Bibliotherapy and its position in Medical library and Information Science

Bibliotherapy is considered as an effective and inexpensive method to treat some diseases especially mental disorders as well as to alleviate social problems. This therapeutic method requires the training to acquire the skills necessary to bibliotherapy processes. Despite of extensive usage of bibliotherapy, this therapeutic method has not been taught in official academic courses. This article is intended to study the relationship between bibliotherapy and medical library and information science. This study was conducted using the library research and studying results of articles on bibliotherapy retrieved in SID and Pubmed databases. Studying the bibliotherapy processes shows that some processes (such as evaluation and selection of resources) are of skills of medical librarians. Also, literature review shows that: Belief in therapeutic impact of study and the book goes back far into the past; Bibliotherapy helps to improve some mental disorders. In view of effectiveness of bibliotherapy and its relation to medical information science, it is essential that training of bibliotherapy be included in the courses of Librarianship and Medical Information Science.