Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

Quarterly Report: February - April, 2002

Training and continuing education

Feb 5: At the invitation of the library director at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, C. Burroughs conducted the full day evaluation workshop for UTHSCSA library staff and several librarians from other University of Texas campuses.

Mar 7: At the invitation of William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library, East Carolina University, C. Burroughs and M. Blake conducted the full day evaluation workshop for librarians and faculty at E. Carolina University.

Feb 26: C. Burroughs and M. Blake conducted the full day evaluation workshop for staff of the NN/LM MCR.

April 24: C. Burroughs conducted the full day evaluation workshop for the NN/LM PSR and several members of their network and their Regional Advisory Council.

Web site development

C. Burroughs continued planning meetings with Dr. Zoe Stavri, consultant, about developing a stand alone web-based toolkit for the evaluation guide on ways to develop useful research objectives and methodology for decision-based evaluation.

Consultation with Network members and NNO

C. Burroughs visited potential outreach sites of the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley Health Information Hispanic Outreach project. Meeting with several project staff for this project, Ms. Burroughs reviewed the outreach plans for the sites and met several contacts to be interviewed during the community assessment phase of the project.

C. Burroughs participated in the hiring process to identify and recruit an evaluation consultant for Tribal Connections Project, Phase 3 (TCP 3).

At the RML director's meeting on March 21 in Washington D.C., C. Burroughs gave a presentation and facilitated discussion about cross-regional evaluation of the NN/LM program. Based on this meeting, 2 areas of focus were identified for evaluation: outreach to public libraries and outreach to public health departments. Subsequently, C. Burroughs met by teleconference with Angela Ruffin and Betsy Humphries to plan a process for including the NN/LM staff in further refining the evaluation focus. Ms. Burroughs suggested asking each RML to submit up to 5 outcomes that might be evaluated to assess progress in outreach to public libraries and public health departments. These suggestions were compiled for an upcoming presentation at the May RML director's meeting in Dallas.

Assistance with analysis, synthesis, and reporting of evaluation results

No activity in this time period.

Communications and collaboration

C. Burroughs facilitated the organization and delivery of a virtual Web-based teleconference about community-based outreach for all NN/LM staff. R. Sahali and N. Press were co-presenters.

C. Burroughs continued to work with an NLM-funded consumer health project at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The project's target audience is seven immigrant and refugee communities in the Seattle area, Oromo, Somali, Ethiopian, Tigrean, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Latino. C. Burroughs attended a mid-project meeting with key contacts from each community and provided input about evaluation planning for the project.

Utilization and promotion of the evaluation guide.

NN/LM PNR continued to distribute the guide based on request.

Administrative

With Neil Rambo, C. Burroughs participated in a teleconference with staff from the Indiana University for the National Outreach Mapping Center.