Posted on behalf of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine (FNLM):

Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award

Nominations Are Now Being Accepted

We need your help to recognize an outstanding health science librarian!  The Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award honors a health science librarian who serves rural or underserved communities.  The award was established in the early 1990s to recognize the contributions to medical education and librarianship by Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.

The recipient of the Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award is publicly recognized at the FNLM Annual Awards Dinner on May 11, 2010. The Dinner honors leaders in the fields of medicine and public service.

Previous winners of the DeBakey award include Ada M. Seltzer, Rowland Medical Library at the University of Mississippi; Ellen Howard, MLS, KKS Sherwood Library at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington; and Greysi Reyna, MLS, Mario E. Ramirez MD Medical Library at University of Texas Health Science Center.

Nominations for the 2010 Award are currently being accepted. Forms and materials are available on the Friends of the National Library of Medicine website.  Please visit the FNLM website at http://www.fnlm.org/Events-2010-Dinner.html for further details and forward any inquiries regarding the Award to Sarah Pease (spease(at)oai-usa.com).

Deadline for submission is February 5, 2010.

Posted on behalf of Chris Rottler, Senior Communication Manager K4Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (crottler(at)jhuccp.org):

To help assist the thousands of aid workers responding to the Haiti earthquake, the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has organized the Haiti Relief Toolkit, a collection of practical and technical resources to help health workers respond more effectively to the relief efforts underway.

We are seeking your input to ensure that the toolkit is as practical and relevant as possible. Practical resources such as manuals, guidelines, and checklists are welcome. The toolkit covers all vital sectors related to disaster relief, including  health, water and sanitation, food security, and shelter, as well as key  field activities supporting the operations, such as logistics. Resources should focus on meeting both immediate emergency needs and long-term recovery efforts. Please contribute materials in English, French, Spanish, and Creole, as available. Please use the toolkit’s discussion board to discuss issues, suggest additional resources, and comment on existing content. A list of current contributors appears on the About page.

To browse the contents of the toolkit, use the tabs to view key topics. You can also use the Quick Links from the Home page to access key information quickly, such as maps of Haiti and a list of relief organizations working on the ground. The toolkit is accessible online, but K4Health will also be uploading it to flash drives and shipping them to Haiti so that those on the front line can access the information easily and quickly.

If you have any questions concerning the toolkit, please contact the team at toolkits@k4health.org or leave a comment on the discussion board.

Please excuse any duplicate postings. Feel free to forward this email message.

About K4Health

K4Health’s mission is to increase the use and dissemination of evidence-based, accurate and up-to-date information to improve health service delivery and health outcomes worldwide. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the project is implemented by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs, Family Health International, and Management Sciences for Health.

Looking to expand your knowledge of health literacy? Need practical tools for improving health literacy in your hospital, community or university? Join leaders in the field of health literacy at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, California (near OC airport) May 6-7, 2010, for the 9^th Annual Health Literacy Conference sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA). Focusing on “Health Literacy in the Real World: Programs and Solutions that Work,” the conference features the latest in health literacy practical tips and tools for improving health literacy, poster presentations, and opportunities for small group discussion and networking with a variety of health professionals.

In addition, this year’s program highlights librarians’ roles in health literacy. A panel of health sciences librarians will report on MLA/NLM’s Health Information Literacy Research Project funded by the National Library of Medicine and several other “librarian/health provider partnership” initiatives in a session, “Looking for Health Literacy Solutions? Partner with a Librarian.”  Participate in this and other informative sessions and visit the IHA-sponsored Joint MLA and NN/LM exhibit table. A complete conference program is available at  www.iha4health.org; click on 2010 Health Literacy Conference.

To further spark your interest, MLA CE credit will be granted for attendance, and librarians will receive a $20 conference registration discount (use Discount Code ML10 when you register to get the discount).

For additional information, visit www.iha4health.org and click on 2010 Health Literacy Conference, or contact:

• Kathleen Amos or Jean Shipman (for general information)
  • Email: Kathleen.Amos(at)utah.edu; jean.shipman(at)utah.edu
• Michael Villaire (for conference logistics)
  • Email: mvillaire(at)iha4health.org

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in partnership with members of the Professional & Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers announce the availability of free full-text articles from over 200 biomedical journals and over 30 select reference books for libraries and hospitals affected by the earthquake in Haiti.  The collection is also intended for healthcare personnel responding to the disaster.

The Emergency Access Initiative collection is a combination of common biomedical journal titles and reference books, and also emergency medicine related titles.  The Emergency Access Initiative serves as a temporary collection replacement and/or supplement for libraries affected by disasters that need to continue to serve medical staff and affiliated users.  It is also intended for medical personnel responding to the specified disaster.

The literature is being provided as part of the Emergency Access Initiative – a collaborative partnership between NLM, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) and participating publishers to provide free access to full-text articles and select reference books to healthcare professionals and libraries affected by disasters.  While the project was established to assist libraries affected by disasters in the United States, NLM and the publishers are activating the Emergency Access Initiative today in light of the medical disaster unfolding in the aftermath of the earthquake.

