Dan Willson, NN/LM National Coordinator for Emergency Preparedness, has recently created a screencast discussing the importance of disaster planning in libraries and why libraries should put together an emergency preparedness or service continuity plan. (more…)

The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org, has been revised to make public health information easier to find and to highlight public health news and resources.

PHPartners is a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health science libraries which provides timely, convenient access to selected resources on the Internet.

Revisions to PHPartners.org include:

● Access to public health topic pages from the left frame of every page:
Bioterrorism
Environmental Health
HIV/AIDS
Nutrition
Workforce Development

● Access to main topics from the left frame of every page:
Health Promotion and Health Education
Literature and Guidelines
Health Data Tools and Statistics
Grants and Funding
Education and Training
Legislation and Policy
Conferences and Meetings
Finding People
Discussion and E-mail Lists
Jobs and Careers

● Public Health News in center of the home page.
● In the Spotlight section to highlight links of particular interest to the public health workforce. Selected spotlight links will rotate on a weekly basis.
● Featured Resources on the right frame of the home page.
● What’s New on PHPartners.org on the home page allows users to keep up-to-date with news and new resources posted on PHPartners.org by subscribing to the PHPartners email list or RSS news feed.

The PHPartners team wants to hear feedback on the look and usability of PHPartners.org. Please submit your feedback and comments to Lisa Sedlar, sedlarl@mail.nlm.nih.gov, and Hathy Simpson, hathy.simpson@umassmed.edu. Users can also submit feedback using the Contact Us link on the About Partners page.

National Library of Medicine’s Training for You Locally!

NLM Gateway/ClinicalTrials.gov, and PubMed® Training in Boston, MA!

The National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC), in conjunction with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine New England Region (NN/LM NER) and Tufts University is offering two FREE hands-on classes at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library in Boston, MA!

The following two classes will be taught by the staff of the NTCC:

PubMed® (7.5 MLA CE Hours)

Monday, August 10, 2009

8:30am to 5:00pm

Anyone who has used PubMed regularly has noticed some of the many changes. This PubMed® class is of particular interest to those who want a review of recent changes to the system, including medical librarians, researchers, medical editors, and anyone who searches for biomedical journal article citations.

This full-day class is designed to teach students how to use PubMed® which includes MEDLINE citations. The class also includes an overview of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) and its importance as a tool to both searchers and indexers.

The NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov (3.5 MLA CE Hours)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

8:30am to 12:00pm

The NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov class is of particular interest to public, consumer health, and medical librarians and all health information consumers.

The NLM Gateway allows users of NLM services to initiate searches from one Web interface, providing “one-stop searching” for many of NLM’s information resources or databases, including: PubMed®, MedlinePLUS, TOXNET®, Meeting Abstracts, and many more.

All the training sessions are FREE and intended for health sciences library staff, public librarians, health professionals, and anyone interested in using these free National Library of Medicine (NLM) databases.

To REGISTER for any or all of these classes, or to look for other class locations, simply click on this registration form link (http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/register.html).

We hope to see you there.

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For further information about our classes, please go to: http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/

For further information about the site location, please contact:

Cora Ho

Cora.ho@tufts.edu

(617) 636-2481

Moderator: Mark Goldstein

Guest Speakers: Betsy Kelly, Assessment and Evaluation Liaison (NN/LM MCR) & Barb Jones, Advocacy Liaison (NN/LM MCR)

Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009

Time: 2:30-4:00 PM

Concept: To help hospital librarians work with two “valuation” tools: (1.) the new Library Value Calculator, adapted from one originally provided by the Massachusetts Library Association, and then adapted for the web by Chelmsford Public Library; and (2.) the Cost Benefit and ROI Calculator, that helps determine a library’s contribution to the institutional “bottom line”.

Highlights / Responses to questions, such as:

• What’s your library worth to the institution?
• How much would it cost to replace your library services on the retail market?
• How much does the library contribute to the bottom line?
• How much benefit does your institution (i.e., the patrons) receive for every dollar spent by the library?
• What kind of annual return is realized for funds allocated to maintain the library’s collection?

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu and let her know which session you want to attend. Details of how to access the web conference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded upon registration. Information on how to test your computer for Adobe Connect is available under Connect Diagnostics on the NN/LM NER Distance Education Web Page.

NER has been talking about Emergency Preparedness for the last few years. We’ve visited with members at their association meetings (MAHSLIN, HSLIC, SEMCO, ARIHSL, NAHSL) and presented on the different resources available to put together a preparedness plan.

