October is National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM)! Highlighting the fact that medical librarians are the best and most cost effective way to obtain quality health information, this year’s NMLM theme is “Medical Librarians: Your Best Return on Investment!” In honor of this event, we are recognizing the contributions of medical librarians by promoting Network member outreach projects. (more…)

For the second year, NLM has funded seven projects for partnerships between libraries and organizations that have disaster-related responsibilities. The partnerships will work together to improve use of disaster medicine and public health information by librarians, health professionals, first responders, emergency planners, and others responsible for disaster preparedness response and recovery. Projects will increase the use of high-quality online resources on disaster topics, including those from the National Library of Medicine. One of the awardees is based in the Pacific Southwest Region. Congratulations to Naomi Broering at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, CA! (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

I recently presented training in Chinle, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation. Chinle is located in the far northeastern corner of the state, in Apache County, and is roughly a seven-hour drive from Tucson. In Navajo, Chinle means “Flowing Out,” a reference to the location where the water flows out of the Canyon de Chelly, which explains why I chose the title for this article. The session occurred this past summer, when I had the opportunity to travel to Chinle to provide training for 20 public health nurses, who received a three-hour presentation covering searching techniques, PubMed, the Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN), and other open source resources. (more…)

by Paula Maez, Youth Services Librarian & Paulina Aguirre-Clinch, Librarian
Pima County Public Library
Tucson, Arizona

In January 2012, Pima County Public Library (PCPL) partnered with the Pima County Health Department, to become the first public library in the nation to have a public health nurse permanently assigned to its staff. Because the pilot program proved successful, PCPL was able to expand it to additional branches in the summer of 2012. (more…)

I just returned from a great trip to the 3rd Biannual National Latino Cancer Summit, held July 23-25, 2012, at the Mission Bay Campus of the University of California, San Francisco, where I presented an overview of NLM’s TOXNET system to researchers and community activists working to eliminate cancer in the Latino community. The summit is organized by Latinas Contra Cancer, a nonprofit organization established in 2003, which is dedicated to assisting Latino cancer patients and advocating on their behalf. In addition to organizing the Biannual summit, Latinas Contra Cancer mobilizes promotoras community health workers to provide linguistically appropriate patient navigator services in cancer centers, support groups, and educational workshops for cancer patients and their families. The organization also advocates for increased cancer research funding and community engagement, and provides access to bras, wigs, and prostheses for cancer patients and survivors. The summit is held biannually in San Francisco, with an estimated attendance of 200. (more…)

by Patricia Vader and Frances Chu
Harriet K. & Philip Pumerantz Library, Western University of Health Sciences
Pomona, CA

Pumerantz Library at Western University of Health Sciences received an outreach funding award in August 2011, to plan and implement a diabetes information outreach program to the Hispanic community of Pomona, located roughly 30 miles east of Los Angeles. This resulted in a pilot program to teach the community members about a range of topics related to diabetes, and how to use MedlinePlus to find information related to the health issues associated with diabetes. (more…)

by Paul B. Drake
Assistant Professor, User Services & Document Delivery Librarian
University of Guam
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library

When the National Library of Medicine announced a new traveling exhibit, A Voyage to Health, in spring 2010, staff at the University of Guam Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library thought it was a good fit for us to host. A Voyage to Health presents efforts in Hawaii to reintroduce traditional navigation and voyaging. As the exhibit brochure states: “By restoring their heritage, this generation of voyagers seeks to heal the people.” (more…)

by Stephen Kiyoi, Second Year NLM Associate Fellow
NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region
UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library

During the month of April, 2012, the RML offered a newly developed training series targeting community college librarians. The series, entitled Navigating the Health Information Maze, was offered in a set of four, one-hour webcasts every Tuesday during the month. Twenty-nine librarians from 24 different institutions took advantage of the opportunity to gain expertise in National Library of Medicine resources; including PubMed, MedlinePlus, the NLM Gallery of Mobile Apps and Sites, and Health Information for Special Populations. Additional information about the series and archived training sessions are available from the preceding series website. Outreach to community colleges is a major NN/LM initiative for the coming year. (more…)

Our new contract year began Tuesday, May 1, 2012, and the biggest change involved RML leadership roles. Alan Carr is now the Acting Associate Director for the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region. He is an excellent candidate for this role, having worked with both RML Network Programs and Outreach Programs, including NN/LM membership, instruction for health professionals and public health workers, exhibits, and management of outreach funding. Former Associate Director Julie Kwan is neither gone nor forgotten! She has assumed the position of Associate Director of the UCLA Biomedical Library and the Science and Engineering Library. This role includes operational responsibility for the Biomedical Library, and she will serve as UCLA’s representative to the PSR Resource Library Directors group. The reason for this change was budgetary, and will allow the RML to continue a robust program for the region, with substantial training, funding, and outreach programs. (more…)

A half-day NN/LM Earthquake Summit was held Friday, April 6, 2012, at the University of California, San Francisco, Library and Center for Knowledge Management. Roughly twenty-five people attended the event, which was organized by Dan Wilson, Coordinator for the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response Initiative. Attendees represented both the Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest regions of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM). The excellent roster of featured speakers included Keith Knudsen, representing the United States Geological Survey (USGS); Monica Gowan, PhD Candidate, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, representing the National Library of Medicine; Randy Brawley and Angela Nak, representing the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and Roberto Lombardi, representing San Francisco Public Library. A detailed meeting report with numerous photos from the event is available from the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit. (more…)