Study On Conception Of Medical Information Commons And Its Service Management With A Case

PurposesAs an important trend of the future library, Information Commons support users'researches and learning, as well as help them improve information literacy with one-stop information services. Library will benefit from it in the aspects of social value and status greatly. This article inspected the backgrounds of the birth of Information Commons and the current usages of information resources in medical libraries comprehensively. Through analyzing the content of the services Information Commons provided and the information demands of the medical library users, a proper theoretical architecture and management strategy for the Medical Information Commons are proposed. In order to develop them into a common model, a case study was conducted at the last part, which can be used as a reference for those medical libraries which plan to construct medical information commons and provides evidences for the decision making of the transformation of medical library services.MethodsThe methods employed in this paper are literature review and information analysis, questionnaire method, statistical analysis, comparison and induction, as well as case study. With the purpose of comprehensively understanding the information commons, integration of library information resources and other relevant researches, this paper achieve it through literature review; for exploring the medical information demands and the current usage of the medical information through questionnaires and statistics; for concluding the conception and model of medical information commons through comparison and induction the materials collected. In the case study, the model established has proved its feasibility.Results(1) The main backgrounds of information commons are the progress of the network technology and the acceleration growth of information resources, the change of users' information using behavior and learning styles, as well as the evolution of the library collections structure. The definition, features, service concepts and principles of Information commons are impacted by the backgrounds.(2) The framework of medical information commons consist of the some main elements which are service, places, resources and users. That should be the starting point to analyze the structure and design the specific content.(3) The main stockholders of medical information commons are the funds providers, the administrators and librarians, the providers of information resources and equipments as well as the fringe stakeholders. They influence the management and decisions making together.(4) Problems existed in the medical library undertaken the questionnaire are the obvious differences in various types of users, needs of strengthen resources, necessity to optimize the service mode and content.Conclusions(1) The conception of medical information commons mainly contains service, spaces, resources and users, which have mutual influence, interaction and mutual restrict relationship. The model is feasible in the application of making construction plan for medical library.(2) The implementation of Medical information commons will impact the existing library service system. Appropriate management mechanism will make it come into truth smoothly. Stakeholder theory, an effective tool to analyze the problems medical information commons facing, can help to define the content of the management mechanism, which are interest request expressing mechanism, interest coordination mechanism, incentive and restraint mechanism and appraisal supervision mechanism.