Guidelines for Libraries Serving Hospital Patients and the Elderly and Disabled in Long-Term Care Facilities

During the course of its preliminary research, the working group was struck with how the concept of a hospital library differs so in different parts of the world. It found, for example, that in some countries, the term 'hospital library' almost always signified a biomedical/health sciences library, while in others, it usuallymeant a library providing leisure reading materials for patients. In still other countries, 'hospital library' could signifyeither a biomedical/health sciences library or a patients' library, with the latter providing leisure reading collections or health information materials or both. Recognizing the ambiguity of the term, therefore, these guidelines have tried to avoid its use. It was not possible to do so in some instances, for example, in recounting the history of patients' libraries. The reader should thus be aware that where the term 'hospital library' is used, it means a library for patients, one that routinely provides leisure reading collections, often in combination with health information materials.