Collaboration for the next-generation medical and health science library

Introduction

The Norwegian Ministry of Education has given NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and HiST (Sør-Trøndelag University College) a joint assignment to establish an integrated library for medicine and health science. The library will be situated in a new building at the university hospital area and it will open in 2014. This is a new and radical collaboration project in Norway, between different types of institutions; a university and a university college. NTNU and HiST are different regarding organizational structure, culture, economy and traditions. The user groups will differ from senior researchers and clinicians on different scholarly levels to bachelor students in e.g. occupational therapy, nursing and social work.

It is not planned a merger of the two institutions, but rather an organizational form, a community of practice, in which we cooperate on the physical library and the user services (1).

This collaboration project gives a unique opportunity to establish the next-generation library for research and learning, both a physical library and the library’s ability to offer new services.

Objectives

The objective of this poster is to present a project of library collaboration. The development of the integrated library for medicine and health science will be based on results from several user studies and also implies development of the two libraries as a community of practice.

Method

User behavior and demands change. It is important that the library is prepared and able to develop services to support their users’ workflow. So what will the user needs be in 2014? A number of former development projects in the existing libraries as well as research and our experience in general give us some ideas. We see that librarians’ expertise is less requested in the physical library, but students will use the physical library for group and individual study. Most users prefer search engines like Google and Google Scholar instead of the library catalogue. There will be an increased demand for user instruction and library courses and classes. Regarding staff and researchers, we see that they rarely visit the physical library, but they request new services, ask for library support at their workplaces and in the publishing process.

This year we have carried out a user study to increase and update our knowledge about behavior and needs of the different user groups. The study was designed as a focus group study with four group interviews, two groups consisting of students and two of staff from the two institutions. Trained moderators performed the interviews based on an interview guide (2).

Results

The results so far show some significant difference between students and staff, but minor differences between the two institutions. Students want in a way a traditional library; they want a quiet place for study, an alternative to the regular reading rooms. They want long opening hours, from 8 to 20, some even longer. Most important for this group is an area for study and access to literature. They also use the library to check out the recommended reading before they buy the literature. They want different areas in the library; quite areas for group and individual study and more noisy areas for relaxing together with their fellow students with possibilities to eat and drink. Good quality of air, light, large windows and spaciousness are keywords for designing the physical library. The students are also concerned about access to printers, copiers, computers and enough sockets. The students are self-reliant, but see the benefit from library courses and classes.

The study shows that the staff uses the library primarily to order books and articles. They rarely visit the library, but use mail or telephone to get in touch. For this group it is important that the library website is good and that librarians can assist if needed. They emphasize equal access for both institutions to information resources. Library courses and classes are also important for the staff both for themselves and for their students. Further the staff wants the library to be a place for dissemination of the institutions’ research - either by short presentations of current projects, or by exhibition and posters.

The study shows an interesting difference between staff and students regarding the library as an "interdisciplinary meeting place". Staff sees the library as a place where students can meet to discuss and share knowledge. Students, on the other hand, are less concerned about this and focus more on the library as a workplace.

Discussion

Results from this last study both supplement and overlap results from our former development projects. All this knowledge together will form the basis for the development of an integrated library for medicine and health science. In this developmental process library staff from two different institutions will cooperate and form a community of practice. A community of practice can be defined as a group of people who share interests, problems, or passion in an area and where they develop their knowledge in this area by sharing experiences and regularly interact or negotiate with each other (1). The library has to be established as a “learning organization”. This means an organization that is able to accept, adapt and continuously evaluate new ideas and changes and also is flexible and consciously improves its capacity to learn and develop (3). This organization has staff with focus on attitudes and relations. Staff members are involved and takes responsibility, have communication skills and are innovative and takes risks. Team work can be an effective and flexible working method for library staff and also make it easier for the two libraries to work together across institutional borders.