The Medical Library Association has declared October as National Medical Librarians Month. In honor of this event, the National Library of Medicine and your NN/LM Regional Network Office are celebrating the contributions of medical librarians by promoting Network member outreach projects. The National Library of Medicine has highlighted several noteworthy projects undertaken by medical librarians and has provided links to each region’s projects. Projects from the Pacific Southwest Region are:

Bilingual Asian Healthcare Website
Asian Healthcare Institute, Inc. (AHII)
San Francisco, CA
Project Director: Diana Lau
This is a pilot project aiming at the translation of ten articles on Heart Disease from the NLM MedlinePlus web site. The translated materials will be put online in four formats: bilingual English/Traditional Chinese, Bilingual English/Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese only, and Simplified Chinese only. These translations will be uploaded with simple graphics to AHII’s website, complete with optional voice narration of the text in three options: English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. The web page will also contain print option buttons in the same four language combination formats.

Health Promotion @ Your Library
California State Library (through North Bay Cooperative Library System), Sacramento, CA
Project Director: Suzanne Flint
The goal of this project, which targets public library users in California, was to assess current consumer health needs and trends within California and the role that public libraries are playing or could play in addressing those needs, and to develop a statewide strategic plan to support California public libraries in better meeting the health information needs of their communities. A Project Advisory Committee, consisting of project partners and key stakeholders, was formed to identify assessment strategies and design data collection tools. A survey of California public libraries was completed and consumer focus groups were conducted. Findings resulted in recommendations for a statewide strategic plan that were submitted to the California State Library at the end of the project period.

Consumer Health Training for Library School Students at Knowledge River
University of Arizona School of Information Resources & Library Science (SIRLS), Arizona Health Sciences Library, Tucson, AZ
Project Director: Jana Bradley
This part of the IMLS grant involved an intensive academic three-unit course curriculum designed to introduce concepts and skills related to providing consumer health information, with emphasis on Native American and Hispanic communities, to graduate library school students from Knowledge River. The Knowledge River Program is a center for the study of information resources and technology issues related to American Indians and Hispanics. The course methodology utilized a blend of in-person and distance instruction techniques. Various librarians from academic, hospital, and health sciences environments assisted with the instruction, and participated in a panel discussion of community involvement and library outreach projects. Course evaluation results indicated that the students understood the concepts and acquired the skills necessary to provide consumer health information to Native American and Hispanic communities and adolescents.

Kudos to everyone for a job well done!