians at the conference were quite happy with their library system; it was only when they learnt of a customer whose recent change of system was complication free that conversation became more revealing:  problems in basic functionality, systems crashing on searching, helpdesk relocated overseas, lack of reliable statistics etc.   Regrettably, such encounters are not only experienced by health librarians, but by those in other sectors too.

Surprisingly throughout the conference, there was no talk of ‘pilot’ systems to trial new functionality and capabilities in NHS library systems, and no one spoke of using mobile or social systems.  New ideas were few.  On the other hand, we did hear of the introduction of RFID systems to reduce staff on enquiry desks and to provide services commensurate with students’ experiences in public / university libraries. 

Most encouraging was the positive feedback from librarians to the ratings and comments features in SoutronSOLO’s OPAC as the identification of information resources that are valued and why offers significant intelligence for a library service.  

We also learnt how healthcare librarians expect to see more interaction and greater integration with third party organisations in the future as they prepare to serve a broader user community.    Sharing our experience with the Chartered Management Institute, a fast developing service for their students and professional members both through the physical library and the online service; distance learning, a wide variety of content types, subject based OPACs as well as conventional OPACs and archival systems all coming from a single repository, all struck a chord with health librarians.

Graham Beastall, MD.

If you have any comments, feel free to contact Graham