Collaboration: MCR Members
| Topics on this page: |
Susan Centner
Project Director, MAHEC Digital Library.
The Missouri Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) Digital Library (MDL) is a partnership project of the Missouri AHEC, Founding Academic Partner, J. Otto Lottes Health Science Library at the University of Missouri-Columbia, A.T. Still Memorial Library at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Medical Library at St Louis University. The MDL provides physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers and institutions throughout Missouri access to current, quality, evidence focused health information to support clinical decision making and educational activities. The Missouri AHEC system is comprised of seven regional centers and three university program offices with a mission to enhancing access to quality health care, particularly primary and preventive care, by growing and supporting Missouri's healthcare workforce. This is accomplished through collaboration with local, regional and statewide organizations.
Siobhan Champ-Blackwell
Community Outreach Liaison for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, MidContinental Region, Creighton University Health Sciences Library, Omaha, NE
The NN/LM is the outreach branch of the National Library of Medicine. There are eight regional medical libraries in the US, and I work on a subcontract with the MidContinental Region, which is located at Eccles Health Sciences Library in Salt Lake City Utah. the MCR covers a six state region, and my role is to work on issues around health disparities. One of the goals is to assist librarians who want to develop outreach programs with community groups. For many of our librarians, there are limited resources - they are solo librarians at rural hospitals, who have an overwhelming agenda to meet. So, anything we can do to assist them in making this easier for them to take on will be very useful. Having a library partner with a community group is good in and of itself; but it also adds value to the institution the library is associated with, and thus may give the library more status.
Bob Engeszer
Associate Director, Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. 63110
I currently direct our library's Translational Research Support division which includes specialized programs in bioinformatics support, scholarly communications, consumer health, and community outreach. Our library has recently embarked on two initiatives to further our efforts in establishing community partnerships. We are working with the St. Louis Public Library to create a questionnaire to assess the health information needs of public library patrons. At the same time we are collaborating with several Washington University faculty and a local neighborhood clinic system on a research project (hopefully to be funded in 2009) to identify effective mechanisms and formats for disseminating the results of clinical research studies conducted at our university to community participants.
Chris Engleman
Director of the Grillo Health Information Center at the Boulder Public Library in Boulder, Colorado.
The Grillo Center is a small-nonprofit organization which is housed in the Boulder Public Library, and though it basically functions as a department of the Library it is actually a separate organization--especially financially. The Center is staffed by volunteers who I train and we have about 20 regular volunteers who each do one 2-hour shift per week. We have had a project of community partnering with the People's Clinic--a health center for the underserved of Boulder County--and are looking to partner, starting in January, with the Boulder Senior Center. Both of these involve having Grillo volunteers at these locations with a laptop and offering to assist people there with helping to find information on any health-related questions they may have.
Melody B. Kinnamon
Consumer Health Librarian, Johnson County Library, 9875 W. 87th St., Overland Park, KS 66212
Johnson County Library is part of the Kansas City metro area. The system includes a Central Resource Library, where I office, and 12 neighborhood libraries throughout the county. The Consumer Health Specialist position was created one year ago and I have the privilege of being the first to take on this job. Previously, I was a branch manager for the library. I also have experience as a law librarian. I'm interested in community collaboration because I have discovered that there are so many wonderful people doing really impressive things and I think of how much more effective we could be if we all joined together.
Will Olmstadt
Librarian, Washington University School of Medicine, Becker Medical Library, St. Louis, MO 63110
Will Olmstadt has worked in libraries since 1995. Prior to joining Becker Medical Library, Will was on the library faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas A&M University, and was also the library director for DeVry University in Irving, Texas. Will earned an MLS from the University of Kentucky and an MPH from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He has done research grading the quality of clinical trials for brief interventions for alcohol-related injuries. In 2005 he completed a significant project using GIS to map Medically Underserved Areas (MUA) in Dallas and Tarrant County, Texas, for the DFW Area Health Education Center. Will has published and presented on diverse aspects of library instruction, including teaching public health informatics courses and providing training for patients in support groups. He is a senior member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals of the Medical Library Association. In fall 2008, Will is also acting half-time as the librarian for St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Frank Peak
[Information coming soon]
Lori Phillips
University of Wyoming Libraries, Laramie,WY
We are home for the Wyoming RML Liaison position, which has been vacant since August 2007. We are in the midst of a search for a librarian to work with health care providers and public librarians in the state of Wyoming to extend health information to citizens and groups that need it. I meet quarterly with directors from other midcontinental resource libraries to discuss planning and evaluation issues. Recently I was asked to join the RML Regional Advisory Board and I'm excited to work with this group on issues related to community outreach. We at UW are accustomed to involvement in community and state issues, since we are the only 4 year institution of higher learning in the state.
Kathy Tacke
Director of Community Impact for United Way of Southwest Wyoming
I came to the United Way from 25 years as a Hospital Library Manager and Grant Writer. I believe that developing partnerships and forming collaborations is the key to creating positive lasting change in our communities. My past experience as a medical library manager provided me with valuable skills that have guided my work in community impact for Southwest Wyoming. To determine what the cricital areas of need in our community are, I faciliated focus groups for a period of 6 months. Through the process, the groups would identify areas of concern and I would then perform the research to back up their assumptions and make comparisions to like communites or situations. These groups have now trasnformed into action groups surrounding those critical areas of need that were identified. I continue to provide research and grant writing assitance for all of our funded agencies, programs, boards, councils and work groups. I am also working to develop a small consumer health resource library for the non-profit sector.
