Drug information: an overview and prospect for the future.

The need and demand for improved adverse drug reaction reporting; literature access, control and dissemination; and student-literature exposure has been evident for many years. Drug information attempts to manage these perplexities by performing specific functions (i.e., by the communication of information, designing improved retrieval systems and offering individualized services). The drug information specialist is clinically-oriented and endeavors to surmount long-existing barriers to information transmission (e.g., the "invisible college" or colleague consultation). As a documentalist he is concerned with bibliographic control and systems improvement and design. Both functions require specialized education which is obtainable in schools of graduate pharmacy and in schools of library and information science. The properties of such programs are presented.