The health sciences environment of the late twentieth century is inundated by information sources, products, and services. Libraries and the clients they serve are buffeted by rapid change on multiple fronts.
Medical knowledge continues to grow exponentially.
High technology and a growing reliance on the computer and other forms of telecommunications affect every aspect of life and work. Electronic access to information is commonplace, and the widespread availability of personal computers at once increases the demand for instant access, lessens reliance on librarian intermediaries, and affords the opportunity for innovative information service roles. Libraries and librarians are in a unique position to become part of an information management solution, an integrated scheme for expanding and making optimal use of an institution's total information resources. Health sciences librarianship stands apart, however, in striving to ensure that advances in science and the technology of health care are readily accessible to health care practitioners, educators, students, researchers and consumers. While drawing heavily on general librarianship, a librarian in the intellectually and technologically sophisticated context of health care also requires expertise and values significantly different from those of colleagues in some other library services.