Brandon Hill Selected Lists
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Selected List of Print Books and Journals in Allied Health Introduction
It should be remembered, that every allied health publication has not passed over our desks. Books or journals might be missing from this list simply because we did not see them. The amount of allied health literature that we do see is tied very tightly to publisher participation. If we were asked to set up a book and journal collection for allied health personnel, the titles we have listed here represent the collection we would have purchased at the time we submitted this manuscript. Our choices may have been different a month or even a week later, due to the availability of more newly released books and journals. We have attempted to assemble a well-balanced collection of allied health books and journals geared specifically to allied health personnel whenever possible. Most of the publications are of U.S. origin, but there are also some British and Canadian publications especially in the journal collection. As the title of this list implies, only books and journals in print format have been included. We have not covered the autonomous professions, such as: chiropractic, dentist, nurse, physician, optometrist, pharmacist, osteopath, and veterinarian. Our scope of content and format has also been defined in the nine previous introductions that precede the book and journal lists. They are cited on the first page at the bottom of this article. Academic and health sciences librarians, nurses, and allied health faculty have contributed many suggestions that were greatly appreciated. However, the final choices for the books and journals in this list are ours--based upon many years of reviewing health sciences literature. A distinct literature for some allied health programs may not exist. Many programs rely heavily upon books in the basic and behavioral sciences and surgery, as well as standard medical texts and journals. Medical publications can be identified from our list of recommended books and journals for the small medical library [1]. Other programs are supported by the literature of nursing; relevant nursing titles can be located from our selected list of nursing publications [2]. All three "Brandon/Hill" lists (allied health, small medical library, and nursing) will continue to be updated between published biennial revisions in A Major Report, a quarterly newsletter published for many years by Majors Scientific Books [3]. All of the books that we have picked out have been published from 1995 through 2003; only thirty-seven were published before 1998, and 91.5% from 1998 to date. We have chosen the most current books available because rapidly changing technology has a strong impact on many allied health professions and occupations. As a result, older books usually do not appear in this list, but they may have appeared in earlier versions. Nearly 24% of the titles in the 2003 book list have been changed from the 2000 list. We realize that "new" does not necessarily mean "better", but current literature has a priority in this setting. The journals remain relatively stable from list to list. However, we added two titles: Journal of Hand Therapy and Occupational Ergonomics. The bibliographic and price information quoted here is as accurate as we could obtain at the time the manuscript was submitted, but price increases are likely over time. Based upon the prices that we have, it would cost approximately $36,744 to purchase the entire collection of books and journals. The 434 books cost about $22,718, and the 79 journal subscriptions for 2002 amount to $14,026. For books from publishers that have dual pricing (list/net or retail/net or something similar), we have quoted the higher prices. Whenever member and nonmember prices exist, we have used higher nonmember prices. Other prices are publishers' traditional list prices. Subscription prices are quoted at institutional rates. The average price per book title is $52.34, and the average price of a 2002 journal subscription is $177.54. Items for initial purchase are indicated by asterisks before the titles. To purchase only the asterisked items (169 books and 32 journal subscriptions) would be approximately $14,465--$9,898 for books and $4,567 for 2002 journal subscriptions. Due to the diversity of the subjects covered in this list, most people will probably not want to purchase all of the publications but instead will use the list selectively for subjects pertinent to their particular situations. Table 1 shows the approximate cost for each subject section of the book list. Overall total figures and average costs for this list are not as meaningful as those that we have compiled for the small medical library and for nursing, because it is not likely that all these allied health publications would ever be purchased totally as a collection. This list represents the literature of several professions, not just one. Two additional subject headings were added to the book list: Health Aide and Neuroscience. Accreditation, recertification, licensure, core curricula, and multiskills, continue to be primary concerns of the allied health professions as allied health personnel continue to become increasingly prominent and assertive in the health care field. When the list of recommended allied health books and journals was first compiled nearly eighteen years ago, there were no up-to-date selection guides [4]. Almost the same situation exists today. We are aware of one current publication that lists resources to help librarians select books for physician assistants, "A medical book collection for physician assistants [5]." Beginning in 1997, there have been a number of articles on the mapping of allied health literature. These bibliometric studies came about as a result of the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association creating a Task Force on Bibliographic Access for the Allied Health Literature. So far, we know of twelve professions that have been studied: cytotechnology, dental assisting, dental hygiene, diagnostic medical sonography, dietetics, health education, occupational therapy, perfusion, physical therapy, radiologic technology, respiratory therapy, and speech-language pathology. This research provides a better understanding of bibliographic access to potential allied health core literature [6-18]. These papers reflect a continuing interest in the literature of allied health by health sciences librarians. If you are trying to develop an allied health collection, you need to consult two sources, Health Professions Career and Education Directory 2002-2003 [19] and Health Professions Education Standards [20]. Both are published by the American Medical Association. The Directory 2002-2003 covers educational programs for fifty-six different health care occupations. It also provides data from twenty accrediting agencies and describes occupations by work environment, average salaries, and job outlook. The Standards give educational standards, or essentials for forty-seven programs listed in the Directory. In addition, the Journal of Allied Health is an indispensable source for anyone associated with allied health from either a professional or an educational point of view [21]. Table 1
The books in this list are arranged according to thirty-eight broad subject headings followed by an author/editor index. When a book has more than two authors or editors, the notation "[and others]" has been made after the name of the senior author or editor. In the author/editor index only the names of the senior persons have been included; coauthors and coeditors have not. If the name of an original author or editor is an initial part of the title, it has been included. New editions scheduled for late 2002 or early 2003 publication, which have tentative prices and release dates, have been considered as published. As a matter of course, we have routinely cited the publisher from whom the book is available in the United States. Journals are arranged according to twenty broad subject headings, followed by an alphabetical title list. As the demands on our health care environment continue to escalate, the demand for highly trained allied health practitioners will increase. This creates a challenge for health sciences librarians to identify and deliver quality biomedical information to an expanding range of health care providers. We hope that our list of recommended books and journals will continue to be a factor in upgrading allied health collections, in whatever setting. References
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he
list of print allied health publications recommended here is not intended
to be the be-all and end-all authority in allied health collection development.
However, it is a convenient guide for setting up such a collection or
updating an already existing one. It also provides a quick source for
determining what is being published, especially in books. The choice
of print books and journals in this collection resulted from our having
monitored the allied health literature for the past two years or thereabout.