Planning and designing hospital health science libraries

The people who plan and design hospital libraries must be aware of the environment in which the library functions. The hospital health science library operates under a different set of values and priorities from an academic library. Three methodologic studies are reported to determine hospital health science functions with comments on the significance of the data for designing: (i) the extent and possible use of books and journal collections makes it evident a hospital must act as an access point to the scholarly record; (ii) a survey of 41 hospitals shows a wide variety and combination of 33 user services; obviously what services are to be given should be decided before design; (iii) observing how different areas are used by a library's clientele shows that groups use the library differently and within certain time patterns; the arrangement of the functional areas can be better designed if quantitative data on the use of space are available.