Medical Resources for News Libraries

SLA News Division, June 11, 1996
Your Reference Collection: The Next Generation
Barbara Hijek, St. Petersburg Times News Library

Why purchase medical textbooks?

  1. More authoritative than consumer-oriented books. Healthcare specialists recognize these titles and this gives more credibility to your reporting. Would you rather see some Family Medical Guide or Harrison's Principles of Medicine cited in your infobox?
  2. Builds staffer relationships. Everyone has a need for solid medical info. When staffers recognize you have these resources they will approach you for personal information needs. This can be a good bonding process.
  3. Because of AIDS the public has acquired a richer understanding of disease and medical terminology. Readers/staffers seek info that is not "dummied-down."

BOOKS:

In Medicine just about every condition, disease or injury seems to have about 3 names. So, the first step is to check a good medical dictionary.

MEDICAL DICTIONARIES

ANATOMY

MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS

GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE

PHARMACOLOGY

Great for checking info about drugs - side effects, dangers

SURGERY

Good for illustrative purposes. Internal Med books do not cover surgery.

SPORTS MEDICINE

Great for illustrating injuries to athletes. If you have a health/fitmess section these books offer great tips on injury prevention.

CANCER/ONCOLOGY

They are textbooks that offer indepth detail - but for our purposes the general internal medicine books cover this subject.

Note: most sources are available on CD-ROM.

If you're looking for a solid textbook in a specific medical speciality refer to the Brandon-Hill List of Selected Books for the Small Medical Library. Majors Scientific Books will forward one to you. Majors: 800-241-6551

For example, if your paper circulates in an area that has a world class Heart Institute/ Cancer Center / Neonatology Research - get books in those subject area. Your news/newsart departments will be very grateful. Chances are that some new procedure or breakthrough will be announced and you'll need explanatory info with illustrations.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:

WWW and Medical Information:

SE/A (Southeastern/Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine) stated in their March/April 1996 edition of SEA Currents that as far as medical journals are concerned the full-text concept on the web is something often-sought and little delivered. Publishers provide a taste of their journals: cover shots, tables of contents and some abstracts.

Worthwhile Websites

Barbara Hijek
hijekbarb@aol.com


1996 News Division Program for the SLA Annual Conference
SLA News Division Home

Reformatted on 03/23/03
Jessica Baumgart
newsdivisionweb@yahoo.com