I am in the working on a presentation regarding health information resources for non-medical libraries and I have been doing a little research and came across an interesting statistic.

"Only 36% of adults, according to a National Council study (1998, p.2), now cite doctors as their primary health and medical information source. In one year alone, 1998, some 60 million adults were estimated by a Harris Poll (1999) to have searched the Internet for healthcare information. In 1999, at least 20,000 Web sites dedicated to health topics were available (Baxell, 1999, p.2)." -Reference Services Review v28 (1) 2000, 81-94.

Wow that is a lot of web sites and that is a huge number of searchers of health information, and those numbers are about 5 years old. I can only speculate that given the use of the internet has increased and that health information searches have increased. Add to that the rapidly changing health care situation in the United States and you have got a lot of people searching for medical information. What is startling is that a small percentage seem to use their doctor as their primary health source. I am wondering what percentage even consult their doctor or a healthcare professional with internet revelations.

So you would think this increase in Internet usage for health information has led to an increase health information questions posed at public libraries. One would think so, but the anecdotes I have encountered have pointed to no. There is not an increase in health information questions at public libraries. (Now I am still doing my research so I have yet to confirm or refute the anecdotes)

My husband who is not in the library world (except by marriage and as a heavy user) is stunned that public libraries are not actively trying to help encourage patrons to come to the library to find health information. He can't understand why they do not have a health information reference librarian who can help people. He feels that if given the right publicity and with the right trained professionals you could reach of lot of people.

I have a feeling that this is not done for two major reasons. 1. Budget, a lot of public libraries are feeling the pinch right now. 2. Fear. According to project profiled in the Bull Med Libr Assoc 88 (4) 2000 314-322, "Most of the participating public libraries did not have a health information center and had not previously focused on health information. As a consequence many librarians were not yet comfortable with providing health reference assistance to patrons, in part because of concerns about providing misinformation and possibly intruding on patron privacy. "

I find all of this information very interesting. I would like to hear from public libraries who have health information centers or reference services. I would also like to hear from any medical librarians who gave up medical library life and now are public librarians. Are they doing anything medical within their public library?