The Super Searchers series contain interviews with people who are judged by their peers to be extraordinary database searchers and reference librarians in the field of a particular volume. Volume 4, Super Searchers on Health & Medicine, begins with an excellent introduction that summarizes major points under the rubrics: “Dedication,” “Reliance on Proven Sources,” “Precision,” “Evidence-Based Medicine,” “Alternative Medicine,” and “Keeping Up with the Web.” At the end of each interview in the volume, the interviewer elicits “power tips” from the super searchers. All the interviews begin with backgrounds of the individuals and current job descriptions. Other usual discussion topics not listed in the introductory summaries are audiences and their questions and frequent search techniques with the databases used. The discussions end with such future speculations as influence of the Web, the role of the librarian, and a wish list of ideal resources.
Part of the charm of the volume is, however, the freedom with which the interviewer follows a thread in the discussion, and the interviewees expand on their own predilections. Many questions in each interview are individualized to the particular role or niche of the person interviewed. The slant of different conversations is indicated by the chapter titles: “Barbara Bernoff Cavanaugh, Life Science Generalist”; “Frances A. Brahmi, Educating Future Physicians”; “Thomas Emmett, Doctor Turned Librarian”; “Margaret (Peg) Allen, Serving Allied Health”; “Auburn Steward, Assessing Toxic Risk”; “Nancy J. Allee, Finding Healthy Web Sites”; “Alan Eshleman, Online Patient Liaison”; “Pam Geyer, Focused on the Consumer”; “John E. Levis, Independent Healthcare Generalist”; and Bonnie Snow, Following Pharmaceuticals.”
As the titles suggest, not all the interviewees are full-time searchers. For example, Alan Eshleman is a physician still doing clinical work at Kaiser Permanente but responsible for its new Website half time. He says this amounts to being the medical director for KP Online. Nancy Allee is director of public health information services and access at the University of Michigan. As well as traditional reference service, circulation, and collection management, Allee's responsibilities include the network and computing area, classroom services, and developing and maintaining the Website. One of Allee's responsibilities, the Michigan Megasite Project, evaluates health and medical Websites. Peg Allen is an independent consultant with major responsibilities for the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), especially its Website indexing. She also assists two Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers with grant proposal writing and development research among many other responsibilities.
There is a good glossary, and “Appendix A: Internet Resources” (probably worth the price of the book) is a handy selection by experts and frequent searchers of 186 resources, 175 of them on the Internet. This section will be updated online.
For the personality of interviewees to show, they must lead the interview to a certain extent. The result is that there cannot be tight organization. While the index has good cross references, this reviewer is disappointed not to find any general entry on “Staying Current” or “Keeping Up,” even though “Keeping Up with the Web” is a heading in the introductory summary. There are subentries for the former term under four of the entries for individual interviewees and “Web Resources.” The indexing does not always bring concepts together. For instance, “Citation indexes” (and “Indexes, citation”) lists two page references, but the pages listed under “SciSearch” and “ISI, Citation Indexes” are not under the citation indexes' main entries.
Another problem with interviews is that reputed “common knowledge” tends to be perpetuated, even though it is not true. Three different interviewees speak of MEDLINE as peer reviewed, but peer reviewing is not required to accept a journal for MEDLINE indexing. In addition, some major medical journals are reviewed internally rather than by peers of the authors. Certainly, the journals to be indexed in MEDLINE are carefully selected.
If, like me, readers enjoy and learn from biographies and congressional hearings, they will like this book. It is generally well written and edited, and any librarian with searching responsibilities will find helpful new ideas in it. It will provide students with the flavor of medical and allied professional reference. To them, the summary power tips will probably be more useful than to an experienced searcher.