For Librarians

Collection Development Tools and Websites

• Best of the Web in Health and Medicine: The New York Public Library - provides reputable web sites on health and medicine.
• Federal Citizen Information Center: Health -  answers to your questions about the Federal government and common consumer issues.
• Recommended Books for a Consumer Health Reference Collection - This is a bibliography of recommended titles for a medical reference collection useful for answering many different types of consumer health questions.
• Web Sites you can Trust - a list of 100 health websites you can trust from the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association.

Consumer Health Information and Librarian Roles

Where do you draw the line between making health information available and appearing to offer medical advice? Does your agency have a policy or procedures dealing with these issues? The distinction is significant, both in terms of liability and professional ethics.

Guidelines on agency policies and procedures:

• Guidelines for Providing Medical Information to Consumers -  These are suggested guidelines to help reference librarians and other library staff answer consumer health and medical questions from library users.
• The Consumer Health Reference Interview and Ethical Issues - The National Network of Libraries -National Library of Medicine gives tips on how to conduct  a consumer health reference interview.  
• Nebraska Library Commission Star Reference Manual - Medical Questions. Offers guidelines on handling medical questions in the public library. 
• Consumer Health Manual - This site provides This site provides consumer health outreach resources on evaluating health websites, health literacy, consumer health information in many language resources, professional development for consumer health, the consumer health reference interview and ethical issues, health information partnerships and finding consumer health materials in Spanish. 
  • Evaluating Health Websites
  • Health Literacy
  • Consumer Health Information in Many Languages Resources
  • Professional Development for Consumer Health
  • The Consumer Health Reference Interview and Ethical Issues
  • Health Information Partnerships: Tips from a Partnership
  • Finding Consumer Health Materials in Spanish
   is a web-based manual containing current, authoritative chapters on planning, videos, evaluation, consumer health information on the WWW, databases and CD ROMs, library promotion, ethics, health literacy, materials readability, developing "hot topics" fact sheets, Spanish materials, cancer titles, consumer health for children, library web sites, and web page design.

• The Librarian's Role In The Provision Of Consumer Health Information And Patient Education - This is a policy statement from the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association.

Information Seeking

• Hardin MD. Free full-text online electronic medical journals - The National Library of Medicine has recently made it possible to search in PubMed Medline for free full-text articles. This site selects a limited number of popular subjects for searching in free PubMed journals.
• National Library of Medicine Guide to Finding Health Information - Provides access to free consumer and professional health information

National Library of Medicine

• National Library of Medicine Gateway - The NLM Gateway is a Web-based system that lets users search simultaneously in multiple database systems at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). 
• Services for Librarians - The National Library of Medicine Greater Midwest Region web site has information for librarians providing consumer health information.
• PubMed Tutorial - This is a web-based learning program that will show you how to search PubMed®, the National Library of Medicine (NLM®) journal literature search system.
  

State Library of Iowa

• Medical and Health Information Reference - This is the medical reference services page of the State Library of Iowa.
  
• SILO Locator--Iowa's Card Catalog for holdings in Iowa Public Libraries and some academic, school, and special libraries.

Interlibrary Loan

• DOCLINE (the National Library of Medicine's automated interlibrary loan request routing and order referral system)

 State Library of Iowa

• SILO Interlibrary Loan System Login (password required) - SILO - State of Iowa Libraries Online offers resource sharing services, including the Iowa Locator and SILO ILL, to all types of libraries in Iowa.
  
• How An Iowa Library Can Join SILO and participate in interlibrary loan.
  
• Iowa Consumer Health Libraries - This is a contact list of health sciences libraries in Iowa, many of which offer library services to the general public.

Management

• Basic Medical Library Management - This National Network of Libraries web site is for both professional and non-professional librarians new to health or hospital libraries. It seeks to provide instant access to quality resources which will help the medical librarian meet the needs of the patron.
• How Do You Set Up and Run a Consumer Health Library? - The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association sponsors this page on the basics of consumer health library planning, budgeting, staffing, collection development, reference services, theory,and bibliography.
  

Tools for Educating Staff and Patrons

• The Challenge of Providing Consumer Health Information Services in Public Libraries - This is a study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Cultural Competency in Health Care - Cultural competency in health care is defined as the development and maintenance of interpersonal and professional skills to increase one�s respect for, understanding of, and knowledge of the differences between patient and practitioner values, lifestyles, norms, beliefs, and opportunities that influence every aspect of the health care delivery system.
• Gateway Basics - This brochure explains the NLM Gateway database that lets users search simultaneously in multiple database systems at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). 
• MedlinePlus Basics - This brochure can be used by public libraries to explain MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's consumer health database. 
• NLM Gateway: Your Entrance to the Knowledge Resources of the National Library of Medicine The NLM Gateway is a  Web-based system that allows users of NLM services to do "one-stop searching" where multiple search systems or databases are searched at the same time.
• National Library of Medicine Guide to Finding Health Information - Provides access to free consumer and professional health informationProvides access to free consumer and professional health information.
• National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Librarian & Health Educator Resources - Provides resource links including training manuals for using National Library of Medicine products.
• Nebraska Library Commission Star Reference Manual - Medical Questions. Offers guidelines on handling medical questions in the public library. 
• PubMed Basics - This is a National Library of Medicine brochure on the basics of using PubMed in PDF format, with permission to copy.
• Searching PubMed with MESH - This brochure explains how to use the controlled vocabulary subject headings in PubMed.