The International Society of Blood Transfusion Library of Guidelines, Standards and regulatory documents

Aim A survey identified that members of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) expected the Society to offer more educational material than was already available. As a result of the survey the ISBT Board of Directors decided to invest in increasing the availability of educational material. Webcasts from plenary sessions and the Academy day programme at congresses were made available, and the Board agreed to the development of a library of published guidelines, standards and regulatory documents. Methods The library project was established, and a temporary staff member recruited to undertake the work of searching for available guidelines and standards documents, identifying those suitable for inclusion in the library and organizing them into various topic headings. The ISBT Academy e-portal was identified as the ‘home’ for the library. Results Two hundred and ninety-three documents were found and have been placed in the library under seven topic headings; these are further sub divided into 27 sub categories. There are currently guidelines available from 25 countries. There are two books one from Italy and one from the Netherlands, which cover all of the topics found in the library.