Effective promotion and utilization of library services through the many layers of caregivers in a health care organization is a major challenge. This challenge to promote the hospital librarian's expertise and hospital library's resources and services involves the use of the library as space, use of the online and print collections, access to mediated searching, information literacy instruction, and document retrieval to the point of care. The purpose of this article is to offer specific practices and helpful organizations that hospital librarians use to successfully penetrate the institutional layers.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATUREReview of the literature shows that this process to promote the librarian, the library, and the library's resources to its institutional audience is an ongoing and universal process. Medical libraries customize their services for the specific needs of their institutions while accommodating the culture and infrastructure of their specific regions. The needs and expectations of developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc., will differ from the needs of developing countries. Medical libraries serve in all regions and deliver tailored services for their appropriate audiences.Case studies from Indian and Pakistani medical libraries itemize their response to user's requirements (1, 2). In these case studies, their audiences requested that the library have more trained staff, longer staff hours, more current print and online materials, and more computers available. At the time