Las bibliotecas de ciencias de la salud en Espa a: una primera aproximación descriptiva

Libraries are of fundamental importance in health care, training and research due to continuing advances in knowledge and its diffusion in a wide variety of publications. Spain lacks an organized library system and deficiencies are perceived. This article presents a descriptive study of the health sciences libraries in Spain. We performed a cross sectional study by survey of the following public centers: hospitals with more than 100 beds or smaller hospitals with teaching accreditation: centers of health management and administration; research centers: schools of public health; schools of medicine and dentistry; and schools of nursing and physical therapy. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to centers with libraries, and follow-up was made by telephone. 400 of the 716 centers identified have their own libraries (55.9%). and 82 have shared libraries (11.5%). Over half of the libraries (52.8%) are in hospitals. AII research centers, schools of medicine and dentistry, schools of public health and hospital complexes have their own or shared libraries, as do 42.6% of administrative centers, 84.6% of schools of nursing and physical therapy, 79% of all hospitals, 72.4% of individual hospitals, 92.5% of teaching hospitals, and 50.5% of non-teaching hospitals. Only two-thirds of the centers have access to a library. The proportion of hospitals with library access can be considered low, especially in non-teaching hospitals, those with a small number of beds, or those not belonging to a hospital complex. Over half of the libraries are in hospitals, thus they will be of primary importance in designing future documentation systems. Los avances del conocimiento y su difusión en diversos tipos de publicaciones hacen a las bibliotecas centros fundamentales en la asistencia, docencia e investigación en los sistemas de salud. Espa a carece de un sistema bibliotecario organizado y se perciben deficiencias. Este artículo presenta un estudio descriptivo sobre la situación de las bibliotecas de ciencias de la salud en Espa a. Se realizó un estudio transversal mediante encuesta en los siguientes centros públicos: hospitales mayores de 100 camas o menores con acreditación docente, centros de gestión y administración sanitaria, centros de investigación, escuelas de salud pública, facultades de medicina y odontología, y escuelas universitarias de enfermería y fisioterapia. A los centros que tenían biblioteca se les envió por correo un cuestionario autoadministrado con seguimiento telefónico. De los 716 centros identificados, 400 tienen biblioteca propia (55,9%) y 82 co