This issue is something we considered as a working group for South Thames nearly 10 years ago. The Union Catalogue afforded us with a mechanism for flagging up books considered by one librarian to be out-of-date. The status code (W - Withdrawal) could then be searched by other librarians to find recommendations for deletion. This was operationalised by a listing of all class codes with a recommended period for withdrawal (basically 5, 10 and 15 years). Books most volatile to change will go through subsequent editions anyway. Keeping the current edition only (ideal) or the immediately previous edition with a warning sticker (pragmatic) is another way of handling it.
I very much like the idea of using clinical governance as a lever for new funds. However I think it could be seen as something of a red herring. I would suggest that you institute an evidence-based healthcare approach with publicity highlighting "Clinical Question? - start with the Cochrane Library", Medline, journals etcetera. You could then defend any supposed liability by saying that regardless of AVAILABILITY of out-dated books your recommended policy is to use other sources for CLINICAL QUESTIONS. The alternative would be to check all the text of even most recently published books as these could equally be out of date in volatile subject areas.
I personally feel that even the most diligent implementation of a stock withdrawal policy would still be open to someone finding outdated information in your library. A culture change, though harder to achieve, would be more transferable to other libraries and would do better service to the EBM philosophy.
Andrew
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From: Library account 1
Sent: 23 July 1999 17:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: How long should we keep our books?
Dear All
Two questions for you to mull over in the next week or two.
In the light of Clinical Governance, Clinical Effectiveness, Evidence
Based Health Care Etc. Etc. Etc. How long should we be keeping
books on our shelves for?
What is the position of a hospital/library in cases of patient
complaints etc. when it can be shown the hospital staff were using
out-of-date material provided by the library or as bench books on the
ward?
Currently this library has a general rule of 10 years or two
editions, with 7 years for anaesthesia and 5 years for pathology,
oncology and pharmacology.
I now feel that 10 years is far too long for clinical areas.
We also hold a lot of nursing stock and are aware that tutors are
very attached to the editions they used when students and frequently
recommend these and other out-of-date books (we ignore them when they
do this).
ALSO Bench books on the wards are often worthy of a place in a
museum.
I realise that the situation may be different for research libraries
and those with historical collections.
Perhaps we could try and reach some consensus about this?
I will do a digest of the replies I receive.
Thank you in advance for thinking about this
Ann Mason
Librarian
Ferriman Information and Library Service
North Middlesex Hospital
Sterling Way
London N18 1QX
United Kingdom
Tel: 0181 887 2223
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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