We are excited to announce another round of funding from the NN/LM PNR to support purchase, installation, and/or upgrading of hardware and software to enhance access to health information.

Up to three (3) awards of up to $5,000 each are available to NN/LM member organizations in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The purpose of these awards is to enhance the capacity of a library or organization to offer electronic health information services for health professionals or health consumers.

This funding can be used for:

• computer equipment, scanning or document imaging equipment, or other hardware
• software for Internet or Web-based transmission of documents
• Internet access fees
• trainings or demonstrations related to a new information service

Applications from community-based organizations are especially welcome.

A spring 2007 assessment of libraries in the Pacific Northwest revealed a number of technology and connectivity gaps including the need for wireless Internet access, facilities for computer-based instruction, document delivery equipment, and other hardware and software upgrades. This funding is intended to help libraries and other member organizations to meet those needs. We hope that this funding can also provide an opportunity for network members to collaborate with their institutional Information Technology personnel. In the fall of 2009, we were pleased to award technology improvement project funding to three network member organizations. Those projects are currently underway.

We aim for recipients of these awards to be distributed across our five state region. Priority will be given to proposals that:

1. Respond to a previously identified health information access need

2. Have active support of the institution’s information technology staff

3. Include a clear strategy for evaluating project outcomes

Consideration of requests for funding will begin on May 13, 2009. Proposals should be submitted using the Technology Improvement Awards Application form .

For additional information, see the official funding announcement or contact Alison Aldrich, NN/LM PNR Technology Outreach Coordinator, at aldrich3@u.washington.edu , 1-800-338-7657.

For every successful blog, wiki, or social networking attempt, there are many abandoned projects. During the ACRL Virtual Conference last weekend, Meredith Farkas shared some great points about why Web 2.0 projects in libraries fail and what can be learned from those failures.

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Congratulations to Kootenai Medical Center, Northern Rockies Rural Health Clinic, and Bastyr University. These three network member organizations were recently awarded funding  for technology improvement projects. Read on to learn more about their exciting plans.

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Web Tools Training for Rural Oregon Health and Social Service Professionals
By Laura Kuperstein
Oregon SafeNet Program Manager

A year ago I received funding from NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region’s Express Outreach Award to train health and social service professionals on four websites- Oregon SafeNet, MedlinePlus, Oregon Helps and the Beehive - and to give information about Oregon SafeNet, our statewide maternal and child health line. My proposal was to partner with the Oregon Child Development Coalition, an agency that provides Head Start and child care to 3500 primarily Hispanic children in mostly rural areas of Oregon.

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It depends on how you look at it.

If you’ve been around for a while (since before 2004 or thereabouts) you may recognize the name, if not the older face. If you are newer than that, then allow me to introduce myself: I’m Neil Rambo, acting director of the University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries and acting director of the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region. I assumed this role at the beginning of September upon the resignation of Sherrilynne Fuller after 20 years of groundbreaking leadership. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve in this capacity.

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NN/LM PNR is pleased to announce this year’s round of funding to support implementation of Go Local in the Pacific Northwest. The MedlinePlus Go Local project links MedlinePlus users to health services in their local community related to the health topic they are researching. Conversely, the project also directs users of the Go Local site to MedlinePlus health topics. For example, users get medical information on diabetes from MedlinePlus and then visit a Go Local site for nearby health programs, services, and providers.

The end user experience for Go Local is that each MedlinePlus health topic links to relevant local services on the Go Local site. Go Local sites receive this user traffic from each MedlinePlus health topic and route it to a page listing matching Go Local records or to a page explaining that the site contains no matching local services. To see how these links work, choose a Go Local area from the pull-down list or map link on any MedlinePlus health topic page.

To see the full funding announcement and call for submissions, please visit - http://nnlm.gov/pnr/funding/golocal-2008.html

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