The Medical Library Association (MLA), under contract and working with the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (NLM), is looking for eight hospital-based libraries to pilot a new Health Information Literacy (HIL) Curriculum designed to increase health care provider knowledge of health information literacy issues, increase patient and provider use of NLM and other consumer resources, and promote the role of librarians as key providers of health information literacy resources and support.

To become a pilot site, the hospital-based library can be of any size and type, and serve any geographic area. Interested libraries must submit an application form and letter of commitment from their hospital administration documenting organizational commitment to long-term delivery of consumer health information services, via email by January 7, 2008 to Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, Project Coordinator at sabrina_kurtz-rossi@comcast.net. See the Pilot Training Selection Criteria document for a description of the selection criteria, training site expectations, and the support that training sites will receive from the project.

All applicants will be notified of their selection status by January 30, 2008. If you have any questions about this call for pilot training sites, please contact Ms. Kurtz-Rossi via email.

Adapted from the original press release: http://www.mlanet.org/resources/healthlit/hil_pilot.html

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the American Association of State and Local History, are offering 2,000 free copies of the Connecting to Collections Bookshelf, a set of books, DVDs, guide to online resources and an annotated bibliography of all the materials. The Connecting to Collections Bookshelf is intended to provide small and medium libraries with resources to improve their collections. The Bookshelf contains items from topics such as preservation of museum and libraries, managing of collections, archival care of photographs, historic houses, wildlife conservation and zoo and wild animal medicine. A complete list of items on the bookshelf is available at: http://www.aaslh.org/Bookshelf/documents/Bookshelfbibliography3.pdf

For more information on the program: http://www.aaslh.org/Bookshelf/

The application period for the program is: March 1, 2008 - April 15, 2008

The NN/LM SCR will be offering Getting the Best from DOCLINE 3 at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library, 1:30pm - 4:30pm on February 7, 2008.

Course Description: Attendees will learn how to use the features of DOCLINE effectively. Instruction will include how to properly input and maintain their institution’s record and serial holdings, search for and request materials, and fill other libraries requests. Additional topics include DOCLINE upgrades, reports, Loansome Doc and EFTS.

Upon successful completion of the class, each participant will receive 3 hours of continuing education credit awarded by the Medical Library Association (MLA).

To register: http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/register.html

These classes are free and open to anyone.

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Bulow at karen.bulow@exch.library.tmc.edu or 1-800-338-7657.

The National Training Center and Clearinghouse will be teaching Introduction to Molecular Biology Information Resources at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, January 9-11, 2008. This class is only taught by National Library of Medicine/ National Center for Biotechnology Information personnel.

This three-day course provides an introduction to four domains of information generated by the field of molecular biology:

Nucleotide Sequences
Protein Sequences
Three-Dimensional Structures
Complete Genomes and Maps

An overview of search systems available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), with particular focus on Entrez, emphasizes how your current search skills apply to molecular biology databases. The course also introduces more technical search systems, including BLAST and Map Viewer, as well as the Cn3D viewer for three-dimensional protein structures. The course format combines lecture, demonstration, and hands-on experience, and concludes with a discussion of various levels of molecular biology information services provided by librarians. Introduction to Molecular Biology Information Resources is a free class and is awarded 20 MLA continuing education credits.

A separate Field Guide Course is specifically designed for Principal Investigators, Postdoctoral Fellows, Graduate and Advanced Undergraduate Students and others in the life sciences who work with biological sequence data. For a description of the Field Guide and a list of upcoming classes, please click on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/FieldGuide.

To register: http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/register.html

Congratulations to Jeffrey Huber at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC) Library, the recipient of the 2007-2008 Access to Electronic Consumer Health Information Award! The project, South Central Houston Community Health Information Center, will facilitate access to electronic consumer health information at the South Central Houston Community Health Center’s Riverside Clinic facility, a location which provides preventive and primary care services to medically underserved communities in the southeast area of Houston.

This will be a collaborative project between the HAM-TMC Library and the South Central Houston Community Health Center. The goal of the program is to create an Internet-connected health information center with ten workstations at the Riverside Clinic facility and to provide training regarding use of electronic health information resources to both clinic staff members and clinic clientele.

