There are many pre-conceptions about what a career within healthcare libraries will involve. Here Alison Day and Dominic Gilroy look at the reality and explain how you can find your own way in the profession.

IF I had a pound every time I was asked how I select books to give to patients in hospital, I would be very wealthy. Those of us working in the health service do, of course, put patients at the heart of what we do by ensuring that the right evidence from research and knowledge of good practice is used at the right time and in the right place to inform healthcare decision making.

What sorts of work might I be doing?

Work within healthcare libraries is a fusion between the type of work that takes place in academic, public and business libraries and information centres. The skill set required is very similar. Often as small library services, the library team need to be a “jack-of-all trades” jumping from customer services, information retrieval, information and digital literacy training to horizon scanning, website management, systems development and knowledge management facilitation. Everyone on the team has an important role to play in engaging with learners, staff and leaders within their organisations and spotting opportunities to proactively take the service to the customer wherever they may be – the bedside, clinic, surgery, community or board room.

People working in the healthcare sector love the variety of the work, the opportunity to develop and use a wide range of professional skills and the conviction that the work makes a real difference to the health and care of the public.

“The best thing about working at my Trust is the incredibly supportive team environment. We are working towards the common goal of improving patient care. The variety is great – every day is different.”

– Victoria Harrison, Deputy Library & Knowledge Services Manager, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

What qualifications, knowledge and skills do I need?

A recent exchange on Twitter highlighted a further misconception about working in a health care library. Whilst a scientific background, perhaps a science degree, may be helpful it is by no means a pre-requisite for becoming a health librarian. Alignment to the NHS Values is more critical. Practical knowledge of customer service, promotion, learner support, digital skills, teamwork and collaboration will be what an employer will be looking for.

The CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) outlines some of the core skills and knowledge to develop as a health library and knowledge specialist. The associated healthcare guidance provides examples of how the PKSB may be applied within healthcare. In addition to the requirement of expert search skills this includes a much greater focus on knowledge management, data and digital literacy skills as it is recognised that these are growth areas within the health service. A suite of resources outlining the key aspects of 13 roles and mapped to the PKSB have been developed.

Many apply skills gained elsewhere to a career in healthcare libraries bringing transferable skills and knowledge from public, academic, school and specialist libraries. Others see health libraries as an opportunity for a second or third career sometimes transferring from other roles within the NHS or from research or informatics backgrounds.

“Changing sector within the library and information world can seem daunting. I made the switch to health librarianship after 20 years in public libraries. Despite my initial reservations I have found that my skills are transferable and my experience in public libraries has complimented others’ experience in health libraries to allow for service improvements that may not have otherwise been thought of.”

– Richard Pemberton, Knowledge and Library Service Strategic Manager, Medway NHS Foundation Trust.

How to start my career as a health and care knowledge and library?

There are many routes into a role within the health service. Many colleagues apply for healthcare librarian positions after completing a CILIP recognised library and information qualification and then undertake continuing professional development, freely provided by Health Education England’s Learning Academy, to develop knowledge and skills. Typically, this would include applied skills development in expert searching of health and care bibliographic databases, summarising, synthesising and critically appraising literature and building confidence to deliver information skills training, facilitating knowledge management activities or raising awareness of health literacy. There are also more specialised roles embedded alongside healthcare teams. Sometimes described as clinical librarians or knowledge specialists these roles proactively support the decisions being taken by multi-disciplinary teams looking after individual patients or driving forward the transformation of healthcare services.

More recently, new routes into a career in the health service have been developed. This includes learning on the job either as a graduate trainee, an apprentice or developing experience as a paraprofessional and undertaking CILIP Professional Registration. The Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant Apprenticeship provides an opportunity to apply learning immediately in the workplace.

What are the opportunities to develop my career?

According to the latest figures from Health Education England, there are currently 177 NHS knowledge and library services across England, providing services to over 200 NHS organisations and a growth in developing roles within newly formed Integrated Care Systems. There is also an increase in specialised roles working within Arm’s Length Bodies such as NHS England, the UK Heath Security Agency and NICE.

Within the health and care sector there are also opportunities within the third sector, academia, think tanks, pharmaceuticals and specialised health academic institutions such as the Royal Colleges.

There are many opportunities to step into leadership positions setting the strategic direction for services. HEE have created two leadership programmes to develop future leaders for the NHS knowledge and library profession which provide an opportunity to combine academic study with experiential learning.

Gaining experience within an NHS knowledge and library service may act as a springboard into a more senior position within an NHS organisation. For some this has involved leading education departments, service transformation, business intelligence units or quality improvement teams.

Ways to gain experience, stand-out at interview and spot opportunities?

Joining the CILIP Health Libraries Group will provide an opportunity to learn more. Membership provides access to networking opportunities, newsletters, training and the peer-reviewed Health Information and Libraries Journal.

Health Education England provides a wide range of fully funded continuing professional development training via the Knowledge for Healthcare Learning Academy. This includes access to the Learning Zone webpages, free to access E-Learning programmes on literature searching, health literacy and knowledge mobilisation and short courses. This includes access to free to access E-Learning programmes on literature searching, health literacy and knowledge mobilisation.

If you are particularly interested in working in the NHS then it will be helpful to know more about this complex organisation and the animation produced by the Kings Fund can help with this. NHS Careers provides an overview of various roles and gives more information about terms and conditions of work, plus a link to the latest vacancies.

Probably the best way to gain experience is to arrange a visit. Physical libraries can be found in most hospitals and you can find your nearest service by using the Health Library and Information Services Directory. Alternatively contact a member of Health Education England’s National Knowledge and Library Services Team (KFH.England@hee.nhs.uk) and mark your email careers) they will be happy to have a conversation about the types of roles available and arrange some visits, shadowing or work experience for you.