It’s an unlikely place for a reference center devoted to everything from arrhythmia to zits. But there at the Stanford Shopping Center, nestled between Ristorante Piatti and Bloomingdale’s and just around the corner from Ann Taylor and Nine West, is The Health Library. A community service of Stanford Hospital, the multimedia medical library fields health-related questions from about 20,000 visitors a year -- and another 360,000 who access its online branch.
Founded in 1989, the library moved to its expanded Shopping Center location facing El Camino Real in October. (The 1,600-square-foot space, provided free by the University, is worth some $70,000 a year.) Director Barbara Ralston, ’75, says the library has found a vital role helping consumers wade through reams of medical information: "Nowadays, there’s too much -- people need an intermediary."
