The NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan’s online toolkit has a new page as of today.  The Pandemic Planning page is located here:  http://nnlm.gov/ep/pandemic-planning/. 

The page contains links to the CDC’s H1N1 site as well as to several Word documents that contain information about pandemic planning, some service continuity issues that may need to be addressed, and a sample of a table-top exercise that can be used to assist in pandemic planning.

According to Susan Yowell, Project Assistant, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan,”The current focus of the content of the page is on academic health sciences libraries, but we believe the content can be adapted to suit the needs of other types of libraries or institutions.  We will continue to develop the page, adding relevant content as it emerges.”

*Special thanks to Susan Yowell, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Charlottesville, VA, for this information.

The Disaster Information Management Resource Center (as a part of NLM’s Specialized Information Services Division) has complied a portal of more than fifteen glossaries to provide a source of standard and concise disaster terminology for all members of the disaster risk reduction and emergency management community.

The glossaries cover topics including: climate and weather; disaster medicine; earthquakes; radiation; storms, hurricanes, and floods; and more. These glossaries were created by a variety of academic and government institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and George Washington University.

The website also has links to lists of MeSH terms used in indexing disaster-related articles.

To access the page directly, go to http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/glossaries.html .

The page may also be accessed via the SIS webpage (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/), clicking on the link to “Disaster Information Management Resource Center”, and then clicking on “Disaster Glossaries”.

Although first announced in April of this year, this resource bears mentioning again at the beginning of a new school year and the approach of National Preparedness Month.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Ad Council have joined with Discovery Education to announce Ready Classroom, an online educational program. Ready Classroom will provide elementary and middle school teachers with resources to integrate natural disaster preparedness information into their curriculum. The program is an extension of Ready Kids, a nationwide effort designed to encourage children and families to take action and prepare for emergencies.

This online resource, www.discoveryeducation.com/readyclassroom, targets grades K - 8 and provides teachers with activities, lesson plans and multimedia tools that teach students how natural disasters develop and inspires them to build their own emergency preparedness plans with their families. The complete news release can be found at http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47960 .

The American Public Health Association urges all Americans to “Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed and Get Involved.” National Get Ready Day is September 15, 2009, to coincide with National Preparedness Month.

On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, a Medical Library Association (MLA) Continuing Education class featuring PHPartners.org will be offered as a webinar. PHPartners (http://phpartners.org/) is the product of a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries. The August 26 webinar class will provide an overview of the website and include information on current topics such as Bioterrorism, ongoing projects such as Healthy People 2010, and public health resources (such as promotions and statistics).

This online training will be presented on Wednesday, August 26, at 2:00 p.m. CT by Marty Magee of the NN/LM MidContinental Region. The training is FREE, and requires no prior registration. A computer with Internet access and a phone are all that is needed. Access can be gained by going to: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr. After signing in as a guest, you will be prompted to enter your phone number and the system will call you to log in. After the event, the webinar will be archived on the MidContinental website: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/.

Check out the August issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest National Institutes of Health research.

In this edition:

Concerned About Coffee? It May Actually Be Good for You
Because it tastes so good, you may assume coffee is bad for you. But researchers are finding that coffee poses little to no health risk for most people. It may even have some health benefits.

You’ve Got Rhythm: Your Internal Clock Affects Your Health
While you struggle to stay on time for your daily activities, your body has its own internal clock. Every day, this clock helps you feel alert at work, hungry at mealtime and drowsy at night. When you fight against your biological clock, your health can suffer.

Health Capsules:
•    Questions Raised About “Depression Gene”
•    Tasty Recipes for People with Diabetes
•    Featured Web Site: NIH Education and Awareness Campaigns

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.
Visit our Facebook wall to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think! Also check out the NIH Health & Science Gifts and send some to your Facebook friends.
Please pass the word on to your colleagues about NIH News in Health.  We are happy to send a limited number of print copies free of charge for display in offices, libraries or clinics.  Just email us or call 301-435-7489 for more information.

As part of an NN/LM SCR funded project, SMILE (Sharing MedlinePlus/MEDLINE for Information Literacy Education), library staff from the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio developed an online tutorial to provide instruction that focuses on finding and evaluating information relevant to public health dental practice. The Oral Health Information Tutorial is now available for practitioners such as educators, dental hygienists and dentists working in the field of dental public health.

