摘要：Library services to inpatients have gradually expanded in Japan only over the past several years. Most such services are available because staff of public libraries or volunteers take the trouble to go to the hospital to provide service to inpatients. Hence, there is very little information on health and medical care in the lending materials. On the other hand, a large number of books on alternative care or unreliable therapies can be found on the book shelves of ordinary bookstores. In addition, a considerable amount of information is disseminated by the mass media. The purpose of this study was to clarify the librarian's role when inpatients ask for appropriate information on their own disease and its treatment. At the present time, however, most hospital libraries do not include inpatients among their patrons. The library of our hospital was opened to inpatients by setting up a corner filled with popular books. When inpatients want to get medical information from material other than the books in the corner on health and diet therapy, these requests are handled as directed by their doctor. However, there are various opinions concerning the limits of inpatients' right to know, and choosing among them is an important task. Recently, the concept of imformed consent has been attracting considerable attention and thus we are now required to reconsider how to provide sufficient medical information in response to patients'
