Network members wishing to add a library service or program or are considering applying for a subcontract with the GMR (See http://nnlm.gov/gmr/funding/ for Funding information), might benefit from assistance in the areas of planning and evaluation. GMR evaluation services are provided in consultation with the Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

The GMR has recently launched an Evaluation page, located at the following address: http://nnlm.gov/gmr/member/evaluation/. Read the rest of this entry »

Outreach Connections is a Native health information wiki available at the following URL: http://native.outreachconnect.info/. Described as a participatory network, this wiki is designed to serve as a collaborative space:

• for those who work with health care providers serving Native peoples (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians),
• for those who work with Native health information consumers,
• to improve health information access for Native peoples,
• to exchange information from health information promotion and training experiences, and
• to complement sites already focused on health information for Native peoples.

Librarians, patient educators, and others who provide health information to Native peoples and their caregivers are invited to contribute project to the wiki. Projects that are currently listed may be browsed by title. For those who have never used a wiki before, a link to a tutorial is available on the main page.

“Survival Tips and Stories: Expanding the Library’s Services in Times of Disaster,” the MLA webcast that originally aired on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, is now available for checkout via the GMR Lending Library.

You can do a search by title, or just the keyword of “disaster.”  It will come up as one of the results.  We currently own two copies of this item.  You can earn 2 MLA CE credits by viewing this DVD, reading the participant’s manual, and most importantly, submitting the evaluation back to us here at the GMR.  We will then notify MLA that you have viewed the webcast and you will receive 2 credits.

Anyone that is a member can obtain a user id and password to check out items.

Christopher Childs
Education & Outreach Librarian
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
University of Iowa

Since August of 2007, the staff at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa have been working on getting our Iowa Go Local project completed for the public unveiling at the Iowa State Fair on August 11th, 2008. I started working at Hardin at the end of February of 2008 and part of my responsibilities as the community outreach liaison, is to promote Iowa Go Local across the state. I wrote an article for the Fall 2008 issue of MIDLINE, the newsletter of the Midwest Chapter, Medical Library Association, to talk about my experiences working on this project. This article gives the reader a recap of the history of the project, including its challenges and an account of the promotional activities that continue today.

The link to MIDLINE is http://midwestmla.org/midline/

Visit Iowa Go Local at http://www.medlineplus.gov/iowa

Mary J Markland MA, AHIP
SE Clinical Campus Librarian
University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Fargo, ND

The Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota has been seeking new venues for consumer outreach. Traditionally we have focused our outreach program on health professionals with a few smaller health fairs or public library events thrown in. After teaching a continuing education session at the Fargo Public Library, I realized that we needed to get out and talk about MedlinePlus and the other NLM consumer resources. With our Go Local North Dakota project reaching completion, it seemed like the perfect time to try a bigger consumer event. The Women’s Showcase 2008 was a great opportunity that was geographically convenient and had a wide variety of exhibitors.
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The Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) is now accepting applications for the 12th Annual Patty Iron Cloud National Native American Youth Initiative which will be held in Washington D.C., June 20 - 28, 2009. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) high school students, ages 16- 18, who have an interest in the health careers and/or biomedical research are encouraged to apply. Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa Massengale, Assistant Information Services Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago Library of the Health Sciences (LHS), took her outreach to a new dimension as a presenter on WILL-AM 580, Public Media Broadcasting Service of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. The interview was broadcast on Focus 580 with David Inge, on October 20, 2008, but is available in podcast format from the Focus 580 website: http://will.illinois.edu/focus580/interview/focus081020b/.

Lisa is the librarian working with Heartland Health Outreach on the New American Health Information Portal, a project funded through the GMR. Listen to Lisa and Susannah Fox, Associate Director, Editorial, Pew Internet & American Life Project, on Health Information Online: Sorting Out the Good from the Bad, and Who Uses It.

Have I mentioned to you lately that the GMR has a Lending Library? Max chuckles softly to himself.

Anyway.  I wanted to let you all know about some continuing education opportunities - you can even do them in your pajamas if you want!

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Or is it?

Many hospital libraries I have spoken with since I arrived on the scene here at the GMR have told me of difficulties in accessing social software tools like blogs, wikis and instant messaging.  The IS/IT departments say they have no staff to deal with any extra software or possible technology troubleshooting that might be required as result of access to some of these tools.

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The Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) is pleased to announce the launch of The New Americans Health Information Portal (NAHIP).

http://palantir.lib.uic.edu/nahip/

This portal is a collaboration with the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. Our new portal links to a variety of quality multi-lingual health education documents. Languages include: Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Chinese, Croatian, French, Haitian Creole, Karen, Khmer, Lao, Russian, Somali, Swahili, Thai, Tigrina and Vietnamese.

We hope this site is useful and welcome feedback. For comments on website: lmassen1 at uic.edu

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago.