Pam Rees, MALS, AHIP
Medical Librarian
State Library of Iowa
Des Moines, IA

The Iowa State Fair attracts about a million visitors annually for an 11-day event every August in Des Moines, Iowa. Because the State Fair draws such large crowds, I thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase MedlinePlus® and other National Library of Medicine (NLM) web site products that are available at no charge from any Internet connected computer. So, the State Library of Iowa applied for and received a $1,500 Exhibit Award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR). The online application was easy to fill out, and we used the funding to pay for the exhibit space, Internet connection, admission to the fair, bandage holders to hand out and printing costs. For eleven days in a row, August 9-19, 2007, State Library of Iowa staff and volunteers from local area hospital libraries worked 6-hour shifts with two people to a shift and two shifts a day. Fair exhibits in the buildings were open from 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. every day.

The GMR office loaned us their largest stand-alone exhibit that was easy to set up with the help of a videotape which they supplied. Along with the exhibit, we were sent some MedlinePlus and PubMed® pens, bookmarks, and brochures about other NLM products. The State Library printed additional MedlinePlus flyers to hand out, as well as HealthInfoIowa flyers. HealthInfoIowa is the State Library of Iowa’s consumer health web site and contains links to NLM databases.

This was our first experience with an exhibit of this magnitude that reached out directly to the general public. We learned quickly that most visitors would not come up to us because they did not understand what we were doing–despite the fact that the exhibit displayed NLM in bold letters and that this was a free consumer health web site.

So, with brochures, pens, and bandage holders in hand, we reached out to them. One person spoke to those going by and the other worked the computer showing those who stopped the features of MedlinePlus and other databases. The responses were varied. Some people thought we were trying to sell them something until we explained what this was all about. Some did not have computer access, and some thought they would become hypochondriacs if they spent much time on these sites. A few said they were visiting from out of state and thought they were not eligible to use NLM sites, but many people were receptive to receiving information about the sites once they understood what was available.

They were impressed with the amount of information in MedlinePlus, and we spent time looking up diseases and prescription drug information for those who requested it. Health insurance is a major concern for many people, and we received a lot of questions about that. During the eleven day exhibit, we talked to 2,773 visitors and showed MedlinePlus and other consumer health web sites to several hundred people.

Even though the State Library encourages Iowa public libraries to advertise reputable consumer health sites including MedlinePlus on their own web sites, many library customers still don’t know about it. But I guess that is not surprising if customers don’t visit their public libraries’ web sites. We had some health professionals who were familiar with some of the NLM products, but not all of them.

There is something about reaching out directly to customers, the end users, with these products that really makes a difference. I am accustomed to exhibits at health fairs or settings where people expect to learn more about health information access. But this was a different type of setting where people were not expecting to find health information. There were some very appreciative people once they realized what this was all about! I thought it was very worthwhile!

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.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Consumer Health, News from the Region. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.