How BioMed Was Curated

BioMed is a library for general readers who want to understand biology, medicine, health, illness, disability and care. It began with books from a personal library and the Antilibrary World Library, then expanded through deliberate searches for missing subjects, places, experiences and voices.

A question-led method

We built virtual shelves around questions a reader might ask: What is life? How do bodies and minds work? How does medicine decide what works? Why are some populations more exposed to illness? What does disease or disability feel like from within? Who gives care, who receives it, and who controls the institutions around them? Books can belong to several shelves when they illuminate different questions.

We then tested the collection along three journeys:

• Phase of life: conception, birth, childhood, adulthood, aging, dying and bereavement.
• Tempo of change: inherited, sudden, infectious, recurrent, chronic, degenerative and terminal.
• Journey of care: prevention, onset, diagnosis, treatment, recovery, adaptation, caregiving and palliation.

These lenses exposed gaps hidden by broad subject labels, including neonatal life, delayed diagnosis, accidents, long-term disability, family care and the end of life. The gaps directed the next round of research.

How books were judged

We considered each book as a complete work: the quality of its thought and evidence; the strength and accessibility of its writing; the perspective it preserves; and what it contributes beside other books.

The library includes science, history, biography, memoir, reportage, oral testimony, graphic narrative and fiction. We judge each form by the claims it makes. A scientific work may explain a mechanism. A memoir preserves an experience. Fiction may convey the moral and emotional life of illness without serving as clinical evidence. Traditional medicine is included for its historical and cultural insight; its medical claims require their own evidence.

We sought translated and local writing alongside books by patients, disabled people, scientists, nurses, physicians, midwives, aides, families and community health workers. We examined who speaks, who performs care, who holds authority and whose account is missing. Geographic range mattered, but voice and agency determined whether that range was meaningful.

BioMed remains a living collection. Books may be added as gaps emerge and removed when evidence ages badly, advice outruns evidence or a stronger book serves the reader better.

Caution

BioMed is a curated reading library. It is not medical advice or a substitute for professional care. Book profiles, ideas, summaries and answers are developed through research and AI-assisted analysis. We work carefully to represent each author's views, but inaccuracies may remain. Inclusion does not mean that we have independently verified or endorsed every claim in a book.