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

On June 23rd, 2010, two members of the Taubman Health Sciences Library (http://www.lib.umich.edu/thl) had the pleasure of attending Packard Health’s 2010 Youth Health Fair and Be Well Block Party.

Located in Washtenaw County, Packard Health (http://www.packardhealth.org/) is the only non-profit, private medical practice. Their mission is based on the belief that “everyone deserves friendly, first-rate, continuous health care, regardless of their economic, cultural, or social conditions, and no matter what their insurance status may be.” (more…)

By Fran Kovach
Reference & Education Librarian
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Springfield, IL

On June 4-6, 2010, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Library participated in the 5th Annual Taylorville Black Horse Pow Wow in Taylorville, Illinois, at the Christian County Fairgrounds. This is the second year that we participated at this event.

People came from the Christian and Sangamon county areas, as well as other cities in Illinois. Others attending were from the states of Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. The 14 Tribes/Nations represented Apache, Blackfeet, Cherokee, Catawba, Comanche, Cree, Kiowa, Mohawk, Meskwaki, Navajo, Ogalala, Oneida, Ponka, and Sioux. Native American Health Information and MedlinePlus, pamphlets, bookmarks, and pens were distributed from our exhibit booth. Dancing, drumming, singing, and returning to a traditional diet of Native American foods such as corn, squash, beans, berries, and melons can improve physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Happy summer to the members of the GMR! According to the National Weather Service, although astronomical summer is still days away, June 1 launched meteorological summer. Time to celebrate the season of sand, sun and fun(ding)! With the annual MLA conference over and Memorial Day a memory, if you’re like me, thoughts now turn to what else but great outreach and other projects.

On May 1, NN/LM GMR entered into its fifth year (May 1, 2010 through April 30, 2011) of the 2006-2011 contract with the National Library of Medicine. As a result, there is no time for those larger, longer projects that the GMR funds as subcontracts to get underway and completed before the end of our contract year. However, if you have ideas for technology improvement, a small outreach opportunity or an exhibit showcasing NLM and other resources, the GMR might have just the sort of funding option to help. (more…)

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

Three staff members of the University of Michigan A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library staffed a table at the biennial VISIONS Conference on May 12, 2010. Originally sponsored by the Washtenaw County Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, this is an event currently organized and presented by the Ann Arbor District Library as an occasion for vendors to demonstrate technological advances that will be helpful to people who are visually impaired. The conference is held at Washtenaw Community College in Ypsilanti, Michigan and usually attracts about 500 or more participants and some of them travel considerable distances to attend. (more…)

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

A poster highlighting the Hardin Library’s Critical Access Hospital outreach project was displayed during this year’s Library Technology Conference on the campus of Macalester College in St Paul, MN. The purpose of this conference was to provide instructional sessions on technologies that affect how users interact with libraries, and how libraries use technology to create new and more effective ways to manage their resources. You can find out more information about this conference by going to http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/libtech_conf/2010/

One of the technologies mentioned during this event was the web-based tool LibGuides. I attended a session hosted by two librarians from the Hamline University Law Library in St Paul. They discussed the process of transferring all of their web content to various LibGuides. It was a very interesting presentation and very well attended. I left with the impression that a lot of librarians were either just getting started with LibGuides, or were hearing about them for the first time.

Due to the interest in LibGuides, I felt that our poster was very timely. Several people were fascinated by the idea of creating a LibGuide for a specific population located outside of the library and then using that LibGuide to connect them to free resources from various institutions. For many, seeing the poster and reading about how the LibGuide was key to the success of this project reinforced the importance of using them to reach out to populations outside of their libraries.

The Rolling Prairie Library System hosted R3: A Reference Spree: Retool, Renew, ReDo, Monday, February 22, 2010. We presented Consumer Health Reference to public librarians at the workshop.

Topics covered print and online consumer health resources and ethical issues related to providing consumer health reference information. MedlinePlus, Health E Illinois, and Population Groups Health were some of the databases the librarians searched during the class.

The EthnoMed team has unveiled its redesigned website, EthnoMed: http://ethnomed.org/. The site also features a new, prize-winning logo:

For more information about the EthnoMed Transformation, see the post in the Dragonfly, the blog of our sister region, the Pacific Northwest.

The GMR is offering to sponsor a number of webcast sites for the upcoming
MLA Webcast:  “Now’s The Time: Understanding the Electronic Health Record Maze and Health Science Librarians’ Roles” to be held on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, from 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m., central time.

Visit:
http://nnlm.gov/gmr/funding/mlawebcast.html
for detailed information on how to become a
sponsored site. (more…)

by Brenda Fay
Lead Librarian
Aurora Libraries-Aurora Sinai Medical Center
Milwaukee, WI

61^st Annual Wisconsin Student Nurses’ Association Conference, Wisconsin Dells

Wisconsin Health Sciences Library Association (WHSLA) exhibited at the annual Wisconsin Student Nurses’ Annual Convention on February 6, 2010, at Chula Vista Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, WI. Two hundred sixty-five nursing students, faculty, and nursing leaders from across Wisconsin attended the meeting. (more…)

December 1, 2009, has been designated World AIDS Day in order to bring attention to the increasing prevalence of HIV and AIDS. Organizations around the world will be joining together to promote awareness and education of HIV/AIDS through a variety of events.

The Specialized Information Services division of the National Library of Medicine provides information on HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research for the public, researchers/scientists, health professionals and students/educators at: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/hiv.html

For more information on HIV/AIDS and World AIDS Day, please see: http://www.aids.gov or http://www.worldaidsday.org. These sites contain personal stories, links to awareness and promotional materials, common myths, and a wealth of information on HIV/AIDS including print resources and new media tools such as podcasts, blogs, ecards, Twitter, widgets and more.