Consumer Health Information Source Book (6th ed.)

Citation

Cullen, R. (2001), "Consumer Health Information Source Book (6th ed.)", Collection Building, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 106-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/cb.2001.20.2.106.3

Alan Rees’s latest edition of the well‐known Consumer Health Information Source Book, is larger and more comprehensive than ever. It needs to be. As Rees comments in the introduction, “never in human history has so much medical information been so readily available to so many”. While Rees’s estimate of up to 50 per cent of Internet use in the USA being health related seems an over‐optimistic and unsubstantiated claim, it is certainly true that the Internet has dramatically enhanced the accessibility of health information for large numbers of health consumers and has promoted what Rees describes as “a more democratic process of personal health decision making”. However, the increase in printed and published health information, television, fax and telephone information services, and the huge amount of health information on the World Wide Web requires consumers to develop even greater knowledge of how to access and evaluate this deluge of information.

The purpose of this edition is the same as the previous editions, to provide a comprehensive guide to health consumers, health professionals, and librarians, selecting, purchasing, and evaluating materials for consumer health use. It is a very valuable aid in picking a path through the mass of information on consumer health issues. The 6th edition is 50 per cent larger than earlier editions and more comprehensive. Along with an expanded section of book reviews (nearly 500 reviews of carefully selected books published between 1997 and 1999), and the familiar sections on popular medical magazines and newsletters, pamphlets, professional publications, and consumer health information services, there are significant new sections on information on the Internet, and a chapter on alternative and complementary medicine which separates material that was fomerly covered in the book review section. Another innovation is the Spanish language pamphlet section, signifying both the impact of demographic change in the USA and Rees’s commitment to the disempowered and disadvantaged. Separate title and subject indexes provide more than adequate access to the contents of the volume.

The reputation of earlier editions and their proven value is enough to sell this edition. A more interesting question is how well Rees has handled the new material in the volume. Rees notes that books on alternative medicine now account for nearly 25 per cent of all books published in the consumer health field. As in the past, he provides his own evaluation of each publication, marking a few outstanding items that public libraries will want to include in their core collection, but leaving the reader with the caution that individual evaluations must be made of the accuracy, value, and applicability of the contents. Non‐Western medicine is also covered in this section. Chapter 7, “Consumer health Web sites”, is written by Micaela Sullivan‐Fowler and follows a short sensible chapter by the same author on searching, evaluating, and applying health information on the Internet. Chapter 7 covers over 60 sites, including medical search engines, gateways, and what are described as “content rich sites”. Each is succinctly summarised and its unique features indicated. While the quality of content and links are not always specifically commented on, the inclusion of a site in this highly selective list is an endorsement that it contains useful and reliable information. Librarians will still need to select a smaller group of sites for their own health Web sites. Rees’s caveat – that the reader must still evaluate the accuracy and value of content – could well be reiterated here.

All in all, this edition of the Consumer Health Information Source Book is at least as good, and in some aspects better, than its predecessors. More handsomely produced now that it has become a mainstay of the field, and an indispensable resource for health consumers and librarians, each edition needs to be purchased as soon as it is published if it is to fulfil its purpose of providing a guide to the latest consumer health information. With the vast increase in consumer health resources emerging in all formats, Rees is needed now more than ever.