Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

Quarterly Report: May - July, 2006

Executive summary

At the beginning of this quarter, OERC completed its reports of two major activities from the previous quarter, the Public Health/Public Library Initiatives and the Outreach Activities Working Group, and worked with the Polis Center to produce maps in support of the RML Directors' Meeting on May 20 in Phoenix. Extensive web site revisions were performed in conjunction with Web-STOC's Usability Evaluation and Review project; final editing and formatting of the three-booklet Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach Projects series was completed, and regular communication with the RML Evaluation Liaisons was initiated. The OERC and Web-STOC developed the new OERC Blog. Using the Empowerment Evaluation approach, the OERC took initial steps in facilitating the eight regions' determination of how they will collaborate nationally during the 2006-2011 contract. OERC staff provided consulting support for six regions (MCR, MAR, PSR, PNR, SCR, and GMR); see Table 1, below, for details.

Classes and consultations

Date	Responsible Staff (Last Name)	Class/Consultation Topic	Location (city, state) of Class or Last Name of Consult Recipient
5/31/2006	Barnes	Consult: TC4C effective practices	Claire Hamasu, MCR, Salt Lake City, UT
6/13/2006	Barnes	Consult: Community health status indicators	Angela Ruffin, NNO, Bethesda, MD
6/14/2006	Barnes, Olney	Consult: Eval liaison teleconference	Evaluation Liaisons, NNO, national
6/15/2006	Barnes	Consult: Community health status indicators	Angela Ruffin, NNO, Bethesda, MD
6/22/2006	Barnes	Consult: TC4C effective practices	Claire Hamasu, MCR, Salt Lake City, UT
7/13/2006	Barnes	Consult: MAR needs assessment	Kathel Dunn, MAR, New York, NY
7/17/2006	Barnes, Olney	Consult: Eval liaison teleconference	Evaluation Liaisons, NNO, national
7/17/2006	Barnes	Consult: PSR outreach award announcement	Heidi Sandstrom, PSR, Los Angeles, CA
7/21/2006	Barnes	Consult: PNR outreach award announcement	Cathy Burroughs, PNR, Seattle, WA
7/26/2006	Barnes	Consult: Presentation quality maps	Angela Ruffin, NNO, Bethesda, MD
7/26/2006	Barnes	Consult: Staff recruitment	Renee Bougard, SCR, Houston, TX
7/26/2006	Barnes	Consult: Regional training	Ruth Holst, GMR, Chicago, IL

Web site

Served as the OERC representative to Web-STOC's Usability Evaluation and Review (UER) group. As part of the UER project, migrated the OERC web site into the revised organization and new look and feel of the overall nnlm.gov site.

Added full text of the three booklets in the Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach series to the OERC web site's "Publications" section at http://nnlm.gov/evaluation/guides.html#A2. Announced the booklets' online availability to the NN/LM Evaluation Liaisons.

Collaborated with Web-STOC to create the OERC Blog at http://nnlm.gov/evaluation/blog/ and announced it to all eight regions via the nnlmall email discussion list.

Dissemination of effective practices

Participated as member of Tribal Connections Four Corners collaboration Effective Practices committee, which entered an effective practice on the Effective Practices Collection web site at http://nationalserviceresources.org/epicenter/.

Participated in the "Conference on Native American Health Information Services in the United States" in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 20-21, 2006.

Subcontractor update

Not applicable. The OERC has no subcontracts at present.

Other staff activities-this section is organized according to OERC's goals for the 2006-2011 contract

1. Develop awareness, skill, and capacity in use of evaluation methods.

   Training: Collaborated with staff from NN/LM GMR to help them prepare for co-teaching the "Measuring Your Impact" workshop in Minneapolis in August.

2. Develop mechanisms to disseminate and use evaluation findings to help NLM and the NN/LM document and demonstrate their accomplishments.

   Mapping: Worked with Polis Center for production of maps to be shown and distributed at the RML Directors' Meeting in Phoenix on May 20, 2006. Consulted with the National Network Office regarding the OERC's planned needs assessment regarding presentation quality maps and was advised to put this on hold while NLM explores a possible role for OCCS in producing maps. Participated in an initial Breeze consultation with representatives from NNO, OCCS, and Web-STOC. Participated in consultations and discussions regarding the development of a GIS component to the Community Health Status Indicators resource. This resource is being developed through a collaboration between CDC, HRSA, and NLM, and at present the NN/LM does not have a role in its creation, but that may change as the project progresses because the resource is anticipated to be a very useful one.

3. Strengthen and build an evaluation culture throughout NN/LM.

   Evaluation liaisons: Established the rmleval@u.washington.edu email discussion list. All regional evaluation liaisons have subscribed, as have NNO staff plus Melanye Lackey, an NLM Associate Fellow who is particularly interested in evaluation. Held the first two Evaluation Liaison teleconferences, on June 14 and July 17, 2006. The first was a conference call in which the group discussed their different roles in their disparate regions-in most regions these roles are still being developed and defined. The second employed Breeze and was used to publicize the availability of the printed Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach 3-booklet series to all regions and an upcoming all-NN/LM teleconference about the OERC.

4. Provide consultation and direction in implementing evaluation systems, structures, and resources to help the NN/LM's efficacy and efficiency.

   Consultations: Consultations are listed in Table 1, above.

5. Enhance and refine use of community-based approaches to planning.

   Cross-regional collaboration: Introduced NNO's request that the eight regions conduct national collaboration at the RML Directors' Meeting in Phoenix on May 20, 2006 and requested that all breakout groups (Directors, Consumer Coordinators, Network Coordinators, and Outreach Coordinators) provide a short list of planned activities that would benefit from national collaboration. Attempted to organize an August planning meeting at which representatives from each region would identify the scope of national collaboration, including goals and outcomes, but found that schedule conflicts prevented such a meeting from taking place. Instead, scheduled an August Breeze teleconference to which all RML Directors and Associate Directors were invited and posted support information to the OERC Blog.