RE: Health Information Needs

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

Much as I admire the work done by librarians, there are two key points
Tony overlooks.

1. Each person has the right to privacy in meeting information needs.
Information professionals respect privacy, but many users will choose not
to disclose the medical situation to a stranger, and they have the right
to information none the less.

2. Saying that people should use the services of a librarian is parallel
to the conventional advice "for more information, ask your doctor."  As
medicine is nowadays practiced, rare is the physician who would be able to
provide detailed advice to each individual patient, were they all to ask
for it. Considering the number of people in need of medical information,
there is no possibility that librarians can help more than a very small
fraction. The only way reference service survives for any library is that
few people ever ask.  Therefore, the work of librarians is by necessity
largely devoted to constructing systems by which the public can meet their
needs without direct personal mediation.

But even if one agreed to Tony's argument about the indispensiblity of
intermediates, would he accept the proposition that there should be OA to
all material requested with the help of a librarian?

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Mcsean, Tony (ELS)
Sent: Sun 7/31/2005 9:35 PM
To: 'liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu'
Subject: RE: Health Information Needs
 
My main point is that for people outside the research community with a
sudden and urgent need to acc.  It is the key factor in connecting them
with relevant, quality information in a form they can assimilate at a time
when they may be under severe emotional stress.  Mediation by a
professional librarian, face to face or via patient-oriented web sites, is
by far their best chance of being connected to the right research whatever
publishing model is in place.  And I'm not primarily thinking of, say, the
physics prof who gets unwelcome news at an annual health check, but of
regular people who've never needed to understand the distinction between
textbooks and bound research journals.  It's why libraries and librarians
are important.

Tony McSean
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Kent Mulliner
Sent: 28 July 2005 23:12
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Health Information Needs

I find that myself in disagreement with Richard Feinman and Tony McSean as
to the necessity of mediation.  As a librarian, I thought of the
profession as gate openers, not gate keepers--especially with the
expansion of electronic resources, and a reason why I championed the "big
deal."  While many may need or prefer mediation is not disputed, rather
why does everyone need to be mediated?  I earlier referred to substantial
efforts to lead prostate cancer patients to original research (especially
as the fundamental treament protocol relies on an informed decision by the
patient--and health care providers in this area strongly tend to recommend
their particular modalities--a bias that access to actual research affords
an alternative).

To me, mediation is like sitting on the beach and introducing people to
the ocean by offering them a tablespoon of sea water.  In opposition to
Fineman, I especially think that the primary justification for NIH support
of open access is the public's right to know.  We paid for the research
and have a right to know what was found.  Other than from an intellectual
perspective, I see no comparable basis for insisting that research results
be shared only with other researchers.

Kent Mulliner        Phone: 740-742-2650
Rutland, OH 45775-9675
mulliner@ohio.edu