Librarians as contributing authors to Patient Education and Preventive Medicine: a collaborative project of the Consumer Health Committee of the Georgia Health Sciences Library Association

BACKGROUND

In librarianship, as in life in general, unique opportunities can present themselves at any time in any place. This was the case when a group of health sciences librarians were invited to author a portion of a patient-education textbook through a chance encounter at a state medical meeting.

In 1999, one of the authors attended the annual conference of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians as an exhibitor for her library's outreach program. In the exhibit hall, she met James B. Labus, PA-C, the coeditor of a comprehensive preventive medicine handbook designed to educate clinicians and facilitate their role in patient education. For this project, he wanted to include an extensive resource list that would interest both clinicians and patients. With the overwhelming amount of available print, nonprint, and online information, this task had become daunting for him and the other authors. The few lists they had managed to compile were incomplete, incorrect, or out-of-date. He thought the obvious solution would be to include librarians, the people with the most experience at “separating the wheat from the chaff” [1]. Labus asked for her help in compiling reliable, authoritative lists of resources to supplement this publication. Following this serendipitous conversation, she invited members of the Consumer Health Committee of the Georgia Health Sciences Library Association (GHSLA) to collaboratively author the “Resources” appendix in Patient Education and Preventive Medicine [2] and volunteered to chair the committee. The book was coedited by Labus and Alison Lauber, M.D., and published by W. B. Saunders in March 2001 [3].

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODOLOGY

Fifteen GHSLA members volunteered to serve on the committee and work on the project: eight academic librarians from all four of Georgia's medical schools (Emory University School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Mercer University School of Medicine, and Morehouse School of Medicine), four hospital librarians, and three Area Health Education Center (AHEC) outreach librarians. They were assisted by colleagues from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region, Baltimore, Maryland; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; and the Nicholas Davies Community Health Library at Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.

The librarians' contribution consisted of resources (i.e., government agencies, institutes, health centers, national professional associations, nonprofit organizations, support groups, newsgroups, email discussion groups, Websites) for each of the topics covered in the twenty-six chapters of the book (Table 1). For each topic, several committee members collaborated to produce a brief, quality-filtered list in each of three categories: (1) organizations, associations, and support groups; (2) government agencies and offices; and (3) other Websites (i.e., those sponsored by educational institutions or commercial enterprises). Resource lists were compiled by searching the Internet, by using print subject directories and other reference materials, and by asking subject specialists for suggestions. Each resource was researched to verify accuracy, currency, and relevance to the project. The librarians included complete contact information and a short annotation for each entry (Figure 1). The committee chair served as editor for the appendix and wrote an introduction offering tips for evaluating resources and information, locating and joining electronic discussion groups, and using information brokers or personal search services in lieu of searching personally.

Table 1 Table of contents*

Figure 1.

Sample pages from the “Resources” appendix9), reproduced here with the permission of the publisher, W. B. Saunders

RESULTS

Readers were alerted to the section written by the librarians through promotional material on the back cover, which pointed out that “all diseases and disorders are cross-referenced to a ‘Resources' appendix to facilitate further research” [4]. Each committee member was listed as a contributing author and received a complimentary copy of the book. While the Consumer Health Committee had been an active component of GHSLA for several years, the book project was the most ambitious and profitable ever undertaken. GHSLA received $10 per published page (55 pages), which enriched the association's treasury by $550. Recently, permission has been requested and received from the publisher, W. B. Saunders, to post an online version of the appendix on GHSLA's Website.‡

The project provided a unique opportunity for the librarians to use their expertise in locating quality information resources and to be recognized as an integral part of the health care team. All participants felt their involvement in this project was beneficial to their professional development and to their credibility at their institutions. For hospital and outreach librarians in one-person libraries in particular, such a collaborative activity enabled them to network with colleagues and impressed upon their administrators the value of librarians and information services.

Labus has indicated that he would like the group to participate in a second edition planned for 2006. In a recent email, he once again expressed his satisfaction and appreciation, saying:

Your section makes the book so much more useful. You, as librarians, are information professionals and much more suited than a clinical professional to list appropriate resources for each topic. I was impressed with the collaboration amongst multiple individuals. You were prompt, well organized, on time and had no complaints. It was my true pleasure to include you in this project. [5]