AboutAnnotations is the place to read about issues, trends, and uses for new technologies for all libraries, especially public libraries. NSLS staff member Anna Yackle is a librarian with many years of experience who has worked in all types of libraries, but maintains a special fondness for public libraries. Recent Posts:Categories:Archives:BlogrollMeta: |
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AnnotationsAnnotationsNovember 13, 2006 Consumer Health and the Internet Or Do people care about the quality of information?Many of you have probably already seen the Pew/ Internet Report below: 10/29/2006 | Report | Susannah Fox Eighty percent of American internet users, or some 113 million adults, have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics. Most internet users start at a general search engine when researching health and medical advice online. Just 15% of health seekers say they “always” check the source and date of the health information they find online, while another 10% say they do so “most of the time.” Fully three-quarters of health seekers say they check the source and date “only sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or “never,” which translates to about 85 million Americans gathering health advice online without consistently examining the quality indicators of the information they find. Most health seekers are pleased about what they find online, but some are frustrated or confused…MORE So we have an idea of how people research potentially life and death matters regarding their own health, to seemingly support the value of this random gathering of information, we have the article below… What’s That Disease? Ask Google Nov. 10, 2006 “Patients doing a Google search may find the search less efficient and be less likely to reach the correct diagnosis,” they note. “We believe that Google searches by a ‘human expert’ — a doctor — have a better yield.” Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng U.K. doctors Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng find that their patients often use the popular Google Internet search engine to try to diagnose their own illnesses. … They wondered if it works. To test the strategy, they took advantage of a feature in The New England Journal of Medicine. Every week, the journal offers doctors the chance to hone their diagnostic skills by presenting a puzzling case history...More strong>Full Original Article The question is why do people do blind searches on the net when there are reliable resources like Medline Plus and the proprietary databases that many public libraries purchase? I think it is a lack of marketing by Medline and libraries but, also I think it is a sign of the times. It is a culmination of the commonly held misconception that “you can find everything you need on the Internet” and the belief among some members of society that the word of a perceived peer (no matter that they are an unknown stranger) is more “honest” than that of an expert. What is a librarian to do? We like getting the right and correct information into the hands of the individual who needs it. What happens when you as an information provider care more about the accuracy than the patron? Is it time for libraries to pull out all the stops and run a huge campaign about “If we ( any democracy) lose libraries we lose our humanity, our freedom, and our civiliazation…” Do you think anyone would care? No Comments »RSS feed for comments on this post. Leave a comment
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