MIDDLE ATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE
Newsletter of the
National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Middle Atlantic Region
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware

In This Issue...

Health Literacy Conference
Full Network Members
Milestones
Action Item
Bridging the Digital Divide
New Videotape Available
NTCC Class- Pittsburgh
PubMed Happening
Join MARL Listserv
Create a Customized Union List Using SERHOLD Report Data
NLM Technical Bulletin

Note: This is a newsletter. The links and information are up-to-date when published and are not updated after the published date.

HEALTH LITERACY CONFERENCE HELD AT NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE

On April 30, over 100 people attended this one-day conference that began with a dynamic keynote speaker, Dr. Rima Rudd, a health educator and lecturer with Harvard's Health Literacy Studies and a researcher with the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). Dr. Rudd's presentation, "The Challenges of Functional Health Literacy, A Role for Librarians," included a staggering statistic from the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) conducted in 1992 - approximately 50% of the nation's population read at levels below what is required to function in today's current economy. This population suffers from poorer overall health, which means disease is diagnosed at later stages and individuals are more likely to be hospitalized to name a few of the inherent problems. We as health information providers need to change how we communicate with this population. We need to re-evaluate the literacy levels of the materials used, from prescriptions and medical forms to patient education pamphlets. This underserved group is often too ashamed to admit that they don't understand or can't follow directions, so the burden to effectively communicate is on the information provider. We need to speak, write and illustrate at a level at which the person can comprehend and respond responsibly. For those of you who were unable to attend or would like additional information, you can visit the NCSALL home page at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ncsall/ where you will find a PowerPoint slide presentation created by Dr. Rudd and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, highlighting NCSALL activities and research findings, http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ncsall/slides/01.html

Following Dr. Rudd's enlightening presentation was a panel of speakers representing the Queens Borough Public Library, the Cancer Information Service, the Brooklyn Public Library and a project with the New York City Poison Control Center. A moderator from the New York Public Library posed questions to each of the speakers about the different aspects of library-community partnerships.

In the afternoon, there were three breakout sessions (invitation only as space was limited):
1) Collaborations and Partnerships, 2) Creating and Acquiring Appropriate Materials and 3) Multilingual Partnerships. Each of these sessions was led by a moderator and the participants came with many questions as well as experiences to share.

The Health Literacy conference was sponsored by the Metropolitan New York Library Council's Special Interest Group on Consumer Health and was made possible through the organization and participation of the following: Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health; Brooklyn Public Library; Cancer Information Service of New York; Libraries for the Future; Literacy Partners; the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region; New York Academy of Medicine; New York City Poison Control Center; The New York Public Library- CHOICES in Health Information; Queens Borough Public Library; and the Westchester Library System.

All Full Network Members

If you have NOT yet received your 2002-2006 Network Member Certificate please call the RML office immediately: (212) 822-7352 or email jjahr@nyam.org

MILESTONES

This spring was a time for several significant celebrations in our region.

On May 2, 2002, the Delaware Academy of Medicine honored Gail P. Gill for her 27 years of dedicated service to the Lewis B. Flinn Library and to the Academy itself. The consumer health collection at the Academy has been named the Gail P. Gill Consumer Health Library, in her honor. The Governor of Delaware, Ruthann Minner, sent a proclamation which was read by Judy Govatos, Executive Director of the Delaware Academy of Medicine. More than 150 friends, colleagues and family members turned out to congratulate Gail and wish her well in her future endeavors. She assures us that she will still be around as a part time consultant.

In April both the Philadelphia Chapter of MLA and the Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey (HSLANJ) marked significant milestones. On April 16, the Philadelphia Chapter celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a delicious dinner at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Chapter members were remembered and honored, and Carol Jenkins, MLA President, was the speaker.

On April 18, HSLANJ celebrated its 30th anniversary with a luncheon meeting at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. Norma E. Blake, the New Jersey State Librarian, and Dina Matos McGreevey, the state's First Lady, presented greetings and remarks, and Mrs. McGreevey read a proclamation from the Governor. Dr. Robert Cassidy gave an entertaining and thought-provoking talk on bioethics. A continuous slide show of members past and present added a delightful touch to the event.

Action Item

Forty-five libraries have St. Joseph's Hospital, Elmira, NY (NYUZGI) in their routing tables. Please remove it; unstaffed, it is no longer a DOCLINE library.

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: A PARTNERSHIP AMONG GEISINGER HEALTH SYSTEM, THE VERIZON FOUNDATION AND TWO PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Geisinger Health System serves approximately 2.5 million Pennsylvanians throughout 38 primarily rural counties. Geisinger's mission is to enhance the quality of life through an integrated health service organization based on a balanced program of patient care, education, research and community service. In recognition of the "digital divide" and as part of Geisinger's commitment to community service, we have partnered with the Verizon Foundation to enhance the computer educational level of the area community and the computer technology of two local public libraries.

