Outreach to Asian-American Health and Cultural Fair
Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
InfoPoint Librarian
Health Sciences Libraries
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
The 5th Annual Asian-American Health and Cultural Fair, organized and presented by the United Asian-American Medical Student Association of the University of Michigan, was held in the lower level of Medical Science 2, the Building right next to Taubman Medical Library, on Saturday, February 2, 2008. The Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) participated in this community event by handing out literature about good consumer health resources, specifically MedlinePlus®.
Despite the rather forbidding Michigan weather, a crowd of registrants arrived, and a group of U of M librarian volunteers were ready to meet and greet them.The volunteers were Jean Song, along with both her children; Pat Martin; Christa Meadowbrooke, the new UM School of Information student assistant; Sue Wortman, Interim Women’s Studies Librarian; with Anna Ercoli Schnitzer serving as coordinator.
HSL’s table was positioned next to the University of Michigan Health Systems engage display and across from several other interesting informational displays about the Hmong culture; pollution dumps situated near poor neighborhoods; good oral hygiene (with tubes of toothpaste as freebies); and organ donation programs.
Our group promoted MedlinePlus through pens and bookmarks. We noted that the special NLM Asian-American Health downloadable brochure was particularly well received. Interested registrants at the Fair could be screened for glaucoma, diabetes, hypertension, PSA, and hyperlipidemia, all free of charge. There were physicians present, many of whom spoke Chinese or other languages, to interpret results of the screening.
