Submitted by Jamie Graham, Librarian, Seattle Children’s

On March 29-30 of this year, I had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Disaster Information Outreach Symposium in Bethesda, Maryland.  Speakers and participants from all levels of government, non-profit, libraries and business gathered to discuss expectations, strategies, and services librarians and libraries could offer in times of emergency.  Questions of how to engage key players, deliver the right kind of services, and identify real needs vs. perceived needs ruled the day.

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L-R: B. Bartholomew, A. Lee, A. Gleason

The National Association of Free Clinics sponsors C.A.R.E. Clinic events throughout the United States. C.A.R.E. Clinics provide opportunities for the uninsured to receive free basic medical care and preventive health services. The Washington C.A.R.E. Clinic took place on April 30, 2011 in the Tacoma Dome. Four medical librarians from the Pacific Northwest Region were on hand to direct patients to reliable sources of online health information. We would like to thank Angela Lee, Ann Gleason and Joanne Rich (University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries, Seattle) as well as Betsy Bartholomew (Multicare Health Systems, Tacoma) for volunteering their time and expertise to support this event.

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The National Library of Medicine’s History of Medicine Division recently announced the following new projects:

• Completion of a project to catalog Imperial Russian Era Holdings.  Pre-1917 collection includes pamphlets and dissertations on a spectrum of medical topics, including some by future Nobel Laureates – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/russian_holdings_cataloged.html
• Medical history comes to life through first person accounts in the National Library of Medicine’s Oral History Collections.  The new web interface allows easier searching of text and audio content – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/oralhistory.html
• New education resources added to Online Exhibition, “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature” – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/frankenstein_enriched.html

And, don’t forget: If you have a collection of unique historical health sciences materials, we would appreciate your filling out our survey – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N3QKT67. To learn more about the background of the survey, read the previous Dragonfly post.

Submitted by LeAnn Gelskey, Hailey Public Library, Hailey, ID

The Hailey Public Library received a $5,000 outreach award to host a free emergency preparedness and planning community event.  The event was held on October 23, 2010.  The event “Ready Hailey” partnered with local agencies and community organizations to bring information specific to emergency preparedness and planning to the community.

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Preserving health sciences materials is an important part of the National Library of Medicine‘s (NLM) mission.  In addition to its own large collections, the NLM has created a directory of historical materials to highlight unique collections at other institutions and to provide contact information to researchers wishing to access them.  The NLM has asked its Regional Medical Libraries to identify collections in each region that should be included in the Directory of History of Medicine Collections.  The collections described in this Directory database provide research and reference services to scholars interested in the history of the health sciences.  Some of the subjects include: dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, military medicine, and pharmacy.

Here’s where you come in!  We are asking organizations throughout our Network to participate in this effort by filling out a questionnaire, telling us whether they have relevant collections, or know of relevant collections in the Pacific Northwest.  Please go to this link to answer the brief  (4 question) online questionnaire – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N3QKT67.  Thank you  for your participation!

Email Gail Kouame or Cathy Burroughs at the Regional Medical Library if you have questions or want to share relevant information about this effort.

Office phone: 206-543-8262 or 1-800-338-7657.

Do you want to demonstrate the impact of your library on patient care? Join a study on the Value of Library and Information Services in Patient Care sponsored by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Middle Atlantic Region (MAR) and conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

http://nnlm.gov/mar/about/value.html

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