RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
7.2 Staffing and opening hours
Preferably, the resource centre should be staffed whenever it is open. Staff
absences due to holidays or sickness should be covered. Some resource centres
set up a rota system, in which various people, including health workers, tutors
and students, take it in turns to be on duty in the resource centre. Everyone
who does resource centre duty needs to be familiar with the collection and the
services that are offered.
A smaller resource centre which is only open to staff of the organisation that it
is part of, could be open when there is no one to staff it. However, this would
mean that the collection would be less secure, and that no one would be
available to help users find and use information.
It is therefore important to think carefully about how many people are
available to be on duty in the resource centre, and how many hours it would be
useful for the resource centre to be open.
7.2.1 Welcoming visitors
When people come to use the resource centre, it is important that they feel
welcome. The opening hours should be made clear in any publicity material, so
that people will not be disappointed to find the resource centre shut.
It is a good idea to have a visitors’ book for keeping records of visits. This
could be an exercise book in which visitors write down their name and
organisation, and the date that they visited the resource centre. It is useful to
keep a record of who has visited the resource centre, where they come from and
what they have found useful, to help evaluate the service. It is also useful to ask
visitors for other information as well, such as their occupation, what subject
areas they are interested in, and whether they have any comments. These
questions could be included in the visitors’ book, or visitors could be asked to
complete a form.
SECTION 7: INFORMATION SERVICES
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