The severe winter storm that affected the Midwest gave libraries in the region a great opportunity to activate their service continuity plans. If you don’t have a plan, this is a good time to prepare for the next major service disruption. Resources to help you can be found on the Writing Your Disaster Plan page on the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit at: http://nnlm.gov/ep/disaster-plan-templates/

If you did have a plan, how did it go? Would you change anything? If so, this is a good time to make those changes.

For more information about resources for emergency preparedness, see our Web page on this topic: http://nnlm.gov/gmr/member/emprep/

By Steven Grove, MA,MALS, AHIP
Director, Franzello AeroMedical Library
USAFSAM/EDL
Kettering, OH

When speaking of the AeroMedical Library and its mission in 2005, former director Joseph Franzello said
“This library has always been the last best resource for literature in aerospace medicine.”

Discovery Newsletter, Brooks AFB, # 13, Jan 21, 2005,
Rudy Purifactor, Editor, 311^th Systems Wing

Through the efforts of Mr. Franzello, and many other Library supporters, the Aeromedical Library and its holdings will continue its mission when it moves 1300 miles to Area B, Wright Patterson Air Force Base (OH) in March 2011 and becomes the Franzello AeroMedical Library later in the year.

Due to BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure), Brooks AFB, San Antonio, TX, will be closing its doors in September 2011.  The internationally-known Aeromedical Library will also move with the School of Aerospace Medicine to support the 711 HPW wing and USAFSAM (United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine) personnel as well as other organizations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  It will find its home next to other educational institutions like Air Force Institute of Technology and work with other libraries on the base to provide information as other organizations as the need arises.   Even though the School receives Program 8 money (Medical) and other libraries on the base are supported through Program 6 or research money, the Franzello AeroMedical Library and 711 Human Performance Wing along with Air Force Research Laboratories Libraries will study the impact of such cooperation during the first year of its new existence.

The collection began at the Mineola Lab in 1917 at Hazelhurst Field in Mineola, Long Island, New York with only 2900 books. It was moved to Brooks in 1926 and again to Randolph in 1931.  Finally in 1959, the Aeromedical Library returned to Brooks with 60,000 items.  As an essential part of the School of Aerospace Medicine until 1990, it was transferred to the Armstrong Laboratory.  Even though funding was a concern, the Library refused to put out its lamp of learning. The Schoolhouse moved across the base but the Aeromedical Library remained on the “Hill”. (more…)

Photo Credit

By Suzanne Earle, MLS, AHIP
End-of-Life Library
The Hospice Institute
Hospice of the Western Reserve
Cleveland, OH

The End-of-Life Library at Hospice of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, Ohio, has received the 2010 Rose & Sam Stein Award, the highest hospice honor which can be given in the state of Ohio. Library services were recognized for making significant, innovative, and extraordinary contributions to hospice and end-of-life care. The award highlights support which has significantly contributed to the greater hospice community, patients, families and team members. The library effectively collaborates across disciplines and enhances the delivery of services as part of the larger agency.

The award was accepted by Suzanne Earle, MLS, AHIP in Columbus, Ohio on November 12, 2010 at the annual Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Conference.

Connect at: www.hospicewr.org/library

By Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
Liaison/Disabilities Librarian
Taubman Health Sciences Library
University of Michigan

One day at the reference desk about twelve years ago, I was helping a patron finish up work on her doctoral thesis on disability issues.  In between searching for information and correcting citations, we were chatting a bit, and she asked me whether I would like to attend a meeting to discuss what the library did for individuals who happened to have disabilities.  I did not have anything specific in mind, but I agreed to attend that meeting which turned out to be a gathering of members of the University of Michigan Council for Disability Concerns.  I had little positive news to report, but I used my imagination to describe what the medical library could and should do in the future to serve patrons with disabilities.  The variety of Council members, their expertise, lack of ego, and altruism impressed me so much that I signed on as a member myself.

