What is public health? What isn’t public health? Who are public health workers, and what do they do?

Join us for a free RML Rendezvous webcast on Wednesday, February 10th 2010 at 1pm Pacific Time (2pm Mountain, noon Alaska) at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/rendezvous.

Gather Around the Water Pump: Public Health Resources and Outreach Ideas will be presented by our Technology Outreach Coordinator Alison Aldrich, who also has a Master of Public Health degree, and give you a better understanding about the vital role of public health in our communities. We will discuss ideas for library-public health partnerships and review relevant information resources.

As part of our Federal agency services regarding electronic and information technology resources being accessible to people with disabilities, closed captioning is now available on this and all future RML Rendezvous webcasts. If you are hearing impaired and in need of closed captioning, please contact Nikki Dettmar at snydern@u.washington.edu by noon Pacific time on Friday, February 5th so we may gladly arrange for this service.

We look forward to seeing you at the webcast! For more information please visit How do I connect to the Rendezvous? to test your computer connection.

Greetings Pacific Northwest Region!

Know any physician assistants or librarians with whom you want to partner?  How about a group with which you’ve always wanted to do outreach activities surrounding health information?  The NN/LM PNR is pleased to announce two new funding opportunities.

First, there is the “Health Information Literacy Partnership Award: Physician Assistants & Librarians.”  The goals of this award are:

* To promote health information literacy and surrounding issues;
* To improve the use of quality health information resources for patient education by physician assistants;
* To promote strategies for improving patient health information literacy by physician assistants;
* To foster local health information expertise among physician assistants;
* To promote awareness and use of the products and services of the NLM and the NNLM, including, but not limited to the InfoRx Program.

See the full announcement and find the application for the “Health Literacy Partnership Award” at: http://nnlm.gov/pnr/funding/HealthLitPAs.html

Next, we have another round of “Express Outreach Awards.”  Goals of these awards are:

* To improve use of quality online health information resources by priority populations (as defined below);
* To promote health information literacy in health education and health care;
* To build or strengthen partnerships between network members and other community organizations;
* To foster local health information expertise in community organizations;
* To promote awareness and use of the products and services of the NLM and the NNLM.

The full announcement this year’s Express Outreach Awards, along with the application are linked here: http://nnlm.gov/pnr/funding/Express_Outreach_Jan_2010.html.

Both of these awards will be for a maximum of $12,000.  Then deadline for both applications is April 23, 2010.  If you have questions contact Gail Kouame, Consumer Health Coordinator, at gmarie@u.washington.edu or Cathy Burroughs, Associate Director, at cburroug@u.washington.edu.  You can also call the Regional Medical Library at 1-800-338-7657 (in AK, ID, MT,  OR, and WA) or 206-543-8262.

Knowledge Management Cafe by eogez

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR), is pleased to announce its sponsorship of a workshop for 14 teams on Knowledge Sharing in Hospitals: The Librarian’s Role at the Providence Portland Medical Center in Portland, Oregon on July 29-30, 2010 led by Lorri Zipperer and eligible for 9.5 units of MLA CE credit.  NN/LM PNR will announce a call for team applications later next month.

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Looking to expand your knowledge of health literacy?  Need practical tools for improving health literacy in your hospital, community or university?  Join leaders in the field of health literacy at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, California (near Orange County airport) May 6-7, 2010, for the 9th Annual Health Literacy Conference sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA). Focusing on “Health Literacy in the Real World: Programs and Solutions that Work,” the conference features the latest in health literacy practical tips and tools for improving health literacy, poster presentations, and opportunities for small group discussion and networking with a variety of health professionals.

In addition, this year’s program highlights librarians’ roles in health literacy.  A panel of health sciences librarians, including PNR’s Gail Kouame,  will report on MLA/NLM’s
Health Information Literacy Research Project funded by the National Library of Medicine and several other librarian/health provider partnership initiatives in a session, “Looking for Health Literacy Solutions? Partner with a Librarian.”  Participate in this and other informative sessions and visit the IHA-sponsored Joint MLA and NN/LM exhibit table.  A complete conference program is available at www.iha4health.org ; click on “2010 Health Literacy Conference.”

To further spark your interest, Medical Library Association CE credit will be granted for attendance, and librarians will receive a $20 conference registration discount (use Discount Code ML10 when you register to get the discount).

For additional information, visit www.iha4health.org and click on “2010 Health Literacy Conference,” or contact:

Kathleen Amos or Jean Shipman (for general information)

Email: Kathleen.Amos@utah.edu; or  jean.shipman@utah.edu

Phone: (801) 587-9246 (Kathleen); (801) 581-8771 (Jean)

Michael Villaire (for conference logistics)

Email: mvillaire@iha4health.org

Phone: (562) 690-4001 ext. 202

Last fall, NN/LM PNR offered the online course Geeks Bearing Gifts: Unwrapping New Technology Trends. This course provided participants with an introduction to social media and the opportunity for some hands-on practice.

The Pacific Northwest Region’s “Geeks Bearing Gifts” course pages are now open for your self-paced learning and amusement. Each unit in the course consists of readings and videos to review for background information, step-by-step exercises to get you started using new Web tools, links to examples of how these tools are being implemented in libraries and/or public health settings, and a discussion forum where you can post questions, comments, and reflections.

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The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in partnership with members of the Professional & Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers announce the availability of free full-text articles from over 200 biomedical journals and over 65 reference books for libraries and hospitals affected by the earthquake in Haiti.  The collection is also intended for healthcare personnel responding to the disaster.

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