On November 30^th at the John Ammon Center for Medical Education – Christiana Hospital, the Academy hosted a well-attended meeting to kick-off the first-ever strategic planning process for medical libraries in Delaware. Funded by the Delaware Division of Libraries, the Academy will play a key role in the development of the plan. Himmel & Associates, consultants, is conducting the six month hospital library analysis and the firm has a history in assisting with other State Library efforts in recent years. According to PJ Grier, an Academy director, “this is a first, for such collaboration with the State Library”.

Annie Norman – Director & State Librarian, Delaware Division of Libraries

The meeting focused on opening remarks by Annie Norman, State Librarian. Annie’s goal is to improve all multi-type library services, so that they set the standards for the nation. She said the State will use the outcomes from the plan as a foundation for important agenda-setting with the next State administration. Additionally, the outcomes will be blended with current results contained in the State Library’s overall environmental plan, which comprises public, academic and special libraries.

Next, there was brief discussion and consensus around the currently “perceived” sustainability levels of the four areas on medical librarianship: hospital-based clinical information delivery (60%), consumer health information delivery (50%), public health information delivery (10%) and virtual resources. In closing, the consultant conducted a highly participatory SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and the results can be found at the following link: http://www.libraryconsultant.com/DelawareMedicalSWOT.htm.

Seated from left: Christine Chastian-Warheit – Director, Medical Libraries, Christiana Care; Meg Ward – Librarian, Delaware Academy of Medicine; Linda Leonard – Consumer Health Librarian, Delaware Academy of Medicine; Patty Hartmannsgruber – Consumer Health Librarian, Delaware Academy of Medicine; Nadine Pieniaszek, Librarian – Bayhealth; Rosemary Figorito – Librarian, St Francis Hospital.

Standing from left: PJ Grier – Director, Delaware Academy of Medicine; Susanne Ingle – Librarian, Delaware Division of Substance Abuse & Mental Health; Susan LaValley – Consumer Health Librarian, Delaware Academy of Medicine; Lynne Joshi – Librarian, AI duPont Hospital; Eileen Vaughn – Librarian, Beebe School of Nursing; Jean Winstead – Librarian, Beebe Medical Center; Robb Mackes – Electronic Resources Librarian - Delaware Academy of Medicine

People attending represented a broad spectrum of constituent organizations. The meeting also offered a rare opportunity to bring together all hospital and consumer health information professionals; they are pictured above.

Immediate next steps will involve the formation of a small steering committee, benchmarking, and extensive outreach to user communities and other stakeholders. The consultant is expected to have the Strategic Plan completed by July 2008.

Spanish Language Materials Book Fair

Here is an excellent opportunity for librarians and educators to purchase Spanish language materials for adults, teens, and children!

FREE ADMISSION!

Date: March 7, 2008
Time: 10:00AM to 4:00 PM
Where: The Newark Public Library
5 Washington St.
Newark, NJ 07101-0630

For Directions go to:

http://www.npl.org/Pages/AboutLibrary/directions.html

For parking information go to:

http://www.npl.org/Pages/AboutLibrary/directions.html#parking

Please send an email to lromerobpl@yahoo.com to confirm your attendance.

EVENT SCHEDULE & LOCATION:

10:00 AM Librarian’s orientation—Auditorium (4th Floor)
10:00 AM-4:00PM Book Fair—Centennial Hall (2nd floor)

For more information please contact:

Libbhy Romero
E-mail: lromerobpl@yahoo.com
Phone: 718-230-2435

On Wednesday, October 24th, the Middle Atlantic Region sent over 340 hospital librarians an e-mail message encouraging them to talk with their hospital administrators about MLA’s Health Information Literacy Survey for Hospital Administrators and Health Care.

The Medical Library Association (MLA) in cooperation with the American Hospital Association (AHA) Society for Health Care Advocacy (SHCA) has distributed a Web-based Health Information Literacy Survey to hospital administrators and health care providers throughout the country. The survey will help ascertain administrators’ and health care providers’ awareness and understanding of health information literacy, its value in support of patient care, and the role that librarians and libraries can play in promoting health information literacy. The survey was developed in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine, TAP Consulting, an outside research firm, and MLA’s Health Information Literacy Project Coordinator, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi.

