The Medical Library Association Guide to Developing Consumer Health Collections

By: Claire B. Joseph

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eText | 27 March 2018 | Edition Number 1

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The Medical Library Association Guide to Developing Consumer Health Collections guides both library graduate school students and seasoned librarians from academic, health sciences, and public libraries, to develop, maintain, nurture, and advertise consumer health collections.

This authoritative guide from the respected Medical Library Association covers all that is involved in developing a new consumer health library including:

Conducting community needs assessments and forging community partnerships
Concerns about physical space, computers, and materials
Funding, budgeting, and staffing
Privacy and confidentiality concerns
Publicity and advertising

This book guides both graduate library school students and seasoned librarians from all types of libraries—academic, health center, hospital, public, and school--to develop, maintain and nurture not only consumer health collections, but also community partnerships and outreach programs. Examples of librarians’ innovative and creative consumer health initiatives are included.

Chapters include all that is involved in developing a consumer health collection including conducting community needs assessments; concerns about physical space, computers, and materials; budgeting, licensing, and staffing; privacy and confidentiality concerns; and community partnership and outreach.

Industry Reviews

With over 40 years of library experience and as longtime book review column editor for the Journal of Hospital Librarianship, Joseph shares her evidence-based library practice expertise in the latest volume of the Medical Library Association’s book series. The series showcases current topics in health sciences librarianship in a way that appeals broadly to the general library field by describing practical approaches and resources relevant to any library setting. Though the title implies a focus on collection development, the book covers the gamut of library consumer outreach from conducting community needs assessments and writing grants to planning community activities and developing multicultural collections to serve a variety of specialized populations. Of particular interest is a chapter describing where consumers often locate health information with recommendations on guiding library patrons in finding and evaluating health information judiciously. This text is most appropriate for practicing health sciences librarians and for public librarians interested in consumer health information and/or community outreach programming.

Summing Up: Recommended for practicing librarians.