Our medical library of a dozen years ago offered very little in accommodations to patrons with physical challenges. Truth to tell, it did not even have a low energy door for easy access for wheelchair users.  Gradually, month by month, bit by bit, as a Council member I began to learn about various disability issues. With the able and altruistic assistance of the members of that Council,  we managed to acquire the requisite automatic door openers for our library along with an Ergopod, a large, free-standing apparatus of many sections and elements that provided adaptive computer technology to users with various physical and cognitive impairments. We also obtained a magnifying reading device.  Eventually, we also presented and attended a few sessions for staff members on increasing sensitivity about such issues as assisting a person with low or no vision, using the preferred language when referring to various physical and emotional differences, and, in general, spreading the word and thus raising consciousness about disability issues. (more…)

The Chicago Area Medical Archivists (CAMA) will host the Eighth Medical History Symposium in the Pritzker Auditorium of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Feinberg Pavillion. As part of Archives Week in Chicago, please join CAMA for a day of presentations, discussion and social networking on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010.

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. The first presentation will begin at 10:00 a.m.

(more…)

By Kate Saylor
Outreach Librarian
University of Michigan
Taubman Health Sciences Library

The Plain Language Medical Dictionary Widget is a project of the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library (THL) as part of the Michigan Health Literacy Awareness Training Program (http://guides.lib.umich.edu/healthliteracy).

(more…)

The Maternal and Child Health Library is seeking professional reviewers as well as a parent reviewer for new editions of the knowledge path and family resource brief about infant mortality and pregnancy loss. Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

The knowledge path is available on the MCH Web site at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_infmort.html and the family resource brief is online at http://www.mchlibrary.info/families/frb_infmort.html.  Please e-mail feedback to smblorenzo@gmail.com.

By Barbara Knight, MA, MLS, AHIP
Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

WOW! Thanks! Customer Service in a Technology Driven World was a five-hour seminar funded through a Professional Instruction Award from NN/LM GMR.

This seminar focused on delivering health care information via telephone and email reference.  The 22 participants included librarians from the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) , Health Workforce Information (HWIC), the Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences (HEFL) http://undmedlibrary.org/, and the Chester Fritz Library all in Grand Forks ND; librarians from the North Dakota State Library in Fargo, ND; and one librarian from La Crosse, WI.  They received training on how to increase customers’ satisfaction with online reference and information services, with special emphasis given to information professionals who work with remotely located customers. Topics discussed included: email and voice etiquette; response time; organization of information to be delivered; matching the information retrieved to the client’s initial request; applying emotional intelligence to difficult situations; and embracing the information service profession with energy and enthusiasm. (more…)

By Chris Childs
Education & Outreach Librarian
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
University of Iowa

The Hardin Library for the Health Sciences is collaborating with the University of Iowa’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science’s Community Engagement Program to provide access to consumer health information for patients and their families at four Iowa community health centers based across the state in Davenport, Waterloo, Des Moines, and Sioux City. These four communities have been the focus of clinical, educational, and research outreach activities by The University of Iowa and have substantial University infrastructure already in place. These communities were also targeted based on the number of underserved populations in the area. The library will install computers in the clinics with their own custom made consumer health websites, and train both consumers and staff on accessing quality consumer health information. This project began with a meeting between Linda Walton, Hardin’s director, Jimmy Reyes, the cite coordinator for the Community Engagement Program and myself. Originally, Jimmy had hoped that a onetime instructional training session on consumer health resources could be provided to all of the clinic’s coordinators during an annual meeting, but after some discussion, that idea quickly evolved in the current project. Immediately after the meeting, Linda wrote up a grant proposal and applied for the GMR’s $40,000 Consumer Health Subcontract (http://nnlm.gov/gmr/funding/consumer/consumersubrfp.html). I then attended a meeting with Jimmy and all of the coordinators on campus and gave an introductory presentation on the nature of the project. Soon afterward, we learned that the we had been awarded the subtract and could begin. We were given an 18 month timeline, starting in June 1, 2009, and ending in November 30, 2010. (more…)