New Book! Introduction to Healthcare Knowledge and Library Services by Geoff Walton

We are delighted to announce the release of Introduction to Healthcare Knowledge and Library Services by our member Geoff Walton, with Frances Johnson, David Stewart, Gil Young and Holly Case Wyatt. This book offers a perfect foundation for understanding the essential role library services play within delivering healthcare knowledge.

Have you ever wondered how a library and a hospital can intertwine to provide a new type of patient care? These two services have more in common than expected and when combined symbolise a new era of how information can be delivered to patients.

Walton’s chapter with Joanne Naughton on health literacy, patient information and combating misinformation seeks to define health literacy expansively to best serve members of the wider society. They do this by examining which schemes of population are most likely to be impacted by low health literacy and how this manifests practically in terms of their service usage. They conclude with how health literacy of individuals can be improved with the support of specialists in the field.

They line out health literacy when referring to individuals as ‘the extent to which a person can find, understand, use and apply health information as well as interact with’. They continue to describe health literacy for society- ‘For a society or healthcare system, health literacy relates to the provision of information and services in a way that is accessible to all and empowers people to make informed healthcare decisions.’ With this understanding solidified, Walton and Naughton continue to describe the severe rates of health illiteracy, of between 43%-61% (Rowlands et al., 2015), and that people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, migrants and People of Colour, older people, people with long term conditions, and disabled people are most likely to experience health illiteracy. As they describe the correlation between health illiteracy and poorer health outcomes, it is therefore essential to address the lack of sufficient education and services to empower individuals to gain proficiency with health literacy. They state that in order to achieve this ‘NHS knowledge and library specialists play a key role as health literacy advocates and in facilitating access to high quality health information for patients and the public’ and should be utilised as such. Thus, Walton and Naughton conclude with this working partnership between services is ‘NHS knowledge and library specialists play a key role as health literacy advocates and in facilitating access to high quality health information for patients and the public.’ 

This is a must read for anyone with an interest in public health strategy!

Available here: https://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/introduction-to-healthcare-knowledge-and-library-services/?k=9781783305933