Access to Medical Knowledge: Libraries, Digitization and the Public Good

Citation

Cullen, R. (2008), "Access to Medical Knowledge: Libraries, Digitization and the Public Good", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 496-497. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830810903445

This book explores the underlying ethos of medical librarianship that was a major impetus in its beginnings and continues to sustain the commitment of the medical/health information professional in today's networked world. Inspired by the author's personal belief in the freely available provision of medical information to all who need it, the book was written, as the author states in the preface:

[…] in an attempt to understand why librarians, whether working in the healthcare environment, or in the academic milieu, make the choices they do. Are they guided by principles or values within a conceptual framework, or are they merely responding opportunistically to a variety of influences – institutional, social, technical and political?

In order to address this question, the author has researched widely across the history of medical librarianship, and some of the key issues that have impacted on it. After an initial chapter on librarians and their values, which canvasses some issues related to the nature of public goods, and the commodification of information, literacy, health information literacy and scholarly communication, the book moves on to firmer ground with a substantial section titled The origin of medical librarianship. This well‐researched section covers the period from the collection of the Surgeon General's Office during the American Civil War to 1990, the eve of the revolution brought by the Internet. This section focuses on North America and examines the values and developing professional beliefs that took the USA to its leading role in the provision of medical information to the world. Several heroes of medicine and of medical librarianship, their vision, values and personal virtues (and sometime limitations) bring these pages to life. The emphasis throughout this section is on the values and ethics both explicit and implicit in decisions and policies made by individuals and institutions for over 130 years.

Part 3, medical libraries in the age of the Internet, is a wide‐ranging discussion of the changes in scholarly communication and access to knowledge brought by the Internet, with chapters on both consumer health information and access to information for clinicians. This leads to the fourth section, Is There a Better Way, in which the author discusses the changing economic basis of medical information, as complex licensing agreements both extend and restrict access, and the open access movement threatens to undermine the economic models of the past 300 years. Some key initiatives in freeing up access to medical knowledge, in particular the open access policies of the National Institutes of Health (publishers of MEDLINE), the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and initiatives such as SciELO and HINARI, intended to bring better access to medical knowledge to the developing world are outlined, along with new initiatives in managing intellectual property rights to enhance the dissemination of knowledge. The final chapter reinforces the analysis that informs the entire book, that through its long history, in which institutions and technology have changed almost beyond recognition, and into the unknown territory of the future, the underlying ethos of providing access to medical information as a public good, has remained dominant in the profession.

So the answer to the author's question, cited above, is perhaps both. Driven by a strong sense of values, and committed to providing the best service they can, health librarians have shown themselves to be quite opportunistic in taking the best that technology can offer to enhance service quality and delivery, without losing touch with their underlying value.

Detailed in its research, and driven by the author's passion for the profession of medical librarianship, and at times overtly partisan on some issues, this is nevertheless a readable and illuminating history of medical librarianship, of interest to all those working in the health sector, as well as to a wider audience of information professionals.