INSIGHT
Health Libraries Group
HLG celebrates 75 years T
HIS is the first of a series of articles from CILIP Health Libraries Group that will explore the past, present, and
future activities of this long running special interest group. On the 5 July 1948 the National Health Service opened its doors for the first time but what is perhaps less widely known is that nine months earlier, on the 14 October 1947 another fledgling organisation, the Medical Subsection of the Library Association’s University and Research section met for the first time. This small group would grow and evolve into what we know today as the CILIP Health Libraries Group (HLG). It is a great pleasure to be able to write something of the history of this group spanning back over the past 75 years.
The Medical Section
At this first meeting, 33 medical librarians met to discuss common interests and issues in health librarianship. A fortnight later the group had doubled in size and by the end of the year more than 100 librarians from all over the country had joined as members.
Those working in libraries during the war had faced many issues, the loss and damage of buildings and stock, staff shortages and how to make their collections accessible despite ‘unprecedented circumstances’. As it was a growing sector at the time, being able to meet with others to share these problems and solutions made the idea of a network specifically for medical and health librarians very appealing and is not so very different from the reasons we continue to meet today.
26 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
This small London sub-section group continued to grow and on 1st January 1949 became The Medical Section of what was then The Library Association.
Medical, Health and Welfare Libraries Group
In 1962 The Hospital Libraries and Handicapped Readers Group was formed. At this time hospital libraries provided services for patients rather than for staff and therefore the function of this new group was distinct from the existing Medical Section whose membership consisted of medical school libraries and professional organisations. However, by the end of the 1970s hospital libraries were increasingly providing services to health professionals and so these two groups merged to form the Medical, Health and Welfare Libraries Group (MHWLG). This new group was more inclusive, serving the needs of librarians working across medical, health and welfare sectors. The varied roles and interests of health librarians were reflected in the many subgroups of MHWLG; domiciliary services, bibliotherapy, healthcare managers, prison librarians and nurses were all represented at one time or another. During the 1990s changes in the wider health and care system prompted a review of MHWLG. At the time a shift towards community care meant that most welfare (social care) librarians and services in were now employed by public libraries. Consequently around this time the group dropped the W (and the M) to become known as the Health Libraries Group (HLG).
Lynsey Hawker (
chairHLG@cilip.org.uk) is Co-Chair of CILIP Health Libraries Group (HLG)
Today, some thirty years later, a similar working group is now working to ensure that those librarians working in social care and welfare sectors are once again explicitly represented and supported under the banner of HLG. This will be a key strategic aim for the group as we enter our 75th year.
Health Libraries Group We cannot look at the history of HLG without celebrating some of our key activities and achievements, many of which have their roots firmly planted in the origins described above.
Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ)
The history of our flagship journal Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) stretches back to the forming of MHWLG in 1978. The first
January-February 2022
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