Abstract

Debates on health information provision challenges resulting from rapid changes in information service access and use have moved from the global sphere to the local scene. This has negatively affected the ways in which librarians provide information to the public. Librarians are exposed to use of unauthoritative and inaccurate information, leading to serious health problems. Because of Librarians’ knowledge on identification, selection, organization and dissemination of evidence-based information, they ought to play an important role in information dissemination, which is not the case for now. This is because their profession has not been oriented towards producing a healthy society as well as assisting users in making informed health decisions. These inadequacies continue to hurt the health information consumers unabated, yet little has been researched up to today. This study was conducted at the Kenya Medical Training College Library (KMTC) and Provincial General Hospital (P.G.H), Nakuru County in Kenya. A descriptive research design with survey techniques was used to determine the ways in which health information services were offered. Face to face interviews were used to collect data from two physicians, twenty nurses and four librarians. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from thirty users of the facilities. The study findings revealed that healthy workers and librarians provided consumer information. However, they experienced challenges mainly; inadequate human resources, insufficient funds, legal issues and lack of awareness of available services. The study recommends that health institutions with librarians help should set up information centres and create user awareness.

Key words: Health, librarian, information, consumer.