The Verizon Foundation has donated $25,000 and the Geisinger Health System Foundation has donated $15,000 to provide computers, high-speed Internet connections, and computer skills education for the Thomas Beaver Free Library in Danville, Pennsylvania and the Priestley Forsyth Memorial Library in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. This project is a natural extension of Geisinger's efforts to provide local residents with consumer health information via the Internet. The project is being led by Geisinger's Community Health Resource Library.

A special aspect of this unique project is the computer training offered to the patrons of the public libraries. Staff from Geisinger's Academic Information department will provide training at the local public libraries. Three 90-minute courses will be taught quarterly and will be offered at no charge. The courses include: Microsoft - Getting started with computers and Windows; Microsoft - Getting started with Word; Internet Basics; and Health Information on the Internet.

With the success of the first project we are now moving into the second phase of the partnership. This second phase will enable us to reach three more local public libraries with the same opportunities.

The project has allowed us to dramatically expand the amount of timely, trustworthy information these libraries can provide their patrons. The combination of furnishing computers, high-speed Internet connections to the Internet, and computer skills training provides an educational and civic contribution to each community by bridging the "digital divide."

For further information please contact:
Valerie Gross
Community Health Resource Library
Geisinger Health System
100 N. Academy Ave.
Danville, PA 17822-2020
570-271-5638
vgross@geisinger.edu

NB: Geisinger Health System (PAUGMC) is a Resource Library for the NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region

CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION RESOURCES VIDEOTAPE

On March 21, 2002, the Partners in Information Access for Public Health Professionals sponsored a satellite broadcast on Children's Environmental Health Information Resources. This training program was designed to assist public health professionals and librarians to identify and evaluate resources related to child health and the environment. Topics included general environmental health resources, pesticide exposure, environmental triggers of asthma, lead poisoning prevention, GIS applications in environmental health, and Healthy People 2010.

Course materials and MLA CE credit information are available on the NN/LM web site at http://nnlm.gov/partners/children/ and the web archive of the broadcast can be found at http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/PHTN/webcast/child-env/archivewc.asp Videotapes of the broadcast were made and are now available on a loan basis from the RML office. If you wish to borrow the video, please email Dorothy Weyeneth, the RML Administrative Assistant, at dweyeneth@nyam.org

NTCC CLASS PITTSBURGH

The classes will be held in the Falk Library of the Health Sciences. The library is located on the second floor of Scaife Hall. For more information about Falk Library, point your web browser to http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/about/libraries/falk To register for either of the Keeping Up with PubMed classes, register online at: http://nnlm.gov/mar/online/request.html.

PubMed HAPPENINGS

Text Version of PubMed
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has released a PubMed text version created specifically for users who require special adaptive equipment to access the Web and use PubMed. The Text Version can be accessed from the PubMed sidebar or directly at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/queryd.fcgi.

Online Help is also available from the PubMed Text Version homepage.

PubMed Text Version was tested on screen reading software, including JAWS® for Windows® and outSPOKEN® for Macintosh.®

Patient Education Handouts
There is a new Publication Type available in MEDLINE for the year 2002 and forward, Patient Education Handout.

Several journal publishers have begun publishing summaries intended for patients or the lay public to explain a procedure or condition or to summarize or comment on articles that report scientific or medical findings in the same issue. These summaries are designed for physicians to share with patients or to assist health professionals in talking to patients.

For more information on this new Publication Type and how to search PubMed for patient education information prior to 2002, see the article in the March-April 2002 NLM Technical Bulletin http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma02/ma02_new_pt.html

New Version of the PubMed Tutorial
The National Library of Medicine announced a new version of the PubMed Tutorial. The tutorial is available from the PubMed sidebar. The PubMed Services module now includes Systematic Reviews. Click on the Clinical Queries tab for more information. This version also includes many new screenshots that reflect changes to PubMed since the last time the Tutorial was updated.

New Version of the NLM Gateway
On April 9, 2002, a new version of the NLM Gateway was released. Information is available on the NLM Gateway sidebar menu "What's New."

HAVE YOU JOINED THE MARL LISTSERV?

To subscribe to MARL, send an email message to: LISTSERV@mail.nyam.org
Leave the subject area blank. In the message area, type: SUBSCRIBE MARL first name last name replacing first name, last name with your own name.

HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOMIZED UNION LIST USING SERHOLD REPORT DATA

Have you ever wondered what you could do with the delimited SERHOLD reports you see in DOCLINE? SERHOLD reports in delimited format can be imported into Access, Excel, or a similar program. Then you can rearrange the data and manipulate it in other ways. For example, you can customize DOCLINE's Union List Report and reformat it to meet your specific needs.

