Medical Librarian Has Specialised Job

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 2

Medical Librarian Has Specialised Job

Little known to the public is the existence of the specialised libraries of some of the Government departments. In Christchurch yesterday, Miss Joan Moreland, of Wellington, who is librarian for the Department of Health, described the functions of New Zealand’s official medical library, which contains more than 12,000 medical volumes and 300 to 400 journals and technical pamphlets. Miss Moreland’s job with headquarters in the Department of Health, Wellington, is to organise the medical library there and serve the branch libraries in the 13 district health offices of New Zealand as well as the Dominion X-ray and Radium Laboratory in Christchurch, the mental hospitals, and St. Helens hospitals throughout New Zealand, the Queen Elizabeth hospital at Rotorua, the Queen Mary Hospital at Hanmer Springs, the National Health Institute, the dental clinics, and the Post Graduate School of Nursing, Wellington. Her job includes personal liaison with departmental institutions and offices. She travels round New Zealand to see that changing staffs are kept aware of how the medical library can help them in their day-to-day work and the techniques of using the resources of medical books and articles.

"Medical science is moving forward so fast these days that it is not always easy tor public health workers to keep abreast of current developments published,” said Miss Moreland. “It is the job of the librarian to keep specialised health workers well informed so that they may be au fait with what is being done in other countries and with world medical opinion.” The primary function of the medical library was to serve New Zealand’s public health authorities with professional and technical books and journals. These people were the guardians of New Zealand’s health policies from inspectors of health to hospital dietitians, psychiatric workers, health education workers and health administrators. In addition, the library served private medical practitioners seeking reference information and members of the public who required specific information on medical and

health matters. The latter included students preparing theses, said Miss Moreland, or persons requiring reference for the preparation of lecture notes. The medical library works in close conjunction with the New Zealand National Library Service so that books and journals not

available through the department may be borrowed through interloan services. The library service was an Integral part of the district health offices, which covered New Zealand, said Miss Moreland. When a new district office was established the setting up of its branch library went hand in hand with its foundation so that medical officers of health and their staffs might be assured of authentic support from the latest published information. Satisfying Work

Her work was varied and satisfying, Miss Moreland said. No two districts’ problems were alike. What Invercargill needed to work on, for instance, was very different from say, Rotorua's rural problems. Acting as a clearing house for all New Zealand’s official medical information cbuld be a taxing and meticulous job, but one that was appreciated by doctors and nurses, who looked to the service to back their practical work. The ordering and processing of medical books was done for the whole of New Zealand in the Wellington headquarters, she said. The shift in emphasis of public health problems moved with time and needs. With the success of the aggressive campaigns waged against tuberculosis, for instance, and the perfecting of treatment techniques, other public health problems had come to the fore. These were the growing interest in geriatric work (care of the aged), civil rehabilitation of the sick and injured with accent on vocational training and the getting back to work of those disabled by disease or accident; antiaccident and preventive medicine in industry, and occupational hygiene in all its phases. Miss Moreland is a young woman who puts pride and integrity into her responsible position of serving those who serve the community. She is a trained librarian, who gained her librarian’s diploma as a post-graduate student in science from Victoria University and brought her experience of several years as an abstractor of research reports in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, England, to the public service of New Zealand.