The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce our newest website, AIDS Ephemera, based on an exhibit of that name at the NLM from November 2002 to June 2003.AIDS was first identified in 1981 and the initial response to the disease generated ephemeral public health materials, such as buttons, posters, cards, comic books, and even lunch boxes.  Since AIDS was both incurable and invariably fatal, these messages of prevention were the only effective steps public health officials could take.

Produced by government health departments as well as private organizations, these ephemeral objects became an important medium for messages of awareness, prevention, compassion, and responsibility.  Buttons and posters provided information on disease symptoms and safe practices, while comic books spun tales of the consequences of risky sex and needle sharing.

The materials for this website are drawn from the NLM’s Prints & Photographs collection.  Many donors contributed these materials—we wish to take special note of the contributions of William H. Helfand, who, as a consultant to the Library, organized and carried out a project to secure AIDS posters from the many agencies and organizations that were producing and distributing them in the 1980s and ’90s.

Please visit the site at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aidsephemera

Summary report of the Regional Hearing held on May 14, 2008, New York, NY

On May 14, 2008, almost 300 registrants from throughout the Health and Human Services (HHS) Regions 1 and II participated in a public hearing on the Healthy People 2020. Participants were invited to provide feedback on the draft vision, mission, overarching goals, and framework proposed for the upcoming 2020 national health targets. Healthy People 2020 will be launched by January 2010, with six regional meetings scheduled throughout the United States during 2008, public input and comments solicited through 2009. Reportedly, it will be released in two phases: the framework (vision, mission, goals, focus areas, and criteria for selecting and prioritizing goals) and the final objectives (with criteria for selecting and prioritizing the objectives).

The Healthy People objectives totaled 226 in 1990 and have grown to 467 in 2010, with 1000 sub-objectives. The strengths are the collaboration underlying the process, the wide array of areas included, and the fact that the objectives are data-driven with measurable targets. Recommendations for the 2020 version include the following. First, objectives should be limited to no more than 150 and no more than 15 target areas. Second, the primary focus should be on risk factors and determinants of health, with secondary focus on diseases and disorders. It should also emphasize public health priorities adding a focus on health information technology (IT), preparedness; and primary care emphasis should continue. Finally, all objectives should be scientifically valid and sustainable.

The draft recommendations from the thirteen member advisory committee of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020 are available at: http://www.dhss.mo.gov/fridayfacts/DraftCommitteeRecommendations.pdf

The vision statement for Healthy People 2020 is: A society in which [all] people can live long, healthy lives. One of the first public comments asked why the word all did not appear in the draft vision; participants were assured that this was an inadvertent omission and, in fact, was part of the draft vision. The HP2020 mission includes

• Increase public awareness and understanding of the underlying causes of health, disease and disability;
• Improve results by providing priorities, measurable goals and objectives, and guidance on effective strategies and tactics;
• Catalyze action using best available evidence to improve policy and practice;
• Identify research and measurement priorities for improving the evidence base.

The draft goals are limited to four:

1. Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities and improve health of all groups;

2. Eliminate preventable disease, disability, injury and premature death;

3. Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all;

4. Promote healthy development and healthy behaviors across every stage of life.

Everyone was/is encouraged to submit written comments via the Internet at http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/comments/

Summary report submitted by Diana Cunningham, MLS, MPH, AHIP, Associate Dean and Director, Health Sciences Library, New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y. 10595 (Diana_cunningham@nymc.edu).

A new version of TOXMAP (http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov) was released August 7. This version includes:
More search options: Users can now search TOXMAP by Chemical Abstracts Service/Registry Number (CAS/RN), Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facility name/ID, release medium, release year ranges, release amount, Superfund (NPL) site name/ID, and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score.

Geographic regions: Users can create their own geographic region, or select a pre-defined region from a menu. Setting a geographic region limits search results to those inside the specified region. Regions can be saved for future access.

Regional TRI summary tables: Users can view summary (aggregate) TRI release amounts for their geographic region.
Updated and expanded glossary and FAQs.

TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Program.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), for the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is pleased to announce that the Health Sciences Library of New York Medical College received an Outreach Conference Award for the conference, Health Literacy: Tools for Improving Health Communications.

The conference, Health Literacy: Tools for Improving Health Communications, will be held May 30^th at New York Medical College. The conference, co-sponsored by New York Medical College’s Health Sciences Library, School of Public Health and the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association (NorMet), features sessions on the interaction of health literacy from an individual and system point of view; the implementation of the Joint Commission Requirements related to the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate health care and as a guest speaker includes Sabrina Kurtz-Ross, MEd, the MLA Health Information Literacy Research Project Coordinator and Adjunct Clinical Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine.

Registration is $10, with a May 25, 2007 registration deadline.

The Conference will be held at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY.

From Ship to Shore…

Tox Town’s New Port Scene Delivers the Goods on Coastal Environmental Health

What do longshoremen, sunbathers, ship crews, and shrimp lovers have in common? Whether they live on the coast, work in a maritime industry or play on the beach, they can find information about the environment and how it might affect their health at Tox Town’s new Port neighborhood. This imaginary port illustrates drinking water and air quality concerns along with wastewater treatment, shellfish safety, work hazards, sun and surf safety, aquaculture and many other topics. The port also highlights possible locations and descriptions of 26 hazardous chemicals.

Tox Town, http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov, uses neighborhood scenes - the Port, City, Town, Farm, and US-Mexico Border region - along with color, graphics, sounds and animation to add interest to learning about connections between chemicals, the environment and the public’s health. Each scene focuses on unique environmental health concerns. There are 16 new locations to explore in the Port: beaches, shipyards, algae blooms, coastal brownfields, fuel tanks and pipelines, shipping centers, cruise ships, marinas, nuclear power plants, shellfishing, fish farms, storms and floods, urban and industrial runoff, septic systems, cesspools, and wastewater treatment facilities.

Tox Town’s target audience is the interested public, plus high school, college and graduate students, and educators (see the link on the home page For teachers). Tox Town also has a growing number of resources en español.

Librarians interested in promoting classroom use of Tox Town and other National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources may find these useful:

Resources for Science Teachers – Classroom Resources from NLM. Introduces NLM web resources useful in Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Earth Science, and Environmental Science courses. Also includes resources on the history of medicine, information on health careers, and Spanish-language resources.

• 38 PowerPoint slides with script
• Color handout, one page, double sided
• Trifold brochure

Tox Town

• 27 PowerPoint slides with script introducing Tox Town to teachers and students
• Video and transcript for a general audience. This 2-minute video file is 20 megabytes and uses Windows Media Player.

Tox Town® is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Promotional materials and Tox Town images for Web sites and publications are listed at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/clipart.html. Please send your comments or questions on Tox Town to tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.

The New York Academy of Medicine / National Library of Medicine Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness provides access to more than 1600 electronic publications related to public health preparedness.

The Current Awareness Update for March 2006, listing newly added resources to the database, is now available at: http://www.phpreparedness.info/update.php

For full database records, including annotations or to search this content by subject area, see: http://www.phpreparedness.info

The New York Academy of Medicine / National Library of Medicine Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness provides access to more than 1550 electronic publications related to public health preparedness.   The March Current Awareness Update listing newly added resources to the database is now available at: http://www.phpreparedness.info/update.php

For full database records, including annotations or to search this content by subject area, please visit: http://www.phpreparedness.info

The CDC is requesting public comments on the agency’s first research agenda, which sets research priorities for the CDC through the year 2015. The public comment period ends on January 15th.

Please visit http://www.cdc.gov/od/ophr/cdcra.htm to view the report.

The National Library of Medicine, in collaboration with the University of Michigan Public Health Library & Informatics Division and Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, announces the release of the Public Health Information and Data Tutorial. This online tutorial, at http://phpartners.org/tutorial/, is a new tool designed to help the public health workforce effectively locate and use health information.