Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
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Bull Med Libr Assoc · Jan 1986
When children die: death in current children's literature and its use in a library.
Death and dying are dealt with realistically and sympathetically in current children's literature. Books can play an important role in helping children suffering from catastrophic illness by showing how other children have coped with similar situations; they can also form a basis for bibliotherapy with patients. This paper examines current trends in children's literature and describes how these books have been incorporated into a patient library at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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In a study of book reviews published in four general medical journals over a six-month period, 480 reviews were analyzed. Twenty-five features that reviewers address when evaluating a text were identified, and the frequency of commentary for each feature was determined. The mean number of features addressed per review was 9.0. ⋯ Favorable reviews were far more common than unfavorable ones (88.5% vs. 11.5%). Consequently, for the fifty-five books reviewed in more than one journal, agreement regarding rating of the text was high (86%). Results of this study may provide useful guidelines for reviewers of medical texts.
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This paper provides an overview of the National Health Service in England, including its history, its present structure, and factors that make it different from the U. S. health care system. The NHS libraries and librarians are discussed. ⋯ The problems and accomplishments of NHS librarians are discussed, as well as some similarities between NHS libraries and U. S. medical libraries. Medical librarians are urged to try to understand the medical library scene in England, so that they can Learn from the unique strengths of their counterparts there.