In This Issue:

• Home
  
  
• AD-Perspective
  
  
• ILL Advised
  
  
• Inside Outreach
  
  
• PubMed Particulars
  
  
• Tech Time
  
  
• Chic Chat
  
  
• Announcements
  
  
• Links
  
  

CHIC CHAT

The Michele and Howard Kessler Health Education Library opened in November 2000, as a component of Brigham and Women's Hospital's Health Promotion and Education Program. The Kessler Health Education Library is a vibrant, thriving center that supports over 11,000 visitors annually, answering approximately 100 questions per month and providing circulation services to over 700 borrowers. Library staff and volunteers strive to create a warm, supportive atmosphere where patients and families feel comfortable while gathering the information they need to understand their conditions and treatment options. This article will discuss some of the creative programs that Program Manager Cara Helfner has initiated at the BWH Michele and Howard Kessler Health Education Library.

Morning Film Series

In January 2002, the library began its series of "Morning Films at the Kessler Library". Each morning upon opening the library shows a different health education film from its collection. Films are chosen according to national health themes, such as American Heart Month and National Diabetes Week. They are shown Mondays through Friday at 10 am. Topics have included controlling cholesterol, healthy eating, and quitting smoking.

The library has also aired special film events, such as the weeklong PBS documentary "The Secret Life of the Brain" during Brain Awareness Week and Brigham and Women's Hospital's Live WebCasts, which feature surgical procedures as they are performed, along with doctors' commentary.

BookTalks

Cara began the BookTalk program in 2001. BookTalks are held every Monday at 1pm, with many "regulars" enjoying the exchange of new ideas in health and wellness, a supportive community of readers, and the opportunity to be the first to borrow new titles. She delivers many of the BookTalks herself, with guest authors and speakers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital community at least once a month. Some books by BWH authors discussed at BookTalks include "The Gift of Health", "The Arthritis Action Program", "Your New Baby", "6 Steps to Increased Fertility", "Transplant: From Myth to Reality" and "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Taking Control of Asthma." A special BookTalk was delivered in 2003 by BWH Medical Library Director Anne Fladger, who contributed to the Health Commons Institute book "Seniors on the Internet: A Health Education Guide."

Presentations and Outreach

The Kessler Library has held numerous presentations throughout the years. In April 2003, Cara and Molly Folly, Faulkner Hospital Library Director, taught an educational session on where to find and access the latest health information, both in print and online. The presentations are posted on the BWH and the Faulkner websites.

In September 2003, the Kessler Library hosted the Partners Consumer Health Library Information Consortium meeting where Cara presented "Developing Intranet Sites for Health Education". This presentation included a behind-the-scenes look at how the Kessler Library Intranet Site was developed that included sketches, focus group research and feedback from the oversight committee.

Children's Programs

Young visitors to the library can showcase their creations in a special "Artwork by Kids", book or even in a frame in the library's Children's Section for all to see. Colored papers, pencils, watercolor crayons and collage materials are available for youngsters to create their masterpieces. Cara offers to read a story to every picture-book-age youngster who visits, and older kids can try their luck at a treasure hunt, winning prizes for finding pictures, definitions and call numbers in the library.

Disabilities Programs

The library was awarded a two year Serving People with Disabilities grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioner in November 2003 through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). An MLS candidate from the University of Rhode Island, Matt Kramer, was hired as an intern to staff the program. The $20,000 grant is being used to increase awareness of the library's resources to the hospital's staff, patients and community and to provide technologies and resources in many alternative formats to address a variety of disabilities. Library staff and volunteers are receiving training on disabilities issues to improve service levels and provide end-user training to patients and families.

Resources and services for people with disabilities initiated to date include - an adaptive workstation with special keyboards and trackballs, Web and Intranet pages to help people with disabilities access library information, a Books-by-Mail Program, a TTY telephone, print magnification and book reaching devices, and materials in alternative formats, such as Books on Tape and Braille (received through an affiliation with Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library).

Focus on Technology

The Kessler Library was the first library ever to purchase Gale's Virtual Reference System in 2004, offering patrons access to a selective family of medical eEncylopedias as a component of the InfoTrac database. Cara has worked with BWH IS to set up Intranet-launchable CD-ROM programs and the library's Intranet provides interactive forms for users to submit a reference question or recommend a book title.

