Affiliation:
1. University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Abstract
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have over the years evolved and synthesized to leverage a wide variety of tasks in all fields of human endeavor including library services. This rapid transformation has not only affected information handling procedures but has equally reshaped approach to the work environment in that librarians attached to medical libraries is required to acquire some knowledge of medicine in order to adequately and efficiently make informed decisions that can positively impact on the general medical practice and specifically the management of HIV/AIDS. The use of ICTs such as social media (SM) has further made the work environment a community pivot, a rallying point, rather than the solitary tedium that has retarded learning, communication, advancement, cooperation, and community support in the past. The internet has greatly influenced SM penetration into all aspects of library services especially in the medical library where community of users (CoUs) can converge, confer and proffer simplified work output, better doctor-patient relationship and effective treatment. Hence, for effective implementation of SM in Nigeria university teaching hospitals, there is the need for the following to be put into consideration: formulation of online groups; schedule of regular updating of the site and contact information; simplification of keywords for easy content search and profiling; need to always inform members of current items, creating novel ideas as cleverly and satisfying as possible, need to widen out or reach others with novelties, advancement, activities, current drugs for specific ailments, and resistivedrugs.