A non-active copy of the survey is available for review at <http://www.zhost.com/mla/adminLong1.html>

The overall goal of the MLA research project is to increase awareness of health care providers’ knowledge of health information literacy issues as well as the NLM tools and resources for increasing health literacy levels that are available to them and their patients. For an overview of the full project, visit <http://www.mlanet.org/resources/healthlit/hil_project_overview.html>.

If you have questions or need further information, please contact project coordinator Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, sabrina_kurtz-rossi@comcast.net.

Consumers often visit the public library to find health information. How do public librarians meet consumer health information needs? Delaware librarians have medical library expertise right in their own buildings, thanks to Delaware Consumer Health Information Services (DCHIS, http://www.healthyde.org), a program funded by Delaware Health and Social Services’ Division of Public Health and administered by the Delaware Academy of Medicine. DCHIS was established in 2003 and now covers Kent County, Sussex County, and New Castle County. Recently Arpita Bose, NN/LM MAR Outreach and Communications Coordinator, interviewed the DCHIS librarians, Patty Hartmannsgruber, Linda Leonard, and Susan LaValley, about their unique role as medical librarians in public libraries.

What do you do at DCHIS?

We are each stationed at a host public library: Patty is in Kent County at Dover Public Library; Linda is in Sussex County at Rehoboth Beach Public Library; and Susan is in New Castle County at Bear Public Library. Our duties include collection development, staffing the public reference desk, and programming.

What kinds of health programs do you present?

We have facilitated programs on diabetes and nutrition, homeopathy, and complementary medicine. One of the programs was called Facts Versus Quacks; it focused on evaluating health information web sites. We present the programs ourselves, or we have expert speakers lead the programs. Our events happen inside the library and also outside the library, at senior centers, for instance.

What other projects do you do?

We are responsible for Go Local Delaware, which links MedlinePlus with local resources in the state. Patty has also started to prepare a binder of consumer health resources along with sample questions that patrons might ask. Other public librarians will be able to refer to this binder when they receive consumer health inquiries.

What is the best part of your job at DCHIS?

We enjoy working with the public. This program gives us the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of activities, and we have the freedom to be creative about collection development and programming. We enjoy going outside the library to spread the word about consumer health. We attend senior expos, women’s health fairs, Spanish language health fairs, and alternative health expos. The public librarians in our branches also appreciate knowing that we are there to answer complex consumer health information questions.

What’s next for DCHIS?

We are rethinking our image to give us more name recognition in the public libraries. We are planning a name change, logo change, and branding for ourselves. We have become involved with a coalition of health educators and plan to ask them about marketing strategies for our services.

For more information about DCHIS, visit their web site, Healthy DE.

Would you like your library to be featured In the Region? Contact Arpita Bose (arpita.bose@library.med.nyu.edu) for more information.

Delaware Consumer Health Information Services Librarians (from left): Susan LaValley, Linda Leonard, Patty Hartmannsgruber. Not pictured: PJ Grier, Director of Library and Information Services, Lewis B. Flinn Library, Delaware Academy of Medicine

We are pleased to announce the National Medical Librarians Month 2007 featured librarians from the Middle Atlantic Region:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles07/mar.html

You can also learn what your colleagues around the country are doing for National Medical Librarians Month 2007:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles07/

Over the next twelve months, the Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the University of Pittsburgh will introduce a pilot program to provide fast, cost-effective interlibrary loans to over 100 Pennsylvania and Delaware hospital libraries.  With its strong collection, including over 3,900 unique journal titles, prompt and efficient service, and proficient use of technology, the University of Pittsburgh is an ideal center for launching this resource sharing project.

Under this project, HSLS will provide document delivery services to hospital libraries for a discounted rate of $8.50 per article.  The program is limited to hospitals with under 500 beds in Pennsylvania and Delaware.  Participating libraries agree to the following:

• Requests must be submitted via DOCLINE

• Libraries must be willing to receive articles electronically through Ariel, Odyssey or Web PDF

• All libraries will be invoiced via EFTS

• Discounted rate does not apply to rush, urgent patient care or color copies

• Libraries will comply with fair use guidelines and copyright law

An initial group of libraries will receive a letter of invitation with more information in the coming week.

