Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians (Medical Library Association Guides) [Paperback]

Michele Spatz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2008 | Series: Medical Library Association Guides

Practical tips and tools for every health reference desk! Patrons seeking medical information are often trying to gain control following an upsetting diagnosis working with them can be rewarding and difficult. In this practical, readable guide, consumer health reference expert Michele Spatz, gives you an understanding of the psychology of those seeking medical information and the skills necessary to respond usefully and appropriately. Spatz outlines the most common inquiries and behaviors of health information searchers and the most useful go-to resources. Sample librarian-patron interactions in every chapter give you useful strategies and scripts. Dozens of templates and forms and tips on everything from setting up the reference desk to encourage confidential inquiries to using body language to signal your availability will help you create a welcoming, empowering atmosphere in your library. Chapters on ethics and potential legal issues guide you through the nitty-gritty of what constitutes practicing medicine without a license, confidentiality requirements, and more. Sections on email, virtual, and telephone reference will help you establish clear guidelines, and creative tips on marketing to healthcare providers will help you forge valuable new partnerships. A section on self-care offers strategies for dealing with job-induced stress. Every information professional who helps patrons with health inquiries will want a copy of this useful, inspiring book.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians, librarians now have a practical handbook to help them respond appropriately to uniquely sensitive inquiries. Authored by an experienced consumer-health librarian, this short volume addresses topics like communication techniques, professional ethics, legal issues, diversity of patrons, and difficult patrons for the information provider. The many exhibits—tables, sample forms, information resources—and library scenarios help put the reader into the health-reference setting. Written in an accessible style, this guide is recommended especially for the librarian just starting out or one who may only occasionally have to respond to health questions. --Lilian Hoffecker

Review

...interesting and inviting to read from start to finish....recommended for all librarians, students of librarianship and specialists in health information. --The Australian Librar y Journal, August 2009

Librarians now have a practical handbook to help them respond appropriately to uniquely sensitive inquiries....recommended especially for the librarian just starting out or one who may only occasionally have to respond to health questions. --Booklist, January 1 and 15, 2009

This work helps the health and medical librarians as much as it helps the non-medical librarian to provide needed information to patrons...well-organized and superbly indexed work. --ARBA, March 2009

Product Details

• Paperback: 142 pages
• Publisher: Neal-Schuman Publishers; 1 edition (August 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555706320
• ISBN-13: 978-1555706326
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,601,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid reference and text for dealing with inquisitive patients, December 12, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians (Medical Library Association Guides) (Paperback)

Answering questions is always a helpful action, but sometimes the people who ask are not the most cooperative."Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians" is a manual for those in charge of answering questions from patients, who from their ailment or health problem, may appear as rude or problematic. Telling how to deal with these patients ethically while dealing with their ailment and giving them the information they need, it covers everything from legal liability to the special needs of gay couples. "Answering Consumer Health Questions" is a must for any medical library collection looking for a solid reference and text for dealing with inquisitive patients.

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Michele Spatz' "Answering Consumer Health Questions", October 20, 2008

By 

Carol Luallin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians (Medical Library Association Guides) (Paperback)

Answering consumer health questions can be some of the most challenging and intimidating questions for any librarian to answer, especially if they do not have a medical background. What is the best way to provide this information for your users - do the searching yourself or do it for them? How do you handle conveying much needed information to a patron who may or may not be emotionally ready to receive it? How do you handle your own emotions? How do you prevent yourself from burning out?

Spatz has written a very useful guide for reference librarians in any setting - public, medical, or solo -- who are called upon to provide information about consumer health questions whether on desk, over the phone or via virtual reference. Her book is written such that any librarian or information professional without a medical background could understand it. She uses no medical jargon, and addresses all consumer health patron issues ranging from children through adult. She stresses the importance of practicing compassionate neutrality, the "art of absorbing the full context of what a patron tells you without judgment, criticism, or pity,... hearing what the user tells you, acknowledging [their] feelings, and then doing your job" (pg. 23).

The book features a table of contents, preface, list of exhibits and appendices, index, and author information. The table of contents provides a comprehensive breakdown of each chapter. Each chapter ends with a summary, additional reading, and references. Where applicable, the chapters may contain exhibits, such as sample disclaimers, rules of patron conduct, and policies. A treasure trove of current websites are included, too.

Having established the Planetree Health Resource Center in The Dalles, Oregon, in 1991, Spatz now serves as its current director. Planetree Health Resource Center is a community-based consumer health library for the Mid-Columbia Medical Center. Spatz also served as past president of the Oregon Health Sciences Libraries Association, and as a former chair of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association.

[Reviewed October 2008]