Designing and launching a Patient Information Service Department in a Children’s Hospital Library: A sase study

Abstract

In many countries, hospital libraries, in addition to providing information services to doctors and medical staff, also provide services to patients and their companions. This is more important in children's hospital libraries because the users are children and their families and they need to information more in the hospital environment, and sometimes this information services leads to greater cooperation between children and medical staff. This research was conducted with the aim of providing information services to children in the library of Bahrami Children's Hospital in Tehran and was a case study.

The following steps were taken to launch the information services department:

1. Designing an announcement to request donations of money and needed books and disseminating it in the hospital and social networks. disseminating this announcement caused many medical staffs to donate the books needed by this department to the library or participate in their purchase. Also, disseminating it on social networks attracted support from various organizations, and as a result of this step, 2000 versions of the book were collected. 2. Opening of this department with the presence of the hospital director and colleagues and dissemination of the news on the hospital and Tehran University of Medical Sciences websites. 3. Installation of posters to inform patients in different departments of the hospital. As a result of the second and third steps, book lending in this department gradually flourished and reached about 50 loans per month, which was a good figure compared to the 140 active beds of the hospital. Book lending was done by patients, their mothers and companions, and sometimes by the medical staff for patients. 4. Not registering children's books as library property and their entry into the software. As a result of the fourth step, children were not held responsible for possible damage they might cause to books. 5. Setting up a toy shelf in this section and creating the possibility of borrowing and donating these toys. 6. Setting up a storytelling section for children with the help of volunteers. As a result of the fifth and sixth steps, the number of children visiting the library and using the considered section increased. As a result of the actions taken in this study, children felt better about being in the hospital and their treatment, and were generally satisfied with the setting up of this section, so much so that even some patients maintained their connection with the library after recovering and being discharged from the hospital.

By designing and launching a section providing information services to hospitalized children, we made children feel better about being in the hospital and their treatment, so that even some patients maintained their connection with the library after recovery and discharge from the hospital. Some children donated their personal books to this section of the library after recovery. The hospital librarian wrote the story book "Sam in the Hospital Library", which was based on a real incident that occurred when one of the sick children was in the library. This research is in line with the topic of using storytelling to successfully support your library - case studies and corresponds to the topic of the poster.