Report of the RML Directors Meeting, New York, February 2003
Judy Consales and Elaine Graham recently traveled to New York to meet with the other Regional Medical Library (RML) Directors and Associate Directors and National Library of Medicine (NLM) staff, including Betsy Humphreys, Deputy Director for Library Operations, and Angela Ruffin, Head, National Network Office. The New York Academy of Medicine, the RML for the Middle Atlantic Region, hosted the meeting on February 6-7, 2003. The agenda included discussion of outreach evaluation plans, outreach activity data collection and mapping, interregional collaborative projects, MEDLINEplus Go Local, electronic publishing and document delivery, and EFTS. RML and NLM staff in attendance also enjoyed several presentations on public health at the New York Academy of Medicine, including a talk by Roz Lasker, M.D., who will present the Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecture at the MLA Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. (See http://mlanet.org/am/am2003/program/speakers.html)
Outreach Evaluation. Two inter-regional NN/LM task forces on outreach evaluation presented draft recommendations for projects to reach: 1) public libraries, and 2) the public health workforce. PSRML Regional Advisory Committee members provided valuable input on the drafts prior to the meeting; that feedback along with input from all the NN/LM regions is now being reviewed by the task forces. The task forces have each chosen to use the "logic model" format to describe the outreach objectives, resources, activities/process, project management milestones, outputs, immediate outcomes, and long-range outcomes. PSRML will make an announcement when the final outreach evaluation plans are published on the NN/LM web site. (The W. K. Kellogg Foundation offers an excellent free publication, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide to assist non-profit organizations in outcome-oriented evaluation of projects; you can request a print copy or view the publication online at the W.K. Kellogg publications and resources web site at http://www.wkkf.org/Knowledgebase/Pubs/.)
Outreach Activity Data Collection and Mapping. Several efforts are underway to improve data capture for NLM, RML, and NN/LM network member health information outreach projects. The new NN/LM National Outreach Mapping Center is developing web-based data entry tools and databases; soon we will have the capability to generate maps to illustrate and evaluate regional outreach activity using geographic information system software. Data on NN/LM projects will be linked to the NLM outreach project database also in development.
Interregional Collaborations. Various RML staff and NN/LM network librarians are working together across regional boundaries. Tribal Connections, which focuses on outreach to Native American Indian communities, began in the Pacific Northwest Region with funding from NLM and expanded with funding from the Gates Foundation. The Tribal Connections working group has grown to include representatives from libraries and RMLs in the Pacific Southwest Region, the Mid-Continental Region, and the South Central Region. The Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, is coordinating two related projects, Outreach to Arizona's Tribal Nations, funded by PSRML, and Tribal Connections Four Corners, an evaluation project based on activities in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, funded through the Mid-Continental RML. The Tribal Connections group holds monthly teleconferences to report progress and exchange ideas; it is open to all those interested in working to improve health information access to Native American populations.
The Multilingual Materials Working Group consists of individuals from diverse career backgrounds with a common interest: the creation and dissemination of quality consumer health materials in multiple languages. Several group members have ongoing projects that provide multilingual health information (The 24 Languages Project http://medlib.med.utah.edu/24languages; EthnoMed http://www.ethnomed.org; The Cross Cultural Health Care Program; and http://www.xculture.org The Health Education Resource Exchange http://www.doh.wa.gov/HERE/). At PSRML, Heidi Sandstrom is conducting a pilot project on digitizing foreign language health information print materials. The Multilingual Materials Working Group meets regularly by teleconference. Among the group's goals are: 1) working with area health departments and other organizations in finding new materials and promoting awareness of existing ones, and 2) identifying helpful criteria in evaluating multilingual documents.
MEDLINEplus Go Local. Currently, the "Go Local" links on MEDLINEplus health topic pages take you to information about health services in North Carolina via NC Health Info (http://www.nchealthinfo.org). NC Health Info is a joint project of the Health Sciences Library and the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, funded by a contract from the National Library of Medicine. Through this pilot project, NLM is learning how best to link to health services in other states. Multiple models for linking other sites are being considered. If you have a web site that collects statewide information on local heath services, please let the MEDLINEplus team know by using the "Contact Us" link at the top of every MEDLINEplus page.
Electronic Publishing and Document Delivery. The RML and NLM participants conducted a wide-ranging discussion on electronic journal licensing issues, changes in scholarly publishing, and the effects of licensing constraints on document delivery in the NN/LM network. There are no easy solutions to the many challenges posed by electronic resources, and publishing models will surely continue to change dramatically over the coming decades. One practical and immediate step we can take is to be aware of all the journal titles that can be freely accessed in PubMed Central, NLM's digital archive of life sciences journal literature. PubMed Central is available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ and through the PMC link on the black bar at the top of the PubMed screen. Libraries should consider including all PubMed Central titles in their catalogs and/or linking to these titles via LinkOut (see related article in this issue).
Electronic Funds Transfer System (EFTS). EFTS is in various stages of implementation across the country, and many individual libraries and cooperative groups have responded enthusiastically to the national expansion. The University of Connecticut has prepared an RFP for a web-based version of EFTS, and a national advisory committee is being formed to promote EFTS usage, evaluate EFTS operation, and provide recommendations on policy, procedures, and fees. Testing of billing data transfer from NLM to EFTS is proceeding very well. (See article in this issue about new EFTS participants in the Pacific Southwest Region.) EG