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Final Program


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Video ViewAttendees 33

Paper: Program Description Abstract

Professionalism & Leadership

In Person

On Demand

Session: Professionalism & Leadership Papers 4

Advocacy Resources for Hospital Librarians -- Hospital Library Caucus LibGuide

Friday, May 19, 2023
1:15 PM - 1:30 PM EDT
Location: 250C
Background: Hospital librarians frequently have to justify their role to health system administration. Additionally, often new librarians receive little or no training or onboarding explaining the unique nature of hospital librarianship. Some, working as solo librarians, may not know where to turn for the resources needed to learn the necessary skills. In the fall of 2019, the Professionalism & Leadership Hub reached out to the Hospital Library Caucus (HLC) asking if Caucus leadership was interested in updating the existing Values 2 Toolkit created as a MLA Rising Star project in 2014-2015 by Roy Brown and Helen-Ann Brown Epstein. HLC leadership and members responded enthusiastically and plans for developing a new web-based, scalable, and updatable tool were put into motion.

Description: A call to HLC membership was made, asking Caucus member about the shape and content of the new toolkit and volunteers for the project. Many caucus members shared ideas for content and expressed interest in helping. Ideas about areas of concentration were collected to serve as the basis for the project.. After initial organizing meeting in 2020, volunteers were divided into task forces in charge of main specific areas – Standards of Practice, New Hospital Librarians Resources, Advocacy Toolkit, and Guidance for Healthcare Administrators. Task forces met to discuss member roles and split up responsibilities. Each main area of concentration was divided into smaller topics. MLA was approached for platform suggestions. LibGuides by SpringShare were selected as the platform. After the launch of the project, task forces met on a regular basis to discuss content inclusion, search strategies, and progress. The work to select articles, books, websites, blogs, and other media to be included in the guide in each category was under way. At the same time, a separate effort to work with MLA to develop a Hospital Library Advocacy Statement was launched. The final statement was included as a section of the LibGuide.

Conclusion: The project culminated in launching the Hospital Library Caucus: HLC Advocacy Home LibGuide in August 2022. The new resource included the Hospital Libraries Advocacy Statement released in February 2022, the draft version of the Standards of Practice for Hospital Libraries and Librarians, information for new hospital librarians, and sections on Library as Hub, Dazzling Stakeholders, and Excellence in Librarianship. Since its release, the Hospital Library Advocacy Statement has been signed by 11 organizations; outreach is ongoing. The Hospital Library Advocacy LibGuide has been accessed more than 2,200 times within the first two months of launch. Next steps include putting into place structures that will ensure that the Advocacy Toolkit will continue to be updated with relevant information.