Outreach Program Summary May 1, 2007 - April 30, 2008
Outreach Summary
National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region ® (NN/LM GMR) Outreach Programs include Outreach to Health Professionals, Consumer Health Information Services, Training for Electronic Access to Health Information, Exhibits, and Technology Awareness and Improvement. Each program answers a specific need and responds to the mission and goals set by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) for the NN/LM. In order to accomplish its outreach goals, the GMR offers outreach subcontracts and awards to network members. GMR coordinators serve as liaisons to subcontractors in their assigned program areas and provide assistance in implementing projects successfully.
GMR Outreach Programs emphasize reaching the targeted populations identified by NLM. These include HIV/AIDS patients; minority populations; seniors; and rural and inner city communities. Priorities for the GMR will include: continuing the outreach projects begun in the last five years with Native American tribes in the region; developing outreach projects that assist public health workers achieve better access to biomedical information; and working with community-based organizations that have a health information and/or health literacy component to increase their awareness of and access to high quality electronic health information. The GMR will continue to monitor progress in the development of the Refugee Health Information Network (RHIN) Web site, providing feedback to the staff at NLM Specialized Information Services (SIS) Division and contacting potential contributors of multi-lingual resources to let them know about RHIN.
The GMR works with the Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) of the NN/LM to identify methods and measures for evaluating the region’s programs and services. One GMR coordinator has been designated as the evaluation coordinator and serves as the GMR liaison to the OERC. The GMR presented the OERC evaluation workshop “Measuring Your Impact” on three occasions during Year 1 to enhance planning and evaluation skills of hospital and other librarians. The GMR will continue to offer this and other planning and evaluation classes during Year 2. The GMR also has worked with the National Outreach Mapping Center (NOMC) to track geographical distribution of outreach projects and will continue to submit outreach data to the mapping database to facilitate awareness of outreach and to identify areas that should be targeted for further outreach efforts.
Outreach to Health Professionals
The goal of the Outreach to Health Professionals program is to provide all health professionals with easy access to quality biomedical information resources. The program focuses on unaffiliated health professionals who lack access to health information and health professionals who serve targeted populations identified by NLM such as minority populations, seniors, HIV/AIDS patients, inner city communities, and rural areas. The GMR will provide Loansome Doc, reference, collection access, training and mediated searching referrals to health professionals in the region. The GMR has established agreements with 32 resource libraries to provide these services to unaffiliated health professionals, including health professionals who work for community-based organizations. The Regional Medical Library will serve, on a cost recovery basis, any areas where there are no agreements.
Demonstrating PubMed®, ClinicalTrials.gov, MedlinePlus®, PHPartners.org, and other information access tools at exhibits and holding training sessions for health professionals are key elements of this program. The GMR will exhibit at a minimum of five national meetings of health care providers, as well as at regional and local meetings. The GMR staff will distribute information about NLM products, systems and services, and hold training classes and demonstrations on NLM products and services.
For Year 2 of the contract, the GMR has identified several strategies to improve outreach to minority health professionals and/or health professionals serving targeted populations. The GMR will continue to contact selected Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) serving urban, rural and specific populations (such as tribal centers) to increase their knowledge of available health information resources on the Web, and to work with the Rural Assistance Center in North Dakota to target outreach to rural health professionals to promote awareness of quality health information. The GMR Outreach Libraries also will be encouraged to work with FQHCs in their respective states. Finally the GMR will continue to work with Tribal College Libraries and other local Native American community-based organizations to promote awareness of NLM services in those states in which there are no current GMR projects underway.
Public health workers and public health agencies also have been identified as target populations for outreach initiatives. Emphasis will be placed on the five states that have not been targeted through one of the Public Health Information Model subcontracts funded in the previous five-year contract. The GMR will work with state health agencies and encourage network members to partner with state and local agencies to provide training to improve public health workers’ skills in using NLM resources. The GMR also will encourage public health agencies to link to NLM resources from their Web sites. The GMR plans to exhibit at a minimum of one state/regional public health meeting during Year 2.
In Year 2 of the contract, the GMR plans to fund a minimum of two Health Disparities subcontracts aimed at providing services to minority health professionals and/or health professionals serving communities identified in the NLM Strategic Plan for Addressing Health Disparities 2004-2008 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/plan/nlm_health_disp_2004_2008.html. In addition, the GMR plans to fund a minimum of two Public Health subcontracts aimed at encouraging network members to partner with community organizations to provide access to critical health information needed by public health workers.
Consumer Health Information Services
The goal of the consumer health information services program is to assist health consumers with accessing quality biomedical information so they can make informed decisions regarding their health and the health of their family members. The program aims to reach members of the public who are not aware of how to access electronic health information or who lack direct access to electronic health information.
