National Network of Libraries of Medicine nnlm.gov	Archives	Search nnlm.gov: nnlm home | About the archives
This page was archived on: May 02, 2008 | View page metadata		Document content is not current. Links may be broken.

Dragonfly, Spring 2001 What Happens When a Whole County is Connected for Health Information?

Nancy Press
Consumer Health Coordinator

A request to NLM from Wallowa County Librarian Claudia Jones and Troy branch librarian Conni Curry brought Internet connectivity and training to libraries in this most northeastern county of Oregon, 350 miles from Portland.

Claudia says:

"The county's population of approximately 7,000 live in small communities scattered along the valley, on plateaus, and some, like Troy and Imnaha, are located in canyons. We are surrounded by National Forest lands and the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area. There is one main road connecting us to the neighboring county, a 62 mile stretch that twists along the canyon following the river. In addition to the geographic isolation, winter weather makes travel difficult even within the county. The road to Troy is a narrow (one lane) gravel road that twists and winds its way down the side of the canyon to the Grande Ronde River below. I travel it only dring the good weather months and send [library] materials with the UPS driver or the garbage service from November through March... Online access is non-existent other than at headquarters, where I have an older "hand-me-down" PC I use mostly for word processing... Neither branch library has a telephone..."

Working with Nancy Press at the RML, the Wallowa County librarians created a plan for access to health information in Wallowa County. If access can be entirely electronic, transportation issues become much less important. Therefore Internet was seen as the key medium, necessitating that we buy computers and install Internet connections. Wallowa County showed signs of readiness for Internet communication: proactive library staff and good local web expertise (apparent on other web pages in the county). RML staff predicted a successful outcome; after all, librarians who use the garbage truck for delivery of library materials can certainly get plenty of mileage out of minimal investment! In addition, the libraries showed that they are integral to the life of the county; the library has a health resource center and the branch libraries are housed with the one-room schools, reinforcing their status as community centers.

Special funding from NLM was awarded in January 2001 with the proviso that the installation and training work be completed by the end of the RML's five year contract--April 30, 2001! Claudia Jones, Dolores Judkins (of Oregon Health Sciences University), and Nancy Press got to work right away to choose and buy equipment, negotiate with vendors, arrange for installation, and plan for training.

In specific, NLM funding provided work stations, computers, and color printers at four sites in the county: the main county library office in Enterprise, county branch libraries in Troy and Imnaha, and the Enterprise city library. Imnaha and the Enterprise city library now have dedicated phone lines for Internet access, the Troy library is now serviced by a T1 line that had been only in the school, and the county library office now has a DSL line. The project also includes licenses for full-text data bases containing consumer health information, accessible from home by anyone in the county--another move to ameliorate the transportation problems.

Perhaps most importantly, funding also paid for Dolores Judkins of OHSU to travel to Wallowa to teach staff there how to take advantage of their new capabilities. Claudia wrote, "Dolores was fantastic! She provided a wonderful training for 6 librarians, 3 library volunteers, and a staff member from the hospital."

Claudia Jones reported to the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners, "This is like money dropping out of the sky."

The project was written up in the Wallow County Chieftain, February 22 at http://www.wallowa.com/chieftain/2001/8/gin5wpd.html.

URL: http://nnlm.gov/pnr/news/200104/wallowa.html