World AIDS Day is December 1st, 2007. Established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988, the goal of World AIDS Day is to increase awareness and to focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has established a World AIDS Day website that contains a variety of resources such as fact sheets, websites and customizable posters designed to assist organizations to raise awareness and mobilize local communities in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has numerous HIV/AIDS health information resources including:

• HIV AIDS Information from NLM’s Specialized Information Services division, a comprehensive HIV/AIDS information portal that contains links to resources including treatment and drug information, diagnosis and testing, statistics and vaccine development
• AIDSinfo, a website that offers the latest federally approved information on HIV/AIDS clinical research, treatment and prevention, and medical practice guidelines for people living with HIV/AIDS, their families and friends, health care providers, scientists, and researchers. A Spanish mirror site InfoSIDA is also available
• MedlinePlus: AIDS, with links to information on the latest news, diagnosis, prevention, therapy, disease management, clinical trials and much more.

For more information on the World AIDS Day campaign and activities around the world, see: http://www.worldaidscampaign.info/

The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce that it is working with WGBH Boston on the upcoming national outreach campaign for the film “The Truth About Cancer,” which will air on PBS in April 2008. The 90-minute documentary film, followed by a 30-minute expert panel, will be the launching pad for events and projects across the country focused on creating community conversations around cancer survivorship.

In conjunction with the film, WGBH is offering 15 grants to public television stations across the country (awardees will be announced December 21st, 2007). These grants will support creative projects incorporating the use of media, art and the web in portraying the idea of survivorship. Stations applying for grants will be strongly encouraged to pair with the local branches of the national partners for this campaign: National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), Susan G. Komen for the Cure, John Wayne Cancer Foundation, Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups, along with the YMCA of the USA and the American Library Association.

ALA and WGBH encourage libraries to reach out to their local PBS stations to collaborate with them on events surrounding this film. WGBH will offer extensive resources for outreach events including DVD screeners of the film, posters, and downloadable handouts on their website. More information on how to request these materials will be available in February 2008.

This collaboration will provide an excellent opportunity for libraries to develop new - or strengthen existing - community partnerships, while offering a valuable service to their communities. For more information on this campaign please contact Elizabeth Cohen, in Educational Outreach at WGBH, at Elizabeth_cohen@wgbh.org or 617-300-3885. This collaborative project with WGBH is administered by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of ALA.

Health issues are a vital concern for older adults, and surveys show that most of those who go online search for health and medical information. However, since only 34 percent of people age 65 and older are online, the majority of older adults are missing out on valuable health information. To broaden the numbers of older adults able to search for and find reliable health information online, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has developed a free training curriculum for those who teach and work with older adults. This Toolkit for Trainers is now available on http://NIHSeniorHealth.gov, a senior-friendly website developed by the NIA and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (more…)

by Cathy Montoya, MLS (AHIP), Director – Education Resource Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Through funding from the NN/LM SCR Professional Development Award, I attended the Blackboard World conference – 2007 in Boston July 10 – 12. This conference represents some of the states’ most wired colleges and universities as well as institutions from other nations. For the first time, Blackboard integrated its foreign users with state-side clients. The conference offers clients of Blackboard and its new acquisition, WEBCT, an opportunity to be exposed to innovative ideas and best practices in the rapidly growing technology of electronic course management. About 2500 people were in attendance, representing 18 countries. Blackboard was also celebrating its 10th year. Ten years does not seem like a lengthy history; however in the competitive environment of electronic course management, it is a significant milestone. (more…)

The National Minority AIDS Council and the National Institutes of Health, Office of AIDS Research recently announced the 2008 Equal Access Initiative Computer Grants Program. This grant program provides computer equipment/software and training to community-based organizations interested in providing HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention education programming for their clients.

One hundred (100) organizations will be selected to participate in this program. Selected participants will receive:

• a wireless ready computer complete with Microsoft Office software;
• funding for one representative to attend the Equal Access Initiative: HIV/AIDS Information Resources from the National Library of Medicine training held September 18-19, 2008 at the United States Conference on AIDS in Miami, Florida.

Deadline for applying: February 7, 2008.

For more information on the grant program: http://www.nmac.org/programs___services/Computer_Grants_Program/

For information on the United States Conference on AIDS: http://nmac.org/conferences___trainings/USCA/2008_USCA/