On January 9-10, 1997 a meeting at the National Library of Medicine brought together representatives of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and natio nal organizations of public health professionals with representatives of NLM and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, to explore ways in which these organizations can work together to improve the training of public health professionals in access ing biomedical information. This meeting was a follow-up to one held in April 1995, sponsored by the Public Health Service, in which leaders in the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and population health communities had explained their work to ea ch other, delineated the barriers that currently discourage application of NII technologies to the information problems of public health professionals, and laid out a strategy for moving forward.
At the January follow-up meeting, staff members from NLM, the Regional Medical Libraries, CDC, and public health organizations discussed and planned approaches to improve the training of public health professionals to use current technology to access b iomedical information. On the first day a sharing session was held where NLM and CDC described programs that involved the training of health professionals. CDC's more traditional correspondence and distance education classes and the more high tech Inform ation Network for Public Health Officials (INPHO) were solutions to a problem of shrinking budgets that prohibited public health professionals from traveling to receive training. Regional Medical Libraries from the Middle Atlantic, Greater Midwest, South Central and Pacific Northwest regions related outreach efforts that involved public health departments.
Representatives from public health organizations summarized studies that they had conducted to determine the information concerns, level of computer skills, and technology inventory of their membership. Following are the key points raised during the meeting:
Partnering with organizations that have networks in place will make the most efficient use of these networks and increase the numbers who have access to it.
During the second day of the meeting, a smaller group of staff members from NLM and CDC met with the RML Associate Directors to develop a draft plan for a joint program, based upon current and future information needs identified the previous day. The goal of the joint program is to: provide public health workers with timely, convenient access to information resources that can help them do their jobs more effectively. Specific objectives include:
PSRML will be actively involved in this joint project through the provision of training classes, identifying regional programs aimed at public health officials (see insert below), and promoting existing and developing services which help achieve the g oals of the project.
| As a first step in the Information Access Training project, PSRML wants to identify any existing efforts by NN/LM members to provide outreach, training, services, etc. to local public health workers. We would also like to know what assistance PS RML and NLM might provide to help in these outreach efforts. Please contact Beryl Glitz or Claire Hamasu at (310)825-51200 or (800)338-RMLS if your library is conducting any type of outreach program for public health workers at the state, county or city level who are not part of your primary clientele. |