ICML 9

9º World Congress on Health Information and Libraries

Salvador, Bahia - Brazil, September, 20 to 23 - 2005

BVS4

4th Regional Coordination Meeting of the VHL

September, 19 to 20 - 2005

P19 - The differential in customer service at the Virtual Health Library (VHL): promoting the equity in the health information access

The globalization allows the process of communication, on the other hand turning it into an impersonal tool, discouraging the user and consequently harming the informational flux. It is common at traditional libraries the presence of reference librarians shortening the distance between the user and the information. At the VHL such professional is also present at the User’s Attention Service - UAS, and he uses variety of communication channels that offers an extraordinary and personalized customer service, which contributes for the accomplishing of the interaction between the user and VHL. The purpose of this service is to introduce the flexibility present on the communication between and UAS represented through the examples of information requests about VHL, the guiding of bibliographic research, users’ service response and customer servicing graphics. As a result, a link is created with the user that starts to count on this service as a partner in the use of information source and the developing of scienti fic researches in health. We conclude that the personalized customer servicing, concerned with the necessities of its users is a differential that needs to be considered towards the equity of health information.