Libraries Still Have Good Information!

The New Health Care SystemWe’ve been doing a lot of talking at the Library about the unpleasant (to me) fact that nonfiction books are not circulating as much as they used to. Some of us comment that people are using the internet and videos more and books less. Newspapers are going out of business and social networking is the new “in-thing”.  The new census stats show that our county is losing population and we all see the empty houses for sale and don’t see as many people who used to come and talk about books at the reference desk any more. We miss them!

I worry that people don’t realize that libraries still have good information – facts about health, current issues, latest information on science and technology, car repair – and that we don’t seem to be very successful at getting that information out to the people in the county who could make use of it.  In the midst of all this talk of gloom and doom, I was heartened by a woman in the West Elmira Library who checked out their copy of: THE NEW HEALTH CARE SYSTEM: Everything you need to know by David Nather. She spoke to the head of that library who told me:

“She was pleased with the information in this book.  She said it is so different than what we are hearing on television.  The fact that it is unbiased was important to her.” Yes! Somebody gets it. Somebody has discovered that libraries are here to provide good information. You have no idea how happy that comment made me.

So in case there are others out there who are interested in some new health books, see below:

Dodging the Toxic Bullet: How to Protect Yourself from Everyday Environmental Health Hazards by David Boyd

The Checklist ManifestoHealing Our Autistic Children by Julie Buckley MD

A Patient’s Guide to Heart Rhythm Problems by Todd Cohen

The Language of Life by Francis Collins

From Zero to Mastectomy by Jackie Fox

Treat Me, Not my Age by Mark Lachs

The Emperor of All Maladies by Mukherjee

Designer Genes by Steven Potter

Reiki for Life by Penelope Quest

What’s Up Down There? by Lissa Rankin

Clinical Trials by Lorna Speid

And my favorite, that I wish every doctor, dentist and health administrator at every hospital would read: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.


Phyllis Rogan
, Reference Librarian
Steele Memorial Library