The National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide links to resources about the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak. The National Library of Medicine Division of Specialized Information Services has released an Enviro-Health Links page on Swine Flu. This page contains links to resources about the flu outbreak, including transmission, prevention, treatment, and the genetic makeup of the influenza virus. MedlinePlus released a new health topic page on Swine Flu: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/swineflu.html. The page is also provided in Spanish: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/swineflu.html.

MedlinePlus - Multiple Languages provides information in Arabic to Vietnamese on the MedlinePlus: Flu - Multiple Languages site: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/flu.html. Related Multiple Language links from MedlinePlus include the Germs and Hygiene resources: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/germsandhygiene.html translated in ASL (American Sign Language), Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

The World Health Organization site: http://www.who.int/ provides information in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and English.

An easy way to post updated information is to use the widget seen below:

Clicking on Get widget now! will bring you to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Image and Icon Library and the code for this installing the widget on your web page.

Additional resources are included on PandemicFlu.gov providing one-stop access to U.S. Government swine, avian and pandemic flu information.

The  History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces the launch of a new image platform for its premier database, Images from the History of Medicine (IHM).  The IHM provides access to nearly 70,000 images in the collections of the HMD.

Visit http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/ to see the collection of portraits, photographs, fine prints, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and other graphic art which illustrates the social and historical aspects of medicine from the Middle Ages to the present. Subjects range from medieval medical practice to 19th century slum conditions to World War I hospitals to the international fight against drug abuse and AIDS. Most of the images in the collection are from earlier time periods, although 20th century images are also included, the majority dating from before World War II.

Call for Papers and Posters: 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA Annual Meeting

By Linda DeMuro
Director, Library Services
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH

The Program Committee of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association invites proposals for contributed papers and posters for the 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA  Annual Meeting in Columbus, Ohio from October 3-6 at the Hyatt on Capitol Square. The conference theme of  Seek, Discover, Explore lends itself to a variety of topics, and provides opportunities for presenters to show how they endeavor to seek out new and improved ways to provide cutting-edge library services, to discover innovative techniques for using technology and the Internet, or to explore how libraries connect people to information in creative ways. Papers and posters may highlight practical problem-solving approaches, report on research in librarianship, document collaborative efforts or outreach activities, or describe innovative programs, resources or services. Contributed paper and poster topics are as unlimited as your imagination, talents and creativity can devise. (more…)

The Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) is pleased to announce the launch of The New Americans Health Information Portal (NAHIP).

http://palantir.lib.uic.edu/nahip/

This portal is a collaboration with the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. Our new portal links to a variety of quality multi-lingual health education documents. Languages include: Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Chinese, Croatian, French, Haitian Creole, Karen, Khmer, Lao, Russian, Somali, Swahili, Thai, Tigrina and Vietnamese.

We hope this site is useful and welcome feedback. For comments on website: lmassen1 at uic.edu

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago.

From the NLM:

“NLM is pleased to announce the debut of the Unified Medical Language System(r)
(UMLS(r)) Basics, a Web-based tutorial that enables anyone with Internet access to learn about the UMLS. You can reach the tutorial at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/online%20learning/index.htm.

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With the hurricane season’s dynamic reminder of nature’s power comes an explosion of information on hurricanes.  The Specialized Information Services (SIS) branch of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has added a new section on Hurricanes to their Environmental Health and Toxicology section.  Visit: Hurricanes: Links to Health Information Including Toxicology and Environmental Health at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/hurricane.html

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The Outreach Express Award entitled Only Connect….to the Community was funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR). This award allowed the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) National Planning Committee ‘08 to provide the first annual community service events. The two community service events held in Chicago, Illinois, allowed medical librarians to put words such as advocacy and visibility into action by creating partnerships with public librarians and volunteering in the neediest community, North Lawndale on the west side of Chicago. (more…)

The June 23, 2008, posting of new National Library of Medicine (NLM) web pages includes several timely MedlinePlus topics in English and many in Spanish. Check the links below for information on earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes and other natural disasters. In addition, the NLM Technical Bulletin for May-June announces the release of the new Enviro-Health Links page on Disaster Recovery and Environmental Health page. (more…)

The aim of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Disaster Information Management Resource Center (DIMRC) http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/ is to provide access to quality disaster health information to the nation at all stages of preparation, response, mitigation and recovery. For more information about the DIMRC, see the Fact Sheet: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/dimrcfs.html

Find out more information About the Center, NLM Disaster Information Resources, and Projects, Partnerships, and Program. The DIMRC is a service of Specialized Information Services (SIS).

By Barbara Platts, MLIS, AHIP
Munson Healthcare
Traverse City, MI

My 3-year journey to explore the feasibility of embracing federated search engine technology, recently culmunated with a trip to the 2008 Computers in Libraries Conference (CIL) in Arlington, Virginia. Thanks to the generous support of a GMR Professional Development Award, I was able to attend a number of sessions specifically related to current federated search engine applications. In addition, I was able to speak with identified vendors to set up trials upon my return from the conference, and network with colleagues who use this technology. (more…)