A brief history of The King’s Fund Library and Information Service

In November 2023, the King’s Fund Library Service turns 75 years old. To mark the occasion, we have updated our blog exploring the history of the library and more broadly how health care libraries have developed since the advent of the NHS to present day.

This blog was first published in September 2016.

The ability to access information, knowledge and evidence is critical to understanding and improving health care. The way we do this has come a long way since the NHS was established.

In 1948, The King’s Fund responded to a demand for information on 'all phases of hospital work' by setting up The Division of Hospital Facilities. This included a reference library and ‘facilities to enable [users] to be constantly in touch with the latest information available’. That new service, originally known as ‘The Information Bureau’ is now marking its 75th anniversary, and while the way we make this information available may have changed our main aim has not altered that much since its inception.

By 1952, the library contained ‘probably the most complete collection of hospital literature [...] in Great Britain’. To manage this expanding collection, the library staff created the Master index of hospital literature – the precursor of The King’s Fund database. Since then, the collection has continued to expand and today hosts around 150,000 items and remains a unique and free source of information on health and social care policy and management.

During the 1950s the number of health libraries in hospitals was also increasing and The King’s Fund took a wider advisory role in their development. Hospital library services: a pilot survey, published in 1959, looked at how library services in hospitals could be improved. At this time, providing information for professional study and research was considered outside the scope of hospital libraries; in fact, hospital staff were deemed only to ‘complicate the work of librarians by borrowing without authority [...] books which are intended only for the patients’. Despite this reputed bad behaviour, the report raised the case for offering services to hospital staff as well as patients, recommending that the ‘ideal’ library would provide services to both groups.

The Hospital Centre review 1971–2 included a report on multidisciplinary libraries in hospitals. It noted a ‘growing awareness in hospitals that literature and information services are important’ and reflected on improvements such as the appointment of the first NHS regional librarian. This post was created in 1967 by Wessex Regional Hospital Board to survey library facilities in the region and to make recommendations for their improvement. The following year, this librarian approached The King's Fund, the Scottish Hospital Centre and the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) collectively to form the beginning of a national information network for health libraries.

During the early 1980s this network grew and resulted in the formation of the NHS/DHSS Health Services Information Steering Group. Following a series of workshops, the steering group published a report Providing a district library service, which discussed the contribution library services could make to information provision and use in the NHS. The work of this steering group, and its drive to emphasise the importance of access to information in delivering high-quality, cost-effective patient care, led to a period of rapid growth for The King’s Fund Library and health libraries in general.

In 1992, in response to this increased demand for services, The King’s Fund joined forces with the Department of Health and Nuffield Institute for Health Services Studies to form the Healthcare Management Information Consortium (HMIC). The consortium worked together to create the HMIC Database which contains the combined records from the Department of Health's and The King's Fund’s databases. This comprehensive bibliographic database of health management and policy literature continues to be available to all NHS staff, alongside a range of other evidence-based resources via the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub that is curated and funded by NHS England's Library and Knowledge Service and aligned to the Knowledge for Healthcare Development Framework for NHS Knowledge and Library Services in England.

As well as these online endeavours, The King’s Fund continues to run the Library Service for everyone with an interest in health policy and management. You can access our resources and services in person at our library in Cavendish Square or online, via our library newsletters or our X (formerly Twitter) feed.