Older Adults and Health Information

Do you provide consumer health services and resources in your library? Specifically, are you providing health information to seniors? Many older adults are interested in finding health information on their own, but they may lack the necessary computer or Internet searching skills. If you have ever wanted to provide training to this user group, read on for some exciting news! (more…)

On May 7, 2008, a new feature became available on MedlinePlus, which provides access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. The new service benefits people who prefer to read health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them. The collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. (more…)

This fall is a busy time for consumer health activities, especially state library association conferences! (more…)

We are pleased to announce “Health e-Shows”, a new webcast series developed by Kelli Ham, NN/LM PSR Consumer Health Coordinator, in collaboration with Infopeople. Kelli will be presenting consumer health topics every other month that will be timely and relevant for anyone who provides health information to patients or the public. October 22nd marks the launch of the series with the webcast “A Younger Generation of Older Adults: Health Information for Boomers”. Please join us if you can! (more…)

Editor’s Note: We have extracted and reprinted the following article about health literacy from SEA Currents, the newsletter of the NN/LM Southeastern/Atlantic Region. We acknowledge the author of this article, Beth Wescott, and recognize her for receiving the MLA President’s Award at the 2007 MLA meeting for her exceptional work in health information literacy. (more…)

In June 2007, Kay Deeney and Kelli Ham went off to the wilds of Tucson, Arizona, to teach a course in the School of Information Resources & Library Science (SIRLS) at the University of Arizona called, Consumer Health in Diverse Cultures & Communities. (more…)

Usability studies identified several areas for improvement in the old design of Health Topic pages. Recommendations included adding a summary of the topic, better navigation, making the page visually appealing, and creating subcategories to aid in finding specific information. The team at MedlinePlus recently unveiled the new design for individual Health Topic pages. If you haven’t had a chance to see the new features, here is a quick guide. (more…)

NIH MedlinePlus Magazine is a new quarterly publication which brings the latest and most authoritative information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to patients and their families and to other health care consumers. Free PDF copies of each issue may be directly downloaded to a desktop computer from the web site or free mail subscriptions are available. Issues typically run about 30 pages, and many articles feature prominent links to the MedlinePlus web site for additional information. (more…)

In September, 2006, Nevada became the 18th MedlinePlus Go Local site with the debut of NevadaHealthNet.org, providing residents of the Silver State with a reliable, fast and user-friendly internet database to locate health information, as well as health services, providers, and other resources in their communities. There are about 2200 listings included in Nevada HealthNet, and the project team will continue to accept suggestions for additions or other changes to the database. Suggestions may be made with an online form available through the “Contact Us” link. Nevada joins Arizona as the second state in the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region to successfully launch a Go Local site. (more…)

On May 3, 2006, NCLIS (U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, an agency of the Federal government) sponsored the 2006 Libraries and Health Information Forum at the National Library of Medicine. The purpose of the day-long forum, organized by the staff of NCLIS and the National Library of Medicine, was to bring together the representatives of the ten libraries that were finalists for the 2006 Health Information Awards for Libraries as well as others interested in consumer health information.

(more…)