Objective: The hospital library subcommittee wanted to determine ways it could advocate for libraries in our region and then to provide products that could be used by other libraries throughout the region.

Methods: The committee held lengthy discussions on the needs of hospital libraries in such areas as staffing, budget, support/advocacy, and marketing. From these discussions, it was determined that the committee would develop two toolkits: (1) a Hospital Librarian Orientation Toolkit that offers information from both regional and state-specific resources and (2) a Hospital Library Promotional Toolkit that provides a practical approach to promoting libraries in a hospital setting. A third function of the committee was to develop and execute a methodology for providing state and regional support to libraries in institutions that are planning to hire, downsize, or eliminate the librarian or library services. The methodology for providing support to endangered libraries has been developed, and testing has been ongoing.

Results: The Hospital Librarian Orientation Toolkit has been completed and delivered to several dozen institutions that have provided evaluations and suggestions for revisions. The Hospital Library Promotional Toolkit was completed in April 2007. A sample of both toolkits will be on display.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, May 2007.