On Wednesday January 19^th, SIM’s Special Libraries Association student chapter hosted a tour of two libraries of the Capital Health region located within the IWK Hospital: the Health Sciences Library and the Family Resources Library. Librarian and SIM alumna Darlene Chapman – Manager of Information Sources- began the afternoon with a tour of the IWK’s Health Science’s Library. This library is open to the public and primarily serves the staff and students of the Capital Health system. It is difficult to imagine that fifty years ago this was instead a specialized medical library open only to physicians; things have changed significantly. Darlene and her staff of 1½ library assistants serve all Capital Health staff at all levels, as well as its affiliated students in a variety of ways:

• assistance in all information needs, including literature searches and interlibrary loan, and document delivery
• instruction in how to use the library’s in-house and online resources
• assistance and training in using audio visual and Telehealth equipment & software
• photographic services

Although the number of reference questions and interviews has decreased since the arrival of online access-anywhere resources, Darlene, who has witnessed the library changes for over twenty years, still regularly assists staff and students in literature searches. Darlene finds that staff are able to find resources online but often need help discerning which of the results from thousands can best fill their research needs. Darlene was enthusiastic about the many hats she wears inside and outside of her library responsibilities and expressed that this is a unique and exciting feature of working at a special library within a much larger organization. When not tending to information requests or ordering print and online resources for the entire Capital Heath system, Darlene and her staff train hospital staff to use audio/visual materials and the Capital Health’s Telehealth equipment and software. For example, Telehealth equipment can be used for remote diagnostics and treatments or training anesthesiologists to use new equipment software. And no, Darlene has no science degree under her belt; her undergraduate degree is in Canadian History! Oh, we librarians are brilliantly adaptable.

If you can imagine, on top of this portfolio Darlene finds time for hospital fundraising, staff recognition events, and other activities to help the IWK meet its ongoing goals. Darlene is also spearheading the conceptualization of an IWK archive to gather and centralize the organizational history of the IWK.

The second portion of our tour had our SLA group heading to the Family Resource Library where we met librarian and SIM alumna Andrea Kuttner. The primary function of this library is to provide consumer health information and recreational items (DVDs, games, and video games) to hospital patients and their families. The Family Resource Library is funded entirely by the hospital’s auxiliary fund-raising body. The library works in tandem with the IWK’s Family Care Centre -a relatively new centre to the IWK whose mandate is to focus on the care on the entire family as opposed to focusing on patients only, and the Child Life Centre -a centre to help normalize the hospital environment for children and young adults receiving long term care featuring a teen lounge, teaching instruction, recreation, music, and more. One of the biggest challenges Andrea faces daily is dealing with sensitive interactions; if a patient has not yet been diagnosed, they often look to the librarian as yet another health care practitioner who can dispense advice and information as a doctor or nurse would – a request she has to do her best to mitigate until a solid diagnosis is given.

Alongside her work serving the needs of patients and families, Andrea oversees and creates policies for the review process and publishing of pamphlets created by hospital staff. Until three years ago pamphlets (outlining post-operative self-care instructions, etc.) were published without any review process or archiving system and distributed to patients. Now, Andrea helps clinicians author, translate, and revise their pamphlet literature. She registers each publication, keeping an original copy, and posts them to the hospital website now with over 400 publications. She also sends pamphlets to print, and edits them for plain language and accuracy (she will sometimes consult a pharmacist to ensure medication dosage in the pamphlets is correct).

Needless to say, the SLA student group had a wonderfully informative afternoon at the IWK libraries thanks to two talented and enthusiastic LIS professionals. If you are interested in the work of health science librarians, both Darlene and Andrea have indicated that they would happy to answer any questions to interested students.

Interested in either upcoming or past SLA student chapter tours? Find our tour information and tour archives at: http://simsa.dsu.dal.ca/sla/ or email me, your Dalhousie SLA Co-Chair External (tour organizing) Officer @ an637587@dal.ca

Next tour! February 10^th – Pier 21

Tour includes the library, museum, and a screening of the film Oceans of Hope.

Also, keep an eye out for the SLA student chapter’s Valentine’s Day Death by Chocolate fundraiser bake sale and on Monday, March 7^th the chapter’s FOM button sale!