The Reading Remedy: Bibliotherapy in Practice

Abstract

Bibliotherapy is an umbrella term for related ideas for using books to help people with mental and physical health problems. The beginnings of bibliotherapeutic work are examined, and developments involving public libraries in the UK reviewed It is concluded that the infrastructure of bibliotherapy schemes is already present in the day to day operation of a public library service, and that most depressed people may benefit from bibliotherapeutic interaction. From a 2007 research project three subsections of bibliotherapeutic practice emerged. These are self help bibliotherapy, creative bibliotherapy and informal bibliotherapy. This is the second of three articles published in Aplis. It is published with the permission of the editor of the "Public library journal" in which it first appeared. The first article was "Medicine for the soul: bibliotherapy" Aplis 21(3) September 2008 pp115-119. Adapted from the source document.