The program works with a variety of organizations and networks to identify consumer health information needs and develop strategies to meet those needs. Initiatives include exhibiting at state library association meetings to raise awareness among public, school, and community college librarians; exhibiting and presenting at meetings of community-based organizations (CBOs); participating in programs at health sciences library association meetings; promoting MedlinePlus and other consumer health resources to health care providers so that they can assist their clients in finding health information; and encouraging public libraries and other community-based organizations to link to MedlinePlus and other NLM resources on their Web sites.
The GMR will continue to contact local, regional, and state public librarian training coordinators to offer train-the-trainer sessions and to teach the four consumer health workshops developed by the NN/LM consumer health coordinators. Public libraries will be encouraged to use the “Public Libraries and Community Partners” Web site to learn more about how to establish relationships with community health information partners to promote ongoing training and improved access to NLM resources.
As part of its consumer health outreach, the GMR will recruit public libraries, school libraries, community college libraries, tribal college libraries and health-related community-based organizations (CBOs) to join the network as affiliate members. This will allow them to take advantage of partnerships with full members to provide health information to their users.
During year 2 of the contract, the GMR will exhibit at two state library association meetings and at one meeting of health-related community-based organizations, promoting NLM products and services and providing classes to participants. The goal is to teach workshops at as many of these library and CBO meetings as possible.
The GMR plans to fund a minimum of two Consumer Health Subcontracts during Year 2 for organizations that plan to provide outreach services to health care consumers and/or health professionals needing access to consumer health information. The GMR also will provide consultation and support to state groups working on developing MedlinePlus Go Local projects, and if feasible, will fund a minimum of two Go Local subcontracts.
GMR staff will attend local events sponsored by Changing the Face of Medicine exhibit recipients as an opportunity to promote NLM resources and to encourage partnerships among public and health science libraries. In addition, GMR staff will support national projects such as the Information Rx initiative that promote access to health information resources for the public.
Training for Electronic Access to Health Information
The goal of this program is to support training in the effective use of electronic health information resources on the Internet. Training for health professionals will emphasize NLM databases such as PubMed, TOXNET and other environmental resources, ClinicalTrials.gov, and when the audience includes public health workers, CDC and PH Partners resources will be included. Training for medical librarians will focus more on advanced aspects of the NLM databases and special topics such as Health Resources on the Internet, Expert Searching, Nursing on the Net, Patient Safety, and technology awareness.
Training for public, school, and community college librarians, and CBO-based health information promoters and educators will focus on the basics of key NLM databases, with emphasis on MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, and other resources aimed at consumers.
Train-the-trainer sessions will be available to librarians and health educators who are charged with training others about NLM resources, including those who train the public. Whenever possible, training will be scheduled with professional meetings to assure efficient use of GMR staff time and resources.
Exhibits
Exhibits play an important part in publicizing NLM products and services to health professionals, public, school, and community college librarians, and the staff of community-based organizations that include a health literacy component. The GMR Exhibits Program includes staffing exhibits during national and state meetings, and providing awards to network members to assist them in exhibiting at conferences.
During Year 2 of the contract, the GMR will exhibit at a minimum of five national meetings, one state or regional public health meeting, two state library association meetings, and one meeting that includes staff from community based organizations. The GMR will coordinate with staff from the Midcontinental Region to exhibit at the joint meeting of the Midwest Chapter/MLA and Midcontinental/MLA chapters. The GMR plans to fund a minimum of four Exhibit Awards to network members to exhibit at state or regional meetings.
Technology Awareness and Improvement
The GMR provides numerous programs to meet the information technology needs of health professionals, librarians, and consumers. Technology Awareness aims to ensure that GMR members and health care professionals are knowledgeable about how to use information technology to access electronic information. Technology Improvement aims to provide libraries with hardware and software and other resources to expand electronic services for their patrons.
The GMR Web site will feature information on new technologies and GMR staff will publish articles about technology in the GMR blog, The Cornflower. Announcements about new technological developments will be distributed on GMRLIST.
Network members often face significant barriers, including hospital firewalls that prohibit access, lack of compatibility among information systems, lack of skilled technological assistance, and lack of administrative support. The GMR Technology Coordinator will continue to provide phone consultation to network members and to develop and teach workshops on new technologies as needed. The GMR will fund a minimum of four Technology Improvement Awards to assist network members with technology upgrades and enhancements and/or to introduce new technologies into their institutions.
Revised March 9, 2007 and April 9, 2007
This icon designates a link outside the NN/LM GMR Web site and
indicates a non-GMR hosted resource.
