The Librarian's Contribution to Continuing Medical Education

Abstract

At many hospitals, including Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) University Hospital Rahway, librarians facilitate continuing medical education (CME) programs, sometimes working in that capacity as much as in their traditional librarian functions such as reference, research, cataloging, and bibliographic instruction. This column traces the relationship between the two aspects of the RWJ Rahway's CME coordinator and health sciences librarian's job to demonstrate that, because of their duties and skills, medical librarians can meaningfully contribute to hospitals' CME programs. The worlds of librarianship and CME are further connected by the same goal: the dissemination of information.

Keywords: Continuing medical education; health sciences librarians; hospital libraries; information professionals; librarians as educators; library services; role of librarians.