Collaboration and Marketing Ensure Public and Medical Library Viability

The increased demand for consumer health information over the past twenty years has inspired many to usurp the job of the librarian. Health professionals are writing articles about the provision of health information for their patients. Newspaper and magazine articles tout the importance of health information companies as the means through which the public can pay for access to health information. Hospital libraries are closing at a rapid rate throughout the United States, with hospital administrators citing lack of funding as the reason and viewing the medical library as a drain on the hospital bottom line. Collaboration and marketing are two elements that ensure the library remains viable in the eyes of health professionals, hospital administrators, and the public. As librarians, we have collaborated with each other for years with tremendous results. Now is the time to publish these successes in the professional literature of health administrators and professionals and in newspapers and popular journals. Now is the time for the public and health professionals alike to realize the contributions librarians have made and are making on the consumer health front.