It is estimated that 75 to 80 percent of users will search the Internet for health information this year, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “E-patients” receive a barrage of information; for example, googling “common cold” yields over a million hits.

    But can the average user sift through the heap of home remedies and advertisements to glean something useful? Matt Hoy, supervisor of Luther Midelfort’s library and AV services, believes, “A very small percentage know how to look at that and say, ‘Yes, this is current, this is reliable, this is from a decent source.’”

    The public medical library opened in Luther Hospital in 1905. This small, second-floor room at the Whipple Street hospital contains a medical gold mine. Not only does the library subscribe to 150 print medical journals, but the system’s connection with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., provides unlimited access to world-class databases. It also conducts interlibrary loan with the National Library of Medicine. “We can reach out and touch pretty much anything we want,” Hoy states.

    Hoy provides current, reliable health information to three main groups. The library’s Clairemont branch caters more to patients and the general public, providing information that is “very basic, tailored to the patient level rather than clinical,” says Hoy. There, pamphlets and articles are available on broad medical topics, and library specialist Jennifer Schram is available to locate more specific information.