NLM thanks the participating publishers for their generous support of this initiative:  American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Physicians, BMJ, Elsevier, Mary Ann Liebert, Massachusetts Medical Society, Oxford University Press, Springer, University of Chicago Press, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer.

If your library is working with a library or organization involved in relief efforts or was impacted by the Haitian earthquake, please let them know of this service.

Emergency Access Initiative:  http://eai.nlm.nih.gov

For questions regarding the Emergency Access Initiative, please email custserv(at)nlm.nih.gov or call 1-888-346-3656 in the United States, or 301-594-5983 internationally.  Libraries in the United States can contact their Regional Medical Library for assistance and support at 1-800-338-7657

The U. S. Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion announces a fellowship position (1-2 years) for someone who could coordinate the communication/outreach/marketing of Healthy People 2020, which will be launched later this year.  It would be a great career enhancing opportunity for a person who has these skills and would like to learn how to apply them in a Federal health policy context.

You may view the announcement here:

http://aptrweb.org/prof_dev/fellowships_HCF.html

CLIC-on-Health for Nurses Project
In January, 2009 the Rochester Regional Library Council (RRLC) was awarded a one year planning grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.  The project, called “Getting the (Healthy) Word Out: A Train-the Trainer Approach for Nurses” used  RRLC’s CLIC-on-Health web site (www.cliconhealth.org) to work with nursing educators and RNs in the Rochester area.  The intent of the project was to plan a program that would provide training in the use of online health information resources to nurses that do not have access to the extensive proprietary resources that are available through an affiliation with a college, university or hospital in the five county Rochester area.

RRLC partnered with five nursing agencies/school systems that employed more than four hundred RNs and other health care professionals. The project also involved nursing students attending nurse preparation programs at seven area colleges, providing the opportunity to work with the librarians and nurse educators that train the students, educating them about online health information available post-graduation.

An assessment of the information needs of the RNs working was conducted in the form of an online survey.  Questions were designed to determine the RNs’ level of awareness of free online health information, the type of information needed and the preferred method of training in learning how to locate and evaluate clinical and consumer health information.

Based on responses from the RNs, a preliminary curriculum, which included both clinical and consumer health related websites, was developed. The content was reviewed by a committee of hospital and academic librarians, and the curriculum will be used to train RNs in the most effective way to search for and evaluate health information and to help them learn how to use/access the collections of Rochester area libraries. Training will begin in 2010.

Contact Barbara Ciambor, RRLC Outreach Librarian, bciambor(at)rrlc.org, for additional information.

A new page of Haiti earthquake health information links is now available at http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/haitiearthquake.html

The page lists new Web pages about the Haiti earthquake situation from both government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There is also a section on Haitian Creole and French-language materials. Links to background information on earthquakes and subsequent health issues, such as public health assessments, emergency surgical care, and  management of dead bodies, are included.

The page will continue to expand and will add a section on hazards from concrete dust and other airborne particulates from the collapsed buildings and subsequent clean-up activities. Please send your comments and suggestions about additional health information content to tehip(at)teh.nlm.nih.gov. This information is compiled by the Disaster Information Management Research Center, Specialized Information Services, US National Library of Medicine.

NLM is pleased to announce Mobile MedlinePlus (http://m.medlineplus.gov/).

Wondering what the side effects are for your new prescription?  Go to Mobile MedlinePlus while you’re waiting for the pharmacist to fill your order!

Visit Mobile MedlinePlus during your train ride to work to read the latest news on diabetes.

Or, the next time you’re in your doctor’s waiting room, visit the “Talking With Your Doctor” page on Mobile MedlinePlus to learn how to get the most out of your visit.

Mobile MedlinePlus is available in English and Spanish (http://m.medlineplus.gov/spanish) and includes a subset of content from the full Web site. It includes summaries for over 800 diseases, conditions and wellness topics as well as the latest health news, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, and information on prescription and over-the-counter medications.

There is a link to Mobile MedlinePlus from the MedlinePlus<http://medlineplus.gov/> homepage, as well as an FAQ at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/faq/mobile.html that includes special instructions for Blackberry users.  Use the Contact Us link at the bottom of any page on Mobile MedlinePlus to send us feedback.

Wherever you are, Mobile MedlinePlus puts reliable health information at your fingertips.

Thank you,

The MedlinePlus Team

Naomi Miller

Manager, Consumer Health Information

National Library of Medicine

millern(at)mail.nlm.nih.gov

The development team at Google Docs will begin rolling out added functionality to their system allowing users to upload files up to 250mb to their accounts. This will effectively allow users to use it as a “cloud” storage device of files.

Read more on the Google Blog.

Check out the January issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research. In this edition:
Strike a Chord for Health
Music Matters for Body and Mind
Scientists are exploring how music can influence our bodies and minds. Ultimately, they hope to harness the power of music to develop new treatments for stroke, autism and many other conditions.
full story

Understanding Acne
How to Banish Breakouts
There are many myths about what causes acne. Some people blame foods or dirty skin for their outbreaks. But there’s little evidence that either has much effect.
full story

Health Capsules:

• Restricting Sugary Food May Backfire
• Mental Disorders in Youth
• Featured Web Site: The Chemistry of Health

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Visit the Facebook wall to suggest topics you’d like NIH News in Health 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.