Interested libraries may contact Renae Barger, Reference Librarian and Document Delivery Coordinator, at rbarger@pitt.edu or call 412-648-9750 with any questions.  If you need help creating an EFTS account or have questions regarding DOCLINE, please contact the Regional Medical Library at rml@library.med.nyu.edu or toll free at 1-800-338-7657.

Waynesburg University’s Eberly Library (PAULPD) is the newest participant in DOCLINE. Waynesburg University, located in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, supports a strong and growing nursing program along with other allied health programs. Eberly Library will be participating in FreeShare and is moving to join EFTS.  Please join us in welcoming Waynesburg University to DOCLINE.

Molloy College’s James E. Tobin Library (NYUCIK) is the newest participant in DOCLINE. Molloy College, located in Rockville Center, New York, supports a strong and growing nursing program as well as schools of social work and education. The Tobin Library is a member of Long Island Library Resource Council (LILRC), an established group in DOCLINE, and is a participant in EFTS. Please join us in welcoming Molloy College to DOCLINE.

The New York Medical College conference entitled, “Health Literacy: Tools for Improving Health Communications,” was held on May 30, 2007 with 194 attendees from a wide array of community or health-related advocacy organizations, hospitals, local health departments, public libraries, and/or academic institutions.

The conference was co-sponsored by the New York Medical College (NYMC) Health Sciences Library (HSL) and School of Public Health (SPH) along with the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association (NorMet). It was jointly funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) and the New York State Department of Health. The conference goal was to provide health professionals and hospital staff with an educational opportunity to develop awareness of health literacy issues and improve communication skills with individuals throughout the Hudson Valley Region of New York. In fact, the relevant issues and communication skills needed are basic to all health professionals. NN/LM network members, regional health professionals, and individuals from community agencies were encouraged to attend.

The keynote speakers were widely acknowledged experts on health literacy issues: Rima E. Rudd, MSPH, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health and Shelby Dunster, Associate Director, Department of Standards, The Joint Commission. Rima Rudd has served on the Institute of Medicine’s expert panel on health literacy. Shelby Dunster is responsible for developing and promoting the new cultural and health literacy standards for The Joint Commission. The complete program and agenda are available on the web site: http://library.nymc.edu/PHInformatics/index.cfm.

One outcome was the creation of a health literacy tool kit, which was soon followed by a virtual version. The conference tool kit, with new links added as needed, is available at: http://library.nymc.edu/PHInformatics/hltoolkit.cfm. When the so-called “dancing nurses” video shown by one of the speakers was requested more than 14 times, the link was immediately added to the site: http://www.ahrq.gov/QuestionsAreTheAnswer//. As of July 19, over 1,000 hits have been made to the conference web pages.

All NN/LM members, and others, are encouraged to make use of the conference tool kit. Feedback is welcome and should be sent to Diana Cunningham (Diana_cunningham@nymc.edu). The conference planners are working to continue the dynamic collaborations begun with this event. View photos at: http://library.nymc.edu/PHInformatics/images/hlcphotos/index.htm

NYMC Health Literacy Conference Participants (left to right): Frank Baker, Penny Liberatos, Diana Cunningham, Amy Ansehl, Padmini Murthy, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi. Not pictured: Shelby Dunster, Rima Rudd, and Sarah Kowalski

Library users will have the opportunity to print free copies of such public domain classics as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and “Songs of Innocence” by William Blake, as well as appropriately themed in-copyright titles as Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” and Jason Epstein’s own “Book Business.” The public domain titles were provided by the Open Content Alliance (“OCA”), a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles. The OCA and ODB are working closely to offer this digital content free of charge to libraries across the country. Both organizations have received partial funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Espresso Book Machine will be available to the public at SIBL through August, and will operate Monday- Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library is located at 188 Madison Avenue (at 34th Street).

Read more on the Press Release Newswire