The Kessler-L ListServe was launched in July 2002. Users are updated via e-mail each month about the newest resources in the library, including books, pamphlets, eBooks, Books-on-Tape, CD-ROM programs and more. Each list includes an original abstract of a "featured book". Kessler-L is open to all BWH patients, family members and friends, providers and the community, with users hailing as far away as the Philippines.

Reaching Out

It's the little things that mean a lot to someone while they're in the hospital and recuperating. In February staff and volunteers make handcrafted "Healthy Valentines" that visitors can give to loved ones, with sayings like, "let's quit smoking together." Information and resources can be delivered to patient's bedside upon request. Every person who submits a reference question receives a phone call to check whether the information was received and answered all their questions, and if there is anything else the Kessler Library can do to help them. Many people who visit the Michele and Howard Kessler Health Education Library while they or their family member receive care at Brigham and Women's Hospital like it so much that they even decide to volunteer.

-Michelle Eberle and Cara Helfner

Consumer Health News from the National Library of Medicine

Find a Hospital Directory

On Tuesday, July 27th, the National Library of Medicine will release a new Find a Hospital directory search. From MedlinePlus, users can search for information on over 6,000 hospitals in the United States, including address, specialty, services provided, and driving directions. The hospital data comes from the American Hospital Association and the mapping feature is provided by MapQuest. The Find a Hospital Directory will be linked from the MedlinePlus Directories page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directories.html Information Prescription Project

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the American College of Physicians Foundation (ACPF) have teamed up to create the Information Prescription project that encourages physicians to refer their patients to NLM’s MedlinePlus, as a trusted and reliable source of information on their health and medical conditions. This initiative is an important effort by NLM and the ACPF to advance the goal of achieving a health-literate population that is empowered to take an active and positive role in its health care, and to provide the nation’s physicians with a valuable patient education tool that captures and filters the best health information available on the Internet. In April 2004, the Information Rx Project was launched nationally at the American College of Physicians annual session in New Orleans. In May 2004, the Information Rx Tool Kit for librarians was launched nationally at the Medical Libraries Association annual conference in Washington D.C. This tool kit is designed to assist librarians in any outreach efforts for the Information Prescription project. The tool kit was created with assistance and material from several Virginia academic health sciences libraries, the Middle Atlantic Regional Medical Library, and NLM. We invite you to be a part of this important Information Rx project. To learn more about the project, the tool kit, and how your library can participate, please visit, http://nnlm.gov/hip/InfoRx.

Free Publicity of your Library’s Services in the MedlinePlus Find a Library Directory

Just a reminder that if your library provides health information for the public, your library qualifies to be listed in MedlinePlus’ Find a Library directory. If you are a Docline member, you may add your library to the Find a Library directory in MedlinePlus in your Docline user profile. If you do not have a Docline member, contact me at michelle.eberle@umassmed.edu to be listed in the MedlinePlus Find a Library. Let’s aim for a true representation of the services that are already being provided in our region in the directory. To see how well library’s in your state are listed, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/libraries.html and select your state.

-Michelle Eberle

NIH Senior Health News

On August 12, NIHSeniorHealth (http://www.nihseniorhealth.gov) added a "printer-friendly" version. This change allows users to easily print NIHSeniorHealth content. Until now, printing a topic involved printing dozens of individual of screens. Now, by clicking the new printer-friendly icon on the left menu, users can print selected chapters or a complete topic such as "Arthritis" or "Prostate Cancer."

In addition to the "printer-friendly" version, the accessibility buttons at the top of every NIHSeniorHealth page are easier to use. The text size button now allows for more text sizes. The contrast and speech options clearly indicate whether those features are on or off. NIHSeniorHealth now also provides a new message, when necessary, to remind users to turn off their browser pop-up blocker when they choose the speech option.

NIHSeniorHealth, launched in October 2003, is a partnership of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.

“Bringing Health Information to the Community” Blog

NN/LM's MidContinental Region announces the launch of the "Bringing Health Information to the Community" Blog: http://medstat.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/

Postings on this blog include conferences, grants, articles, minority health concerns, rural health concerns, and more, that would be of interest to community-based organizations that include health as part of their outreach.

Please feel free to spread the word, as the information is rarely of a regional nature. There is a way to sign up to recieve an email every time an item is posted to the blog. A warning that at times this can be up to 4 emails a day, while at other times there are very few posts made.

-announcement by M. Boer