Statewide Initiative to Embed Consumer Health Librarians in Public Libraries: A Case Study

Abstract

In 2004 a collaborative, statewide outreach project in Delaware was undertaken where consumer health librarians were embedded in public libraries. In order to explore the effect of the embedded librarians on the quality of health information provision, unobtrusive reference visits were made to half of the public libraries in the state. The query “Do vaccines cause autism?” was posed to library staff; resources provided were recorded. In 67 percent of visits, public library staff provided authoritative health information resources. It appears the embedded librarians had a positive residual effect on the provision of authoritative health resources for addressing an ambiguous query.

KEYWORDS:

• consumer health
• health information
• public libraries

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Grace Flaherty

Mary Grace Flaherty is an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Persko L. Grier

Persko L. Grier, Jr. is the outreach and access coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region, located at the University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library in Baltimore, Maryland.