Background: Located in a 464-bed continuing care/rehabilitation hospital, we provide rehabilitation patients, caregivers and staff with consumer health information, leisure reading material, and access to the internet. Bed-bound patients are served by a book cart. The library is managed by a librarian supervising a team of volunteers. During the COVID-19 pandemic the hospital was closed to visitors and volunteers. The library was closed to patients, the book cart service was banned and sharing and circulating materials was prohibited. The librarian had to adapt quickly and constantly to provide patients with access to library services and collections.
Description: We established a project to work with the Therapeutic Recreation department to develop and implement services providing technical support both to help patients communicate with family and friends and to access our collections of leisure and health materials. We created easy-to-read instructions for using tablets, setting up accounts, accessing FaceTime/ Skype/etc. Library staff assisted in facilitating video calls between patients and families and directed patients towards online resources. By following the Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums project we developed a site -specific protocol to provide a safe direct-to-patient delivery model. We created an online catalog and circulation system for the library’s collection of leisure books so that patients could select books remotely.
Conclusion: Through flexibility, following real-time research, and collaboration with other hospital departments, the library has been able to develop a new model of service to support patient care and rehabilitation at a time when many other activities have been suspended indefinitely. To date the library has added 2592 titles to its catalogue and served 129 patients over 6 months. Staff have appreciated help with technology, with handouts being used by patients and staff. All parties have been pleased with the online catalogue. Partnering with the Therapeutic Recreation department allows the library to provide services to patients who would not have used the library pre-pandemic, either because they were not sufficiently mobile or because they were not aware it existed.