NER conducted an assessment of members’ activities in preparedness planning, here are some figures:

• 76% of you reported not having a preparedness plan

• 84% of you indicated you’d be interested in assistance in developing continuity of service plans.

As part of its battery of training and professional development opportunities being offered this winter, NER is announcing a course on Developing Your Library Continuity of Service Plan.

Through the course we hope to assist NER members in developing their own plans for handling emergencies. The course is designed to meet via Adobe Connect sessions–many of you have already participated in our other Connecting with the NER sessions. The course will follow a 10-Step Process to Service Continuity Planning developed by the NN/LM National Coordinator. To provide an opportunity for librarians to work together, the class will also use the Moodle online learning platform as a collaborative virtual space for working through exercises and Steps that will serve to help build your own Service Continuity Plan

Here are the details:

Schedule

• Adobe Connect Session 1: January 27^th
• Adobe Connect Session 2: February 11th
• Adobe Connect Session 3: Feb 24th
• Adobe Connect Session 4: March 4th

Sessions will start at 2:00p.m. and may last until 3:30.

Adobe Connect Session will also operate with an audio telephone conferencing system

Course Objectives:

• Participants will be introduced to the basic elements of a service continuity plan.

• Participants will learn how to:

· Conduct a risk assessment

· Assure personal safety

· Identify core services and resources

· Plan for remote service and resource provision

· Identify print and unique resources and prioritize resource recovery

• Participants will be able to develop and complete a service continuity plan for their own library.

8 MLA CE Credits have been approved!.

Javier and Penny will be the course instructors. The course is only available to NER member libraries. As with all NER offerings, the course is free of charge.

Participants will need access to workstations that enable the use of Adobe Connect as well as be able to telephone into the conferencing system.

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu. In your email please include: Your name, institution address with phone number and zip code and the name of the course (Developing Your Library Continuity of Service Plan).

Details on how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded upon registration.

Act fast and spread the word!

Health Information Outreach and Community Engagement: 

Lessons Learned from the Experts

Thursday, February 12, 2009 / 2 – 3:30 PM

Engaging your community with health information outreach projects is rewarding, meaningful work. Come learn from the experiences of experts in health information outreach and community engagement. Each speaker has led a successful health information outreach subcontract from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/ New England Region. The program is intended for anyone interested in pursuing funding or interested in learning more about how to engage the local community in effective health information outreach.

*Earn 1.5 Medical Library Association CE units

The Experts:

Beth Schneider, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Project: Access to Resources for Community Health (ARCH) / Head Start CAPIC Collaboration

Marianne Burke, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Project: Connecting Patients, Providers, and the Community with Quality Health Information Outreach

Anne Conner, Littleton Regional Hospital, Littleton, NH
Project: Northern New Hampshire Health Information Outreach

Participants will:

a)      Learn about three successful health information outreach projects

b)      Learn how to plan and implement a successful health information outreach project

c)       Know about the process of applying for funding from the NN/LM

d)      Be aware of the rewards and challenges of conducting a health information outreach project

e)      Gain knowledge about project evaluation

Registration:

Registration is free and on a first come, first serve basis.  Session will be limited to fifty participants.

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu.

In your email please include: 

• Name
• Institution / address with zip code / phone / e-mail
• Name of the program (Health Information Outreach and Community Engagement:  Lessons Learned from the Experts). 

Details of how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded at registration.

Free Online Distance Education Opportunity

Stay up to date professionally without leaving your desk! The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region (NN/LM NER), continues its free distant education classes on health information topics.

Each session is held via teleconference and has an online component via Adobe Connect. All you need to participate is a phone near a computer with Internet access.

Public Health Online Resources – Virtual Tour of PHPartners.org

Presenter: Hathy Simpson
Date: February 3, 2009
Time: 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Description:
This session will provide an overview of public health information resources available from the public health web portal, PHPartners.org. The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org, provides access to selected online public health resources from government agencies, health science libraries, and professional and research organizations. Hathy Simpson, Public Health Coordinator for the NER and Content Developer for PHPartners.org, will highlight information resources tailored to the public health workforce including resources on health education and promotion, data and statistics, legislation and policy, jobs and careers, public health news, environmental health, nutrition, and more!

Registration:
Registration is free and on a first come, first serve basis.

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu. Details of how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded upon registration.