[Online medical libraries: how do they impact on care?]

The presence of librarians or documentalists with expertise in scientific literature in the healthcare team has positive effects on patient care and can also make clinical decision-making more appropriate and efficient. Virtuous experiences are not lacking also in Italy. These include the Virtual Library for Health - Piedmont and the Alessandro Liberati Library of the Department of Epidemiology of the Lazio Health Service. These experiences confirm the importance of the role of online medical libraries in improving the quality of care. They offer a very welcome service to healthcare personnel, who are aware of the positive impact of competent support for the selection and evaluation of literature, useful for clinical choices at the patient's bedside.