Hospital Library Reference

A brief review of hospital library reference problems is presented. The essential problem in a one-person medical library is the time factor or time constraint under which appropriate answer to reference questions must be delivered. Various other common reference problems such as emergencies, misunderstood requests, ethical considerations of priorities, and the choice of computerized data base versus manual searching are discussed as they relate to the small medical library. Some reference aids are suggested as they apply to specific problems in cancer chemotherapy, syndrome identification, and adverse effects of drugs. A sampling of quick reference sources is included.