The following projects described below were funded by the National Library of Medicine through the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region, UCLA Biomedical Library.

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2006-2011 Projects

Express Outreach Awards

Get Healthy @ the Library with Screencasts: Developing Health Literacy Skills
Santa Clara County Library, Los Gatos, CA

Project Director: Candace Ford Gray
Period of Performance: January 2011 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $15,000

The project will develop a pilot series of online health literacy screencast tutorials that build on the resources already available through SCCL's Get Healthy @ the Library portal. Two tutorials in English and one in Spanish will be developed in partnership with PlaneTree Health Library. The goal of the screencasts is to teach patrons how to effectively conduct online health research using recommended sites. Tutorials will demonstrate step-by-step how to construct effective searches using the online sources MedlinePlus.gov and NIHSeniorHealth.gov. The expected benefit of this project is to improve patrons' health literacy skills and awareness of NLM online resources and to promote the library as a valuable community resource for vital health information literacy training.

Border and Outreach Challenges (2010-2011)
Arizona Health Science Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette L. Ryan
Period of Performance: June 2010 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $37,992

This project will support the AHSL Interim Outreach Librarian, who would be a key or lead player in the following projects: Frontera Collaboration where evidence-based practice concepts will be introduced to health professionals and public health professionals in the US-Mexico border region from Arizona to Texas; Working with community health workers/promotoras in Southern Arizona; We Search project of the Knowledge River program from the School of Information Resources and Library Science works with high school students in the Sunnyside School District; Statewide health literacy project; TC4C collaboration, especially the community tribal project in Hard Rock Arizona, and the future directions TC4C meeting scheduled in Albuquerque in late July. The funds will assist in hiring an interim (temporary) outreach services librarian to participate in the above projects and take on other day-to-day responsibilities (attending health fairs, staying in contact with our clients, scoping out other opportunities, etc.).

A Novel Approach to Community Faculty Outreach: The Charles Drew University Health Sciences Library Pilot
Charles Drew University Health Sciences Library, Los Angeles, CA

Project Director: Darlene Parker-Kelly
Period of Performance: March 2011 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $14,925.46

The Director of the Charles Drew University Health Sciences Library will work with a segment of community faculty from Charles Drew University who are volunteer faculty and who provide the role of a mentor and researcher to the CDU students and the Watts/Willowbrook community. This group of faculty persons does not have access to the CDU Health Sciences Library resources and they have indicated the need to have access because they would like to publish their research. The goal of the project is to teach and promote the use of the National Library of Medicine resources; to develop a curriculum that will demonstrate the use of NLM's resources; to introduce the use of Loansome Doc as a way of obtaining articles and to discuss how the NLM's resources can be used by community participants and other partners. The entire community faculty cohort works in the South Central Los Angeles and they have strong ties and are an integral part of the community. Their research involvement includes Healthy African American Families, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and social work.

Yoeme Youth Health Conference of the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Community Project
Arizona Health Science Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette L. Ryan
Period of Performance: December 2010 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $21,239.83

AHSL will work with Hiaki High School and Toltecalli High School to develop a student-planned, school supported day-long health-oriented youth conference aimed at improving health in the community , connecting teens with their traditional roots, and giving students online tools they can use to inform themselves and their community of the role of health in their lives. In the past the Yoeme ("the people") Youth Health Conference has been held to inform community members and students about health issues affecting the community, and resources available; connections to the culture and traditions are integrated at this conference. Last year Hiaki held its 3rd annual Yoeme Youth Conference. This year in collaboration with AHSL we would like to document the development and planning of the conference, including interviews of students and members of the tribe at key sections of the conference and would like to explore ways to make the video widely available to others.

Rural Integrated Partnership Network for Mental / Primary Health Care
Savitt Medical Library at the University of Nevada in Reno

Project Director: Terry Henner
Period of Performance: December 2010 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $14,985

The purpose of the project is to establish tools that will support efforts of primary care providers, including students, residents, and School of Medicine faculty, who provide mental health and primary care services in Nevada's rural hospitals and community health centers. It aims to achieve the following: Establish collaborative communications tools for rural and urban health professionals to support development of mental health resources; Develop internet-based resources with specific links to best practices, information resources, and Nevada specific resources to provide practitioners and administrators with current evidence-based approaches in the application of mental health promotion concepts and principles; Explore training tools (such as iPads) to be used by graduate students and residents while providing services to rural Nevada residents; and explore other communication mechanisms and training modules that support primary care providers in service delivery to mental health patients.

Checking the Pulse of Community Health: A Public Forum Presenting the HARC 2010 Assessment Data for Eastern Riverside County
Health Assessment Resource Center (HARC), Palm Desert, CA