Hello to all, and for many in our region this is a “It’s great to see you again!” introduction. My name is Nikki Dettmar and as of May 1st I am the Acting Education & Assessment Coordinator here in the Pacific Northwest Region. My job duties include developing educational activities in web-based learning formats, as well as coordinating the assessment and evaluation of our regional network and outreach programs with my RML colleagues.

I graduated from the University of North Texas (UNT) School of Library and Information Sciences Health Informatics program via distance learning in December 2007 under a generous fellowship from an IMLS-funded grant that was shared by Dr. Ana Cleveland, AHIP, at UNT and Dr. Gale Hannigan, AHIP, from Texas A&M College of Medicine and Medical Sciences Library. I had the pleasure of working here at the RML as an intern with Gail Kouame on consumer health outreach in 2007, and have enjoyed meeting and getting to know many of you at our local and regional conferences since my UNT studies began in fall 2006.

Although this is my first librarian position, I’m bringing ten years of experience in health information needs from my administrative positions in both the Patient Financial Services and Information Technology Services departments at UW Medicine. My professional interests include distance education (both teaching and taking web-based courses, as well as research on information-seeking behavior and efficacy of distance education), health informatics (especially electronic medical records or EMRs), consumer health, and health literacy. When I’m not enjoying family time with my husband and our 5-year-old son, I enjoy photography, gardening and genealogy. My ancestors passed through most of the states in our region on the Oregon Trail in the 1800s!

I am thrilled to be a part of the RML again in my new position, and welcome hearing from you at any time. I look forward to talking with you soon at MLA in Chicago and on our Rendezvous web conferences.

Phone: 206-543-3409
Email: snydern@u.washington.edu
Google Talk: Nicole S. Dettmar
Skype: nikki_pnr
Twitter: eagledawg

We thought you would enjoy reading about an innovative project undertaken by Network member Hope Leman and her colleagues at Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis, Oregon. ScanGrants is truly an impressive resource. Congratulations, Hope, on a job well done!

—

Hope Leman writes:

Ever tried to help patrons looking for grants? Ever looked for one yourself for your medical library? Looking for ways to expand the range of services your library can offer to your institution and to the greater medical community?

We would like to draw the attention of medical librarians in our region and elsewhere to a web resource we have developed here at Samaritan Health Services (SHS) in Oregon in a collaboration between Murray Memorial Library and the SHS Center for Health Research and Quality. It is:

http://www.scangrants.com/

and we are fairly confident that there is no comparable free listing of healthcare-related grant and scholarship listings on the Internet. We are hoping it will prove a boon to medical researchers and anyone attempting to find funding for projects related to public health, disease prevention and to students trying to find scholarships for health science education.

(more…)