College Health Professionals and Academic Librarians: Collaboration for Student Health

• Published in: Journal of American college health 2008-01, Vol.56 (4), p.395-400
• Main Authors: Hallyburton, Ann, Kolenbrander, Nancy, Robertson, Carolyn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic Libraries; Behavior; college health; College Students; Comparative Analysis; consumer health information; Consumer Health Information - organization & administration; Consumers; Cooperation; Cooperative Behavior; Credibility; Electronic mail systems; Feedback (Response); Health; Health Behavior; Health Conditions; Health education; Health information; Health Personnel; Health Promotion; Humans; Information Needs; Information professionals; Information Scientists; Information Sources; Internet; Librarians; Library Materials; Library Personnel; Library Services; National Surveys; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Online Surveys; Polls & surveys; Professional ethics; Reference services; Research methodology; State Surveys; Students; Studies; Surveys; Universities; Universities - organization & administration; Websites
• ISSN: 0744-8481; 1940-3208
• DOI: 10.3200/JACH.56.44.395-400

College health professionals must find new ways of educating students on finding and evaluating consumer health information, specifically in the online environment. Librarians are trained as information professionals; however, librarians at general academic libraries are not taking a lead role in providing consumer health information. Objective: The authors' purpose in this research was to determine the health information resource needs of college and university students and provide a model for collaboration between college health professionals and academic librarians. Participants and Methods: The authors compared data from a national survey on college health (N = 54,111) with their own results from a survey of general academic librarians (N = 17) to create recommendations for synching students' reported health information needs with librarians' resources. Results: Although the Internet was students' second most-often consulted health information source, they ranked the believability of online health information above only television. In the librarian survey, although 12 respondents indicated that health information provision is a library's responsibility, the majority (n = 11) believed their library's consumer health outreach to be passive. Conclusions: The authors offer recommendations for partnerships between college healthcare professionals and academic librarians to better provide this information to students.