Disclaimers

[Donald Barclay]

I have been doing some highly unscientific research ("scouting" is probably
the more accurate term) to see what kind of disclaimers, if any,
health-science websites are using. My initial scout shows that most
commercial and government health-science websites have a disclaimer that
says something along the lines of:

"We don't give medical advice. See your doctor. You're on your own if ruin
your health following the advice of some cockamamie webpage we happen to
link to."

All of the disclaimers I saw were passive (you had to click on a link or
scroll down a page to read them) rather than the in-your-face kind that make
you click "I accept" before letting you move on.

On the other hand, few health-science library webpages had disclaimers. This
makes me curious to know what kinds of disclaimers, if any, Web4Lib folk
have on their institutional webpages. If those who have disclaimers could
send me (donaldb at library.tmc.edu) the URLs for their disclaimers, I will
compile them for the list. Those who want to debate the pros and cons of
disclaimers should, of course, post to the entire list. I am interested in
disclaimers for all types of websites, not just those dealing with health
science. TIA.

Donald A. Barclay
Houston Academy of Medicine-       always the beautiful answer
Texas Medical Center Library           who asks the more beautiful question
donaldb at library.tmc.edu                                   -- e. e. cummings