The Health Literacy of America’s Adults is the first release of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) health literacy results. The results are based on assessment tasks designed specifically to measure the health literacy of adults living in the United States.

Some findings were:

• a majority of adults had intermediate health literacy
• over 75 million adults combined had basic or below basic health literacy
• the average health literacy score for women was 6 points higher than that of men
• adults aged 65 and older have lower health literacy scores than younger age groups

For more information, go to the National Center for Education Statistics website:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006483

Many state-run health department Web sites are written above the average U.S. resident’s comprehension level and are inaccessible to people who have disabilities and non-English speakers, according to a study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Brown University researchers looked at the accessibility, privacy and security of public, state-run Web sites during the last two to five years. They used content analysis to determine readability levels, disability and non-English accessibility, and the existence of privacy and security statements.

The NN/LM SCR will present two Consumer Health classes at the Dallas Public Library in September. These classes are all approved by the Medical Library Association for eligibility in the Consumer Health Information Specialization program (http://mlanet.org/education/chc/index.html). See below for descriptions of the classes.

September 13, 2006: ¿No Comprende? Spanish Health Information Resources for English Speaking Librarians
8am to 12 pm 

September 14, 2006: Will Duct Tape Cure my Warts? Examining Complementary and Alternative Medicine
8am to 12pm

Dallas Public Library
1515 Young St.
Dallas, TX 75201

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

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Will hospital librarian Jan Marlowe marry the new Ophthalmic Surgeon, or will she be with the rich playboy patient? It’s a 1950s Harlequin romance, but the Canadian Health Libraries Association is using the cover illustration as a fundraiser.

http://www.chla-absc.ca/news/hl.html

The NN/LM SCR announces four new funding opportunities. Deadline to apply for all Awards: November 15, 2006. To see all funding opportunities, go to http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/fundopp.html

Access to Electronic Consumer Health Information:
Amount of funding: one (1) award up to $25,000
This award will focus on projects designed to improve access to electronic consumer health information. The proposed projects may target individuals and organizations providing health information to the public, as well as targeting the public directly. Potential projects include: demonstrating and teaching the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, PHpartners.org, additional NLM databases, and other sources to obtain health information; and promoting awareness of relevant health information resources at the regional, state, and local level.
This award requires a formal proposal.
More information is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/aechi8-06.html

Express Outreach Award
Amount of funding: eleven (11) projects up to $5,000 each will be awarded
The purpose of this award is to support a wide range of outreach projects aimed at improving access to and use of the National Library of Medicine’s databases. Proposed Outreach Projects may target: underserved or unaffiliated healthcare professionals, public libraries, public health workers and/or the general public. This Call for Applications replaces the separate Express Consumer Health, Express Public Health and Express Outreach Calls advertised in the 2001-2006 RML Contract.
More information on the award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/exp_outreach8-06.html
An application for the Express Outreach Award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/exp_outreach8-06app.html

Information Access Improvement Project Award (IAIP):
Amount of funding: five (5) projects up to $5,000 each will be awarded
The purpose of the IAIP Award is to provide an opportunity to Network members interested in improving access to Internet-based health information including NLM products and services. Funds may be requested for items including: computer equipment, software and Internet Service Provider fees.
More information on the award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/iaip8-06.html
An application for the IAIP award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/iaip8-06app.html

Professional Development Award:
Amount of funding: five (5) projects up to $1,000 each will be awarded. This award is intended to cover the costs of professional development courses such as registration fees and travel expenses (airfare, hotel, per diem, etc.).
More information on the award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/pda8-06.html
An application for the Professional Development Award is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/pda8-06app.html

For further information, contact:

Michelle Malizia
Public Health Outreach Coordinator
michelle.malizia@exch.library.tmc.edu
Or
Karen Vargas
Consumer Health Outreach Coordinator
karen.vargas@exch.library.tmc.edu

NN/LM SCR
1133 John Freeman Blvd
Houston, TX 77030-2809
voice: 713-799-7880 or 800-338-7657 (AR, LA, NM, OK, TX only)
fax: 713-790-7030

Since the 1890s, the reference collection in the Rose Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library has been arranged according to a unique scheme developed by the Research Libraries’ first director, Dr. John Shaw Billings, a physician who had directed the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office for 30 years and established the Index Medicus in 1879.

But library officials felt it was time for a change from a system used only by NYPL, and starting this summer they began converting the reference collection to the Library of Congress classification. “We have a history of a classification system that doesn’t make a lot of intuitive sense to the user community,” Research Libraries Director David S. Ferriero said in the August 17 New York Times.

For more information: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/august2006a/nyplbillings.htm

As part of a grant-funded project, two simulated exercises were enacted in San Diego County on Tuesday to demonstrate how technology can help in disaster response. The $4 million project, called the Wireless Internet Information System for Medical Response in Disasters, was funded by the NIH’s National Library of Medicine.

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From The Nation:
Courage, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in an era of increasing controls on the gathering and dissemination of information, many Americans are unaware of the courageous stands librarians take every day.

“Librarians at the Gates”
The Nation, August 22, 2006

The Rural Assistance Center (RAC), a national resource for rural health and human services information, has launched State Resources on its Web site allowing easy access to continuously updated demographics and statistics, documents and resources, contacts and success stories for all 50 states.

Press Release: http://www.raconline.org/news/news_details.php?news_id=4833

State Resources page: http://www.raconline.org/states/

According to the Washington Post, a recent search turned up almost 2,000 podcasts on health related topics. The Post’s favorites are:

Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcast (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mediaII/Podcasts.html)

NIH Research Radio (http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/nihpodcast.htm)

The Mayo Clinic’s Medical Edge Radio (http://www.medicaledge.org/radio.html)

For more information, go to:
“Listen to Your Doctor…on Your iPod”
Washington Post Tuesday, August 22, 2006