The role of Spanish health libraries in scientific publication

Abstract

Background: Health libraries have been established as publication support services. Despite its importance, there is currently no study about the services that these centers offer. The aim of this work is to understand the role that libraries play in institutional scientific publishing policies.

Material and methods: The sample was taken from the National Catalogue of Hospitals, the list of libraries of the Catalogue of Periodicals in Spanish Health Sciences Libraries (c17) and the National Catalogue of Health Sciences Publications (CNCS). Subsequently, virtual health libraries have also been incorporated. From this list, a questionnaire about library staff and activities related to publication process was sent.

Results: We obtained a participation rate of 61.21%. The average number of technical personnel was 1.15 in virtual libraries and 0.81 in hospital libraries. The activities carried out have been: training activities (82.2%), counselling (90.1%), dissemination (30.7%) and evaluation (50.5%)

Conclusions: The staff in libraries are insufficient. In many cases technicians assume an overwork of serving in both (virtual and hospital libraries). Most libraries offer training and research support services although there are differences between virtual and hospital ones. There is a relationship between the number of technicians and the publication support services.