Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

Quarterly Report: August - October, 2005

Training and continuing education

Susan Barnes and Aron Beal presented an overview of the PubMed/MedlinePlus Followup Survey and the survey results browser to RML staff via Macromedia Breeze at an all-RML teleconference on 9/14/05. The survey will be administered for the duration of Year 5 of the 2001-2006 NN/LM Contract.

Susan Barnes and Maryanne Blake taught the full-day “Measuring Your Impact” class in Fargo, North Dakota, on 9/16/05, at the Midwest Chapter, MLA autumn meeting.

Consultation with Network members and NNO

Discussions regarding end-of-contract reports to be compiled by the OERC began with NNO.

Assistance with analysis, synthesis, and reporting of evaluation results

Aron Beal completed the PubMed/MedlinePlus Followup Survey results browser and created extensive documentation on the NN/LM StaffWiki to support its use.

Communications and collaboration

Susan Barnes completed sections of the NN/LM StaffWiki that provide history and overviews of the Public Health and Public Library Outreach Initiatives and of the PubMed/MedlinePlus Followup Survey.

Susan Barnes served on the planning committee for the Medical Library Association Institute on Designing Web-Based Continuing Education, which is funded by NN/LM Greater Midwest Region.

Susan Barnes began service as a participant in the Web-STOC-NN/LM Usability Evaluation and Review project.

Susan Barnes provided feedback to Claire Hamasu regarding a survey for participants in the Tribal Connections Four Corners collaboration.

Utilization and promotion of the evaluation guide

Cindy Olney traveled to Seattle to spend three days working with Susan Barnes on the “Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach Projects Series”—three booklets that condense and update the “Measuring the Difference” guide. Planning for a new workshop based on these booklets also began.

Aaron Kuhns, student assistant, upgraded the online version of “Measuring the Difference” to provide improved navigability.

Administration

Susan Barnes attended orientation at the National Library of Medicine, since she recently began a new position.

To increase her expertise in various areas of program evaluation, Ms Barnes attended the American Evaluation Association national conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (October, 2005) and completed two continuing education courses: a two-day course on qualitative research and a half-day workshop on empowerment evaluation methods.

With Maryanne Blake's guidance, the OERC initiated a subscription to the SurveyMonkey web-based questionnaire software for use by RML staff in all 8 regions