In September, 2007, the National Library of Medicine made funding awards for the 14th round of AIDS Community Information Outreach Projects. Since the beginning of this program in 1994, NLM has continued its HIV/AIDS-related outreach efforts to community-based organizations, patient advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, state and local departments of health, and libraries, including public libraries. The program is designed to support local efforts for improving information access for HIV/AIDS patients and the affected community as well as their caregivers. Emphasis is on providing information or access in a way meaningful to the target community.

Thirteen projects were funded in 2007. Four of the projects were “Express Awards” which received funding up to $10,000; and the other nine projects were funded at the “Standard Award” level of up to $60,000. The following four projects based in the NN/LM PSR Region were funded; the first three are “Standard Awards” and the last project listed is an “Express Award”:

AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGiS) “Project Restore/Expanded Access II” (San Juan Capistrano, CA)

AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGiS) is a non-profit organization that was established in the 1980’s in response to the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, and continues to disseminate AIDS-related clinical information and late-breaking news to those in need and isolated by geographical location. The “Project Restore/Expanded Access” project plans to facilitate access to current patient/clinician information, specific to HIV/AIDS, via state-of-the-art technology and preserve a global history of the pandemic with AEGIS’s historical news and treatment database. The internet-based library has more than 1,000,000 documents that address the HIV/AIDS pandemic from 1981 to the present.

Family Health Centers of San Diego “Positive Connections Website Enhancement Project” (San Diego, CA)

The Family Health Centers of San Diego Positive Connections website enhancement project will focus on improving and increasing access to current HIV/AIDS care and treatment information and additional resource linkages through targeted efforts to HIV-positive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women residing in San Diego County. The project will utilize existing tools such as the Gay Men’s Health website and explore various social media channels in order to broaden the scope of the audience to include HIV positive individuals.

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning “Enhanced HIV/AIDS Prevention in the Pacific” (Honolulu, HI)

The purpose of this project is to provide librarians, educators, public health personnel, and other community members in the U.S.–affiliated Pacific with training on how to access and retrieve state–of–the–art HIV/AIDS–related information from tools appropriate to the U.S.–affiliated Pacific such as CD–ROMs, PubMed and EBSCO’s health databases. Training courses will be presented at the annual Pacific Educational Conference (PEC), the annual Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) Conference, meetings of the Pacific Islands Health Officers Association (PIHOA), and other appropriate venues. Pacific Resources for Education and Learning will also work with its network of partners to distribute resource materials via community–based organizations.

Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) “HIV Community Information Outreach Project” (Phoenix, AZ)

The goal of the Maricopa Integrated Health System’s (MIHS) HIV Community Information Outreach Project is to disseminate HIV/AIDS resource information to Maricopa County’s underserved HIV infected and affected population, and present HIV/AIDS information and resources in a culturally relevant and easy to understand format for low literacy populations. MIHS will develop an on-line tutorial instructing users how to access healthcare information on–line and empower them to take a more active role in their healthcare.

The entire list of 13 funded projects may be viewed at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/aidsprojs07.html. To see an overview of this funding program and a list of projects funded in previous years, please refer to:
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/aids_cio_projects.html.

These awards are issued annually. The request for quotations is announced every spring, with an application deadline following in June. If you are interested in pursuing this funding opportunity, now is not too early to begin consideration of project proposals and identifying potential collaborative partner organizations. If you have questions about the program or want to discuss potential project ideas, please let us know!