Librarians actively teach scientists and their students how to acquire, manipulate, and manage this information. This role has only been enhanced with time and the burdensome amount of information generated every year in the sciences. This article does not condemn modern health care education. However, there is a serious need for information management education throughout health science curricula. Particularly evident is the need for information management skills for public health students.
Public health is highly interdisciplinary, which implies a great volume of relevant information.
Governments are major producers of information about the environment and health of the public, and private agencies create documents increasingly influential in policy making. Practitioners and students not skilled with such technology are at a disadvantage. In response to this need, some librarians in schools of public health have developed and taught courses in public health informatics. First, however, some terms are defined. By the late 1980s, however, the terms had developed different connotations in Europe and the United States.