Information needs of health workers

Abstract

The paper summarizes the outcomes of a survey recently carried out at the medical libraries of county hospitals. The survey investigated the changing needs of users in the field of information searching and library use. Due to the heavy work-related pressure and lack of time, health professionals show an increasing tendency of accessing professional literature from home, using electronic resources. However, the majority of users still use both print journals and online resources. One of the problems of using electronic resources is the inefficiency of searching, which is partly due to the insufficient searching skills of the users, but also to the shortcomings of the products and services themselves. User education remains the main task for librarians in order to optimize the use of expensive medical information sources. While the information infrastructure should be ensured and improved by the individual hospitals, the licensing of full-text medical journal databases should be coordinated and financed centrally, possibly by the Ministry of Health itself.