Follow the instructions below in order to reformat SERHOLD report data. For these instructions, we used the following applications and versions: Netscape® Communicator version 4.79, Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 5.50, Microsoft Notepad version 5.0, and Microsoft Access 2002 (Office XP). You may need to adapt these instructions if you are using different software. Please refer to the DOCLINE FAQ - Availability of Union List Products web page
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/doc_union_list.html to see when Union List products are updated.

Copying SERHOLD report data

1. Open Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer
2. Go to the DOCLINE website http://docline.gov and login using your UserID and Password
3. Select SERHOLD from the main menu
4. Select Reports from the submenu
5. On the left-hand panel, select Union Lists under Union List Products. (If you want to use your own library's holdings, submit a Holdings by Library report with Delimited format designated as the format. Next, substitute that report for the Union List report in the following steps.)
6. To get the report data:

Using Netscape Communicator: Click on the link "Delimited Format Holdings for.…" Then click inside the frame which contains the report and wait until the report is completely downloaded. At the bottom panel of the web browser screen, it will say "Document Done" when the file is completely downloaded. On Netscape's main menu, click on Edit and then Select All. Now either press down the Ctrl+C buttons or go to Edit on the web browser main menu and select Copy. Your data is now added to your computer's clipboard. If you use Netscape, the data on the clipboard must now be saved as a text file. Open a plain text application window, such as Notepad or WordPad, create a new document, select Edit, and then Paste. Next save the document as a text file, i.e., with a .txt extension.

Using Internet Explorer: Right click on the link "Delimited Format Holdings for..." and select Save Target As.... Keep the default file name or designate your own and then save it. (Note: Remember to write down or make a mental note of where you saved the file.) Copy/Save the SERHOLD report data as a text file. If you use Internet Explorer, the file is saved as an .rptl file. If you can't find it, use Windows Explorer. You will need to open the report and save it as a text file. To do this, first open a plain text application window, such as Notepad or WordPad, and then open the SERHOLD report file you saved in DOCLINE. Then save the document as a text file.

Import the file into Microsoft Access

Open Microsoft Access and create a new database by selecting File, New, Blank Database from the various menus and sub-menus. Once you have named and created this new database, you will need to import the text file of the SERHOLD report. Please follow these steps in order to complete this task:

1. Select File from the main menu of Access
2. Select Get External Data and then Import from the submenu
3. Identify the file, select it, and click on the Import button. If you are unable to locate the file, you may have to change the Files of type to Text Files or search for the text file using Windows Explorer.
4. The Import Text Wizard will open
5. Select the radio button next to Delimited -Characters such as comma or tab separate each field (set as the default), then click on the Next button
6. At the next window, choose the comma delimiter as the field that separates the data. Click the checkbox next to First Row Contains Field Names and select the quotation mark (") option for the Text Qualifier pull-down menu, click the Next button. If an information box pops up, which states "The first row contains some data that can't be used for valid Access field names...", click on the OK button.
7. The next window will ask if you would like the data in a new table (this is the default selection) or if it should be added to an existing table. Choose the most appropriate selection (which will be to add the data in a new table), and then click on the Next button.
8. Once at the next window and if you would like to keep all the fields in the report, click on the Next button and move to Step 9. If you do not want to keep all of the fields of the SERHOLD report, this screen will be useful to you. Here is the list of fields that are included in the union list delimited holdings report:
   

   1. Library Name 2. City 3. State/Province 4. LIBID 5. NLM Unique ID 6. ISSN 7. Title 8. Publisher 9. Place of Publication 10. Publication Dates

   11. Frequency 12. Continuation Notes 13. Holdings 14. Retention Policy 15. Acquisition Status 16. Physical Format 17. Completeness 18. Commitment Level 19. Date Added/Modified 20. Encoding Level

   For the union list report field definitions, please visit the following location: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/docline/docline_manual/serhold/. If you do not want to import all of the fields of the report, locate the unwanted field by scrolling to the right, click on the field name at the top of the column and select the checkbox for Do not import field (Skip). Repeat this for each field you do not want to import.
9. The next screen of the Import Text Wizard is for selecting the primary key for the table. There are three selections: Let Access add primary key, Choose my own primary key, and No primary key. The default is set to the first choice, Let Access add primary key. This will add an additional field to the table that will be defined as the primary key for the table. This selection is recommended as you want to have a unique identifier field in your table.
10. The final screen of the Import Text Wizard requests the indication of the table name. Once you decide on a name for the table, click on the Finish button; you are done with importing the report data into Access. A message box will pop-up indicating that the file was successfully imported into the database.

Now that the data is in a table, you can create a query and/or a report and print out the newly formatted report with the fields that you like.

[Editor's Note: For more information about SERHOLD reports, go to the DOCLINE Online Manual, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/docline/docline_manual/serhold/report_overview.html]
Reprinted with permission from the May/June 2002 issue of Latitudes, the newsletter of the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region