October 23rd. 1:00 CT

Join WebJunction for a one-hour free Community Webinar at WebJunction. In 1975 the United States began accepting large numbers of refugees in response to the Fall of Saigon. Over the next 33 years approximately 2.6 million refugees have been resettled in this country, and many of these individuals are now using our libraries. Guest presenter Valerie Wonder, Immigrant & Refugee Programs Manager at Seattle Public Library, will provide an overview of refugee resettlement in the United States including information on recent refugee populations. She will also highlight some successful approaches to serving refugees in public libraries. Before working for SPL, Valerie was the Community Programs Manager for the International Rescue Committee’s Seattle office where she specialized in refugee services. Registration information is available at http://tinyurl.com/5qzhuq

PHI2008–Envisioning Options for Integrated Public Health Information Systems for Low Resource Settings: Components, Connections, Partners, Strategies
September 18-19, 2008 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, WA, USA

This meeting will bring together individuals from across the world to discuss information and technology challenges and opportunities in global public health with a particular focus on resource-constrained settings. See: http://www.gpphi.org/conferences for more information.

“Author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie headlined the Many Voices, Many Nations program June 27 at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, following nine other speakers of Native American origin. This recap of the event showcases the literature, poetry, song, and humor delivered by Alexie, master of ceremonies José A. Aponte of the San Diego County Library, and speakers Francisco X. Alarcón, Arigon Starr, Gordon Johnson, Kristy Orona-Ramirez, ALA President Loriene Roy, Tim Tingle, Jorge Tetl Argueta, Janice Gould, and Erika T. Wurth.” View a six minute video of this program at: http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/many-voices-many-nations [posted on the American Indian Library Assoication listserv]

The Health Blogosphere: What It Means for Policy Debates and Journalism
Kaiser Family Foundation
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=2847
This event discussed the growing influence of blogs on health news and policy debates. The briefing highlighted how the traditional health policy world has embraced blogging and featured a keynote address by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, the first cabinet officer to author an official blog. It was followed by a moderated discussion with a variety of health policy bloggers and a media analyst. [posted on Kaiser Family Foundation email]

Us Department of HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt’s blog http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/

Libraries for the Future has launched a new website that showcases diverse, updated views of aging as part of the Age in America project, an exciting museum-library collaboration. http://www.ageinamerica.org/ [posted on LFF Innovation—August 2008]

Many public health departments seek to improve their capability to respond to large-scale events such as an influenza pandemic. But could quality improvement (QI) methods offer a promising model for improving public health preparedness? For this study, the authors developed and tested a pilot QI learning collaborative and concluded that QI may be useful for improving preparedness and public health performance overall. RWJF supported the Web exclusive presentation of this study in the journal Health Affairs. Read more at http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=32691&c=EMC-ADV Open the publication by clicking on the “View” button in the middle of the page. [posted on RWJF Advances e-Newsletter]

Addressing Health Care Disparities by Ensuring Language Access to All
October 10-12, 2008
Boston, MA
http://www.imiaweb.org/conferences/default.asp [posted on CLAStalk-list]

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer
Alamance County has been identifying and deporting illegal immigrants from its jails for more than a year, but now a librarian’s arrest has some worried that county officials may be using another tool — public health department medical records.
For the complete story … http://www.newsobserver.com/news/immigration/story/1158853.html [posted on REFORMANET listserv]

From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Publications and Research section http://www.rwjf.org/pr/digest.jsp?id=8256&topicid=1180

Culturally Sensitive Health Education Improves Diabetes Outcomes, Study Suggests
A study published recently in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews suggests that culturally sensitive diabetes education can help to improve short-term clinical outcomes for minority patients with type 2 diabetes, Reuters reports. Led by a team of researchers from Cardiff University in Wales, the study is based on an analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of culturally tailored diabetes education against standard diabetes care. The studies included 1,603 minority patients ages 16 and older from middle- or high-income nations. According to the analysis, patients receiving culturally sensitive diabetes education reported clinically significant improvements in glycemic control at three months and six months, while patients in the standard care group reported no change. In addition, participants in the culturally tailored intervention group displayed increased understanding of diabetes and healthy lifestyles for a full year following the intervention. However, the researchers note that there was no improvement in other clinical measures, including cholesterol, blood pressure or weight, or in quality of life among patients in either group. Based on the analysis, the researchers conclude that culturally appropriate health education more effectively improves short-term clinical diabetes outcomes, as well as patients’ knowledge of the disease, than standard care. Although the researchers note that further evaluations are needed to determine the long-term effects of such interventions, they state that the findings offer evidence that health education programs are more effective when they consider religious, social and cultural preferences and values (Hendry, Reuters, 7/21/08; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 7/16/08
http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD006424/frame.html )

American Heritage Preservation Grants will be awarded in amounts up to $3,000 to assist in the preservation of endangered and fragile American art works, rare books, scientific specimens, and historical documents (photographs, maps, deeds, etc.). Objects should be of significance within the heritage of the community. Targeted to meet the needs of small to medium size organizations, these grants are available to fully fund projects in three areas: treatment of library, museum or archival collections; improvement of collections storage; and environmental improvement of collections.
Within the $3,000 grant limit, CCAHA can provide:
* Conservation treatment to stabilize one or more paper-based or photographic item in your collection.
* Rebinding and repair of historically significant books.
* Rematting and reframing of paper-based or photographic items.
* Mounting or remounting paper-based or photographic objects for display.
* Training of staff for rehousing projects.
* Assistance in purchasing appropriate environmental monitoring equipment.
Applications must be submitted by September 15, 2008. The official IMLS guidelines can be found at: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/grants/pdf/AHPG_2008.pdf