Providing medical information to college health center personnel: A circuit librarian service at the University of Illinois

Abstract

College health center personnel are no different from other health practitioners in their need for medical information. To help meet this need, the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a partnership in 1997 with the Library of the Health Sciences–Urbana, a regional site library of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. This partnership led to the adoption of circuit librarianship, a dynamic outreach model, to enhance access to health information for McKinley Health Center personnel. A circuit librarian consults with health center personnel during regularly scheduled on-site visits to the health center and its satellite office. Upon returning to the resource library, she conducts research for clinical information on their behalf. Articles, books, and relevant Web sites, are identified and delivered to assist in answering questions regarding topics such as disease management, drug therapy, wellness, and health administration.