With hospitals using more content than ever and their employees’ need for faster access to this literature, library teams must find new ways to streamline their operations. Historically, many U.S. hospitals have relied on an interlibrary loan system to fulfill employee requests for articles. This solution can allow requests to be fulfilled relatively quickly, but each request typically requires the time and manual effort of hospital library staff.
In addition, some articles might be accessible but contain specific limitations regarding how they may be used, stored, or both. An article may even have relevant supplementary materials that are not available through interlibrary loan systems.
Librarians are not the only members of hospital staff who can find interlibrary loan systems challenging. Everyone appreciates the urgent need to access information quickly and efficiently, and, owing to the time-sensitive nature of their work, many hospital employees require access to scientific literature as quickly as possible. Waiting one or more business days to receive vital content can be frustrating for these employees, potentially impeding their research or ability to deliver quality care to patients.
Even having to wait a few hours for an article or the secondary permissions needed to share the article with colleagues may exceed the time available to healthcare practitioners who need to make an urgent medical decision.
Faster access to scientific literature in a hospital setting is possible
To better meet the information and content needs of these employees, hospital library teams can turn to content management solutions such as RightFind Enterprise, which, when paired with the Annual Copyright License from CCC, can provide significantly improved efficiencies with hospital-wide licensing.
RightFind provides instant access to articles and allows hospital staff to search for and acquire content on their own, addressing their time-critical needs for information while nearly eliminating the manual effort required of library teams for article requests, in turn freeing them to take on higher-value initiatives.
Additionally, RightFind can be configured with a hospital’s existing subscriptions to help its staff manage their content in one place and make it easy to see which publications the hospital subscribes to. This feature can help cut down on duplicate article purchases and encourage use of available resources so library teams can demonstrate a stronger return on investment.
Many articles purchased through RightFind and covered by the Annual Copyright License can be added to a hospital’s library collection, making them more readily available if needed again in the future. RightFind also affords greater flexibility to hospital library teams by allowing them to organize information based around criteria such as department, research team, patient care plan, medical specialty, and more.
Enhancing copyright compliance while reducing infringement risk
Beyond helping to increase efficiencies and to maximize the return on content investments, the combination of RightFind and the Annual Copyright License can reduce the risk of infringement by providing a uniform set of rights across a broad repertory of titles, paired with rights management technology to make those rights visible to users.
The Annual Copyright License from CCC makes it easier for covered employees to collaborate internally using text-based content from widely used print and electronic journals, books, news and other content. Further, for many titles, the Annual Copyright License allows licensees to reactively share a single electronic copy of an article with a client, customer, or prospect, including a patient who makes an unsolicited request for an article.
Overall, the benefits afforded by the Annual Copyright License can make it easier for hospital librarians to help ensure that hospital staff are collaborating in a copyright compliant manner and to better support staff members in providing the highest quality of care for their patients.
Visit our solution pages now to learn more about how RightFind Enterprise and the Annual Copyright License helps library teams save time and resources while strengthening compliance efforts and granting hospital staff instant access to vital scientific content.