For many years, the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) Medical Library languished in the dark, sustained by a group of dedicated patrons.  It was not until the past few years that the DSAMH Medical Library put their collection on an online catalog, joined the DOCLINE revolution of inter-library loaning, and became a member of an information consortium (the Delaware Medical Information Resource Alliance, DelMiRA) to purchase electronic resources.

Despite emerging into the world of technology and interconnectivity, the DSAMH Medical Library had lost some of its on-site vitality – reduced staff, increased workloads, and the concept of using the Internet as the information go-to hacked their way into the foot traffic of the Library.

But, thanks to a Small Project Award granted by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine – Middle Atlantic Region, the Library started a new initiative to combat the realities of the world:  If you display it, they will come.  The Small Project Award allowed the Library to purchase a display table and signage, for the purpose of catching the eye of potential patrons.  And, once the person stepped into the Library to look at the contents of the table…all was lost.  Well, not really lost, per se, but the person was engaged and more often than not left the Library with something in their hands, be it a borrowed Library book, a ephemeral brochure, or a business card.  The Library hopes to encourage an increase in foot traffic and materials circulation due to the colorful display table.

A new page of links to information on “Crude Oil Spills and Human Health” is now available at http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/oilspills.html.

The page has links to information on how the United States responds to oil spills, state agencies in the Gulf region that respond to spills, occupational hazards for professionals and volunteers assisting with clean-up, seafood safety and more. The links under “Featured Sites” focus on the latest updates about the recent spill and subsequent controlled burning of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill followed the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit oil platform 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta on April 20, 2010.

 Please send your comments and suggestions about additional health information content to tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov. This information is compiled by the Disaster Information Management Research Center, Specialized Information Services, US National Library of Medicine.

“Knowledge Services and the Role of Medical Libraries in Healthcare IT” 

John D. Halamka, MD, MS, will give the 2010 Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecture on Wednesday, May 26, at 2:00 pm at the Lister Hill Center Auditorium at the National Library of Medicine. 

The Lecture will be broadcasted live (and later archived) at http://videocast.nih.gov.   A coffee/tea reception sponsored by the Friends of the National Library of Medicine will follow the Lecture at the Lister Hill Center lobby.  Special NLM tours will be offered at 3 pm and 3:30 pm, starting in the NLM Visitor Center. 

Dr. Halamka is the Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School. As Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3000 doctors, 14000 employees and two million patients.   As Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18000 faculty and 3000 students.  He is also a practicing Emergency Physician. 

 In addition, Dr. Halamka participates on several state and national committees.  He serves as Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN), which oversees clinical and administrative data exchange in Massachusetts. Dr. Halamka is the current the Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee, with the goals of coordinating the process of electronic standards harmonization among stakeholders nationwide.

 The Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecture was established in 1983 to stimulate intellectual liaison between the Medical Library Association (MLA) and the National Library of Medicine.  Leiter was a major contributor in cancer research at the National Cancer Institute and a leader at NLM as a champion of medical librarians and an informatics pioneer.

 Directions to NLM and details about visiting NLM and the NIH campus are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/psd/ref/guide/rrdirect.html.  Visitors enter the NIH campus through the NIH Gateway Center, the central location for registering and orienting visitors, and must provide one (1) form of identification (a government-issued photo ID–driver’s license, passport, green card, etc.). The NIH Gateway Center is accessed from NIH Gateway Drive and is near the exit of the Metro system’s Medical Center stop. All visitors are encouraged to use Metro or other public transportation if at all possible.

On April 19, the US FDA announced the launch of a new web site.  From their press release:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Transparency Web site today as part of the agency’s transparency initiative. The site will provide information about medical device and radiation-emitting product regulatory processes and decisions, and summaries of data that provide the rationale for agency actions.

The new Web site is part of an ongoing effort within CDRH, across the FDA and across the Department of Health and Human Services to enhance public communication and transparency. CDRH’s previous site provided information about approved products, industry guidance, medical device safety, and adverse event reports. On the new Web site, this and additional information are displayed in a more user-friendly format…” Read more

Beginning in September of 2009, the Long Island Library Resources Council (LILRC) began lending out 2 Amazon Kindles (2^nd generation) to medical librarians, with the aim of utilizing an emerging technology for discovery and innovative dissemination of health-related information and news.

Initially, our target audience for this project was hospital and health sciences libraries in Nassau and Suffolk Counties of Long Island, but it also expanded to include any type of library interested in health-related news and/or acquiring knowledge about eBook reader technology.  Using the grant funding, we purchased two Kindles, downloaded health-related information and news onto the devices, and circulated them to libraries free of charge for a 21-day loan period.  The devices also contain selected readings on how libraries are currently implementing these types of devices into library programs and services.  A project blog* was also created to provide updates, information on resources available on the Kindles, and user guides.  Our project goal was to provide librarians with the opportunity to learn from and test an emerging technology and secondly to test with patrons how dissemination of information using eBook readers may or may not be beneficial to their representative institution prior to investing monies.

