Product Description

The seventh edition of this comprehensive and authoritative guide provides more than 2,000 popular, publicly available health-information resources available in both print and electronic formats. Resources include those that the author judges to be the best materials published since the last edition of this book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #865307 in Books
• Published on: 2003
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.12 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

From Booklist
Ever since the first edition of the Consumer Health Information Source Book appeared in 1981, librarians have relied on it for collection development and referral information. In its seventh edition, this classic source has kept pace with changes in both the health-care and the information-delivery systems.

Although the format has not changed, the focus is narrower and more selective. This smaller volume is still a guide to the "myriad of popular American health information resources, both print and electronic, available to the general public." But for this edition, editor Rees has selected rather than compiled, including only sources with positive value. The book contains more than 2,000 descriptive evaluations of 385 books, 165 popular health magazines and newsletters, 1,500 English-language pamphlets, 850 Spanish-language pamphlets, 215 toll-free information hotlines, 325 health resource and referral organizations, 31 online and fax-based information services and CD-ROMs, and 40 medical textbooks, monographs, and journals.

An introductory chapter examines recent trends in medical consumerism and the resulting need for accurate information that lay readers can understand. Chapter 2 lists 151 outstanding sources, giving them from one to three stars. These sources are discussed in subsequent chapters. The amount of information provided in these chapters varies. For example, entries for clearinghouses and information centers include the name, address, telephone number, and URL if available as well as a brief annotation about the services and publications that they offer; associations have only a name and address. The best magazines and newsletters, Web sites, and books are indicated by asterisks. The chapter on professional literature is especially useful for collection development because it offers a core list of basic sources and recommended texts and journals in the medical specialties.

A chapter on the library's role as a provider of consumer health information is a new feature in this edition. It includes profiles of 12 outstanding consumer health libraries associated with hospitals, health-care agencies, or public libraries. The Consumer Health Information Source Book remains a key resource for all libraries that provide health information to the general public. RBB
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Review
?Ever since the first edition of the Consumer Health Information Source Book appeared in 1981, librarians have relied on it for collection development and referral information. In its seventh edition, this classic source has kept pace with changes in both the health-care and the information-delivery systems....Consumer Health Information Source Book remains a key resource for all libraries that provide health information to the general public.?-Booklist/RBB

CHOICE
"A notable and useful reference and collection development source, highly recommended for all libraries."