Point well taken! Rekha Gandhi Morristown Memorial Hospital Morristown, NJ 07962 email: [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Press [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, May 07, 2001 6:08 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Who provides consumer health info? Health professionals of any ilk Aunty, Oma, Grandmere... Journalists Public librarians, community college librarians... Anyone who works in a pharmacy, health food store, sports equipment store... Workers in health departments (including support staff) Employers (example: farmers required to provide info to farmworkers) Anyone who works or volunteers with American Cancer Society, or any health charity, on national, state, or local level Science teachers PE teachers Ad writers Personal trainers My yoga teacher ...and maybe the #1 provider: anyone who says anything about health on the web At a rough guess, I'd say medical librarians provide approximately .000001% of the nation's consumer health information. To quote Michele Spatz and Val Lawrence, our leadership and expertise are greatly needed! We can't stop people from sharing health information with each other and we shouldn't! But we just might be able to help improve the quality of that information. Nancy Press Consumer Health Coordinator National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region University of Washington Box 357155 Seattle, WA 98195 206-221-3449 [log in to unmask]