Within the project period, the two Kindles circulated to three hospitals, one academic institution, and one public library.  Participants were asked to fill out a survey and rate the Kindle’s physical features and content, which is summarized in the graphs below.

Kindle Content Evaluation

Kindle Physical Features Evaluation

More importantly, participants were asked to provide feedback on how they used the device and whether or not they would consider using the Kindle at their institution.  In two instances, the loaning of the Kindles proved to be a successful marketing tool for the medical libraries, with two separate yet equally interesting outcomes as follows:

• Borrower 1: Hospital library participant used the Kindle as a marking tool during National Medical Librarians Month to get hospital staff, faculty, residents, and students into the library to test the device and provide demonstrations not only on the Kindle, but on other resources available from the library.  Due to the interest in the device, library usage increased as a result, and the librarian was able to use the Kindle as a marketing tool to get new patrons into the library.
• Borrower 2: Medical center library tested the device both within the library and also within the institution itself.  She got approval to purchase three Kindles; two of which will be circulated to dialysis patients and one device for library use.

As the two cases above demonstrate, the Kindle was experienced by numerous people at each institution.  Rather than looking at our data quantitatively, to evaluate the success of our project, we looked at the borrowing institution’s innovation and ability to be creative in marketing library services using the Kindle.  Although Borrower 1 did not decide to purchase Kindle(s) for their institution, the device was a great tool in drawing in new patrons that may have not otherwise visited the library and then alternatively teaching them about the resources that are currently available.

Other participants cited various reasons for not considering the use of the Kindle to deliver health-related information at their institution including:

• Cost; too expensive
• Issues concerning the theft of the device
• More evidence that other libraries have successfully implemented the technology.

As of March 1, 2010, the project period has ended.  However, as we already have an established equipment loan program, the Kindles have been incorporated into this program, and will continue to be loaned to interested libraries in our region.

* Anyone interested in this project is welcome to visit the project blog online at: www.kindledhealthnews.wordpress.com.

Christina Rivera, Special Projects Librarian
Long Island Library Resources Council (LILRC)

The Library of Congress has just announced that they will archive every public tweet from Twitter accounts going back to 2006.  These will include such historic tweets as President Obama’s acknowledgement of winning the 2008 election and more.

Read more about it on the LOC Blog.

If you work and live in the Philadelphia area, you might want to visit the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) on April 30 for the facility’s Third Annual Healthcare Informatics Symposium, A World of Data: Research to Knowledge to Practice. American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) President and CEO Ted Shortliffe, MD, PhD, will deliver the keynote speech at 8:15 a.m. Dr. Shortliffe will speak about the topic, “Informatics and EHRs: Anticipating the Future While Managing Expectations.” See the meeting agenda online.

You can find slides for presentations made at the March 2010 RAC meeting on the MAR Website. They include:

• An update on the MAR Value of Libraries and Information Services to Patient Care Study
• 2010 Membership Focus Group Study
• Jason Kramer’s Presentation on the New York State Higher Education Initiative (NYSHEI) and its importance to health science libraries
• An RML Update

In August 2009 the Degenshein Library’s proposal for an NNLM Small Project Award for “Computer Equipment Upgrades” was approved allowing our Library to purchase one new computer and two flat screen monitors. We were also awarded additional funding from another external source for another five new computers and nine flat screen monitors.

Once the new computers and flat screen monitors were installed the positive feedback
from customers was immediate. They finally had a library with state-of-the-art
equipment that was faster, more efficient, had more features/capabilities, and could
run larger programs. They were extremely pleased with the new flat screen monitors
that made reading easier and allowed for more work space. Less repairs also meant less
waiting time for an available computer.

Our Library’s public image as a modern learning center with upgraded equipment was greatly enhanced, and is an asset to physician recruitment when tours come through the Library. I would like to express my appreciation to the NNLM for this award. As our Library as well as so many others experience budget cuts and staff reductions the awards provided by the NNLM, now matter how large or small, enable us to maintain a level of service that would otherwise not have been possible or difficult.

Lydia Friedman
Director of Medical Library Services
Maimonides Medical Center

Training: Health Literacy for the Public Health Professionals

To help public health professionals respond to the problem of limited health literacy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have launched a free “Health Literacy for Public Health Professionals Online Training” program. The purpose of this training is to educate public health professionals about limited health literacy and their role in addressing it in a public health context.

This is a web-based course and can be accessed 24/7 by any computer with Internet access. It takes 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. Trainees can earn a variety of continuing education credits.

For a link to CDC’s and other HHS’ agencies’ health literacy sites, check out AHRQ’s Health Literacy and Cultural Competence Resource Links .

(posted on behalf of Renee Bougard, National Network Office, National Library of Medicine)