Abstract
This chapter analyses the role of digital transformation in KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Libraries in South Africa, exploring if and how digital technologies can be adopted and used in enhancing access to electronic information. The chapter utilised literature review to critically analyse the role of digital transformation in healthcare libraries, digital technologies used in enhancing access to electronic information, challenges of digital transformation in healthcare libraries, and the strategies to overcoming these challenges. Technology acceptance model (TAM) was used as the underpinning theory to guide this study. Recommendations suggest a need to prioritize digital transformation and provide enough resources to healthcare libraries and formulate policies that would facilitate this process.
TopIntroduction
Digital transformation holds considerable potential for improved service delivery in healthcare libraries, notwithstanding the apparent limitations such as financing for digital technologies, infrastructure, quality assurance, and personnel training. The burgeoning advancements in digital technologies have transformed various sectors globally, notably healthcare. The digital transformation of the healthcare industry has brought about a change in the dynamic of healthcare delivery. An age of data-driven healthcare service delivery has been ushered in as a result of the advent of digital health, which is a term that incorporates eHealth, mHealth, and new fields like as big data in healthcare and artificial intelligence (Jablonksi et al., 2021). These technologies have blurred the geographical barriers that formerly restricted the provision of healthcare services which was previously limited by factors such as distance and time. For instance, digital health makes it possible to monitor the health of a patient in real time, conduct remote consultations, and have access to healthcare services while remaining in the convenience of one's own home.
Additionally, digital health platforms allow for the aggregation of individual-level health data, which may then be used for population-level health planning and research purposes. As a direct result of this, the use of digital technologies has reimagined the process of providing healthcare services, therefore broadening their appeal while simultaneously enhancing their efficiency. In a similar spirit, digital technologies open a new horizon for healthcare libraries, boosting the breadth of services that these libraries may offer while also improving their operational efficiency. Accessing and making use of information has been completely transformed as a result of the proliferation of digital libraries, databases, and repositories among health professionals. As noted by Wallis et al. (2019), digital technologies allow users to access a great quantity of information instantly, therefore circumventing the physical and temporal limits that are inherent in conventional libraries. This chapter looked at the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing digital technologies in healthcare libraries through digital transformation. This chapter thus examined the role of digital transformation in healthcare libraries in South Africa, with an emphasis on the potential of digital technologies in enhancing access to electronic information. The objectives that guided this chapter were to:
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Determine the role of digital transformation in enhancing access to electronic information in health libraries
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Determine the barriers to effective electronic information access within Kwa Zulu Natal Department of Health (KZN DOH) libraries
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Examine the challenges of digital transformation and innovation in Kwa Zulu Natal Department of Health (KZN DOH) libraries
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Determine the strategies to overcoming the challenges and maximizing opportunities for digital transformation in Kwa Zulu Natal Department of Health (KZN DOH) libraries
Key Terms in this Chapter
Electronic Information: It is any information accessed, processed, stored or transmitted in an electronic format (e.g. emails, text messages, raw data, sound files, image files, video files, documents, spreadsheets, databases, programs and algorithms).
Information Access: It is the process by which users acquire adequate information resources, which are bibliographically organized through effective assistance given to them by the library professionals.
Digital Literacy: The information technology skills needed for the twenty-first century, and the requisite competency to find, evaluate, utilise, share, and create content using information technologies and the internet.
Digital Transformation: It is how the organization makes use of digital technologies for delivering more sustainable value to patients, healthcare professionals, and the medical organizations themselves.
Digital Health: Refers to the use of digital technologies in medicine and other health professions to manage illnesses, health risks and to promote wellness.
Health Literacy: The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Healthcare Libraries: Are designed to assist physicians, health professionals, students, patients, consumers, medical researchers, and information specialists in finding health and scientific information to improve, update, assess, or evaluate health care.