You can view each of the 4 modules of the tutorial independently:

• Module 1: Toolkit for Dental Public Health Professionals - Learn how to define public health dentistry and identify professional resources to help stay informed of developments in the field.
• Module 2: Evidence-Based Dental Public Health - Learn how to find evidence-based scientific literature and apply it to your practice.
• Module 3: Oral Health Data Tools and Statistics - Learn about available statistics related to oral health and how to find these resources on the Internet.
• Module 4: Oral Health Resources - Learn what quality online resources exist for patients and consumers.

Posting adapted from Staying Well. Connected. blog.  Written by Lara Sapp, Outreach Fellow, UT Health Science Center San Antonio

To help inform and empower the Latino population in the United States, Self Reliance Foundation provides an interactive, multi-dimensional online presence with its Acceso Hispano initiative. The fundamental goal of Acceso Hispano is to improve the quality of life of the Hispanic population living in the United States by linking to the support services or information they may need. The site serves as a news platform and communication tool between service providers, promotores and the public, as well as provides educational resources. All portions of the website are available in English and Spanish.

Acceso Hispano has recently launched an online service provider directory as a tool for connecting service providers to the communities which seek them out. The directory currently contains more than 17,000 community organizations, services, and programs throughout the United States, related to education, health, civic participation, finances, violence reduction, arts and culture, science and environment, and immigration.  Any 501c3 nonprofit organization, community group, government or educational institution that provides affordable or free and bilingual services is encouraged to add their listing to the database and to utilize the search services to help provide referrals to clients.

 The Acceso Hispano website may be accessed at http://www.accesohispano.org

Healthy Roads Media has responded to numerous requests for materials available in a format which could be used in closed-circuit television or video-on-demand systems by hospitals, large clinics, educational systems and social service systems to provide information to populations they are trying to serve.

Healthy Roads Media has recently converted approximately thirty topics into an MPEG video format that will work in these systems. To cover the costs of this effort and maintain the resources, a fee will be requested for these files.

(more…)

Just a reminder: August 3th is the deadline for several of the funding opportunities available from the NN/LM SCR office:

Access to Electronic Consumer Health Information:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/aechi.html
This funding is for a project that uses electronic consumer health information to assist health professionals, their patients and/or the general public to find the health information resources they need to make informed health care decisions.  Three (3) projects up to $25,000 each will be available.

Express Outreach Award:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/exp_outreach.html
This funding is for a project that will highlight the National Library of Medicine’s databases to improve access to health and biomedical information.  Special consideration will be given to first-time applicants for this award. Thirteen (13) projects up to $5,000 each will be awarded.

Information Access Improvement Project Award:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/iaip.html
The purpose of the IAIP award is to help NN/LM SCR Network members to improve their access to Internet-based health information including National Library of Medicine products and services. Ten (10) projects up to $5,000 each will be awarded.

Library Technology Award:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/librarytech_award.html
The purpose of the LTA award is to assist full Network members in the NN/LM SCR to implement large-scale technology applications to further encourage library improvement and expansion of library services. Three (3) projects up to $20,000 will be awarded.

Professional Development Award:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/pda.html
The purpose of this award is to enable individuals at NN/LM SCR Network member institutions to expand professional knowledge and experience to provide improved health information access to health care professionals and consumers.  Ten (10) awards up to $1,000 each are available.

Partners in Public Health Information Outreach
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/publichealth_rfp.html
The purpose of the Partners in Public Health Information Outreach award is to provide the public health workforce with timely, convenient access to information resources that can help them perform their jobs more effectively.
Two (2) projects up to $25,000 will be awarded.

Library Student Award
http://nnlm.gov/scr/funding/lso.html
The purpose of this award is to promote the value of outreach to library school students interested in health sciences librarianship.  As part of the award, students would attend the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association in Tulsa taking place October  17-21.  Ten (10) awards are available. This award is intended to cover all expenses, up to $1,400 per student

On Thursday, July 16, 2009, MedlinePlus® news published a story from Reuters Health with these three key points:

1.) H1N1 virus has spread more quickly than other pandemics;

2.) The World Health Organization (WHO) states it is ”pointless” to count individual cases;

3.) Countries should track deaths, unusual patterns

WHO has said that the current H1N1 pandemic is the “fastest-moving pandemic ever”, and that it is now virtually “pointless” to try to count every case. The WHO Briefing note (issued July 16) went on to say that “further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable.”  Influenza viruses of past pandemics have required six months or more to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks.

(more…)