These volumes, and the accompanying CD, are the latest in a series of Medical Library Association publications issued by Neal‐Schuman in recent years. Directed at health professionals, health librarians and health consumers, it sets out to teach the user how to construct and implement a search on any topic in the field of health, from a simple overview to a thorough investigation of current knowledge.
Sensibly, all volumes include a Preface outlining the purpose and contents of all three volumes, clear instructions on how to use the Guide, and a chart summarising the recommended strategies that inform all three volumes under the heading, “Quick Guides to Searching for Health Information”. These strategies focus on an analysis of the question according to a set framework that identifies both the characteristics of the query and defines whether it is about etiology (causation of the disease), diagnosis, therapy (and /or prevention of causation or harm), and prognosis or outcome. These four principles are those that underlie the principles of evidence‐based medicine, and the “Clinical queries” filters on the PubMed interface. The strategies then assist the searcher to identify the most important facets of their query, translate it into appropriate search terms, select a search engine, carry out the search and evaluate the information found. The importance of modifying and repeating the search until the desired information is retrieved is emphasised.
These strategies are explained in detail in Volume 1, beginning with a discussion on the question of ethics and trust in e‐health information, which outlines various criteria for evaluating health information, lists online sources discussing the question of evaluation further and search terms to find other resources on this topic. This sets the pattern for the rest of the volume and the next two. A general discussion is followed by an outline of key sub‐topics, recommended sites and search terms. Chapters 2‐8 then explain the search strategies summarised in the chart in greater detail. This is crucial information to understanding the chart and the strategies, and it would have been more helpful if the chart itself drew attention to it wherever it appears in the three volumes, since the terms it uses (prognosis, etiology, etc.) and the approach it takes, while crucial to effective searching for health information, are not generally familiar to most health consumers.
Volume 1 then continues with some FAQs about diagnosis and treatments, basic health terms and concepts (such as anatomical terms and proper terms for diseases), how to access information about health care providers, and health statistics, and a Quick Reference Guide which lists useful terms, provides templates to guide searching, and gives country, state and provincial domain name codes (there are some minor errors here).
Volumes 2 and 3 cover specific topics, Volume 2 being dedicated to Diseases and Disorders, Mental Health and Mental Disorders, and Volume 3 to Health and Wellness, Life Stages and Reproduction and a cumulative index. The index, in association with the Guide to Contents provided at the beginning of each volume, is vital to navigating around this complex resource, and is clear and comprehensive, although it does not cover all disorders by name, and users might need to seek further information by part of the body for less common problems. The reader's attention is drawn to both these methods of access at the beginning of each volume. Each major topic is prepared by a named contributor and covers the major subdivisions within that topics, providing key sites and useful search terms, for each ‐ these represent the successful search strategies developed by these expert searchers, and by following them users would gain insights allowing them to gradually develop their own strategies. Organisation of the topics covered is alphabetical according to generally used terms (“arthritis”, “cancers”, “dental disorders”, etc.) rather than through any medical classification system, and users might need the index to track down specific disorders. Alternative and complementary medicine are treated as a relatively small subset of Volume 3. Most topics appear to be covered thoroughly and sites well selected – there are too many topics to test systematically, but well‐regarded sites on key topics known to this reviewer were all listed.
The CD is an electronic version of the entire three volumes, with all URLs hyperlinked so that the user can access the sites listed, moving between explanatory text and the internet. At the time of writing these all seemed to be current, though the editors explain in the section How to Use the Guide in each volume that, due to the inherent instability of the web, they cannot guarantee that this will always be so. However, as they point out, the focus of the book is on empowering the reader to become an expert searcher, and not to be reliant on known and named sites.
All in all, this is an extremely useful book. While there are many publications listing good health sites on various topics, few detail the specifics of searching so carefully. If the explanations in Volume 1 sometimes seem a little overwhelming, the user can turn to Volumes 2 and 3 for help with searching and learn search skills though practical application. It is a book which should be regarded as essential in both health sciences and public libraries alike, and would be a useful addition to the physician's or health professional's personal library.
