Chapters cover common inquiries of health info searchers, valuable go-to resources, plus strategies for handling challenging librarian-patron interactions.

New York, NY (June 16, 2008) – When people call the reference desk for information they are often apprehensive, scared, frustrated, panicky, or angry as a result of a debilitating illness or upsetting diagnosis. Thanks to author and consumer health reference expert Michele Spatz, librarians now have a comprehensive go-to resource that covers all aspects of their challenging and fulfilling responsibility.

Her new book, Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians, a new book to be released by Neal-Schuman publishers on July 3, 2008, enables librarians to assist patrons with professional responses and quick and accurate information. Sample librarian-patron interactions in every chapter give useful strategies and scripts. Dozens of templates, forms, and tips help create a welcoming, empowering atmosphere in any library.

“Patrons seeking medical information are often trying to gain control following an upsetting diagnosis,” acknowledges Spatz. “Working with them can be rewarding and difficult. Librarians today must couple appropriate information-retrieval skills
with knowledge of human behavior in order to meet people’s health information needs.”

The eight-chapter book systematically addresses these issues in a user-friendly, accessible, practical way. Medical jargon is excluded and terms are explained in uncomplicated layperson’s language. Plus the author gives a thorough understanding of the psychology of those seeking medical information and the skills necessary to respond effectively and appropriately.

The beginning of the book delves into common concerns and emotions of information seekers and offers guidelines and strategies including verbal and non-verbal communication techniques and interview, e-mail, and telephone reference tips. An entire chapter is dedicated to ethics and confidentiality, and another section covers legal liability issues regarding health information delivery. Readers learn tips for serving the needs of diverse individuals such as children, people with disabilities, patrons suffering from mental disorders, minorities, and persons from the GLBT community. A four-step approach is outlined to help librarians confronted by difficult patrons, and the last chapter of the book addresses the need for self-care for librarians themselves who may be affected by the stress of the health information provider role.

“Perhaps in no other reference situation must the librarian so carefully consider the personal and emotional impact knowledge can have on the patron,” says Spatz. “By responding appropriately, knowledgeably, and compassionately, librarians bridge the practical and the emotional.”

Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians
ISBN 978-1-55570-632-6
2008. 6 x 9. 150 pp. $65.00.

About the Author
Michele Spatz, a writer, teacher and consultant, is past president of the Oregon Health Sciences Libraries Association and former chair of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association. She has taught MLA CE consumer health information courses and as branch library director at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, Michele was the campus’s first librarian to earn tenure. In 1991 she established the Planetree Health Resource Center, a community-based consumer health library, for Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon. She continues to serve as its director.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers and the Medical Library Association
Neal-Schuman Publishers is the leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources, and is the Medical Library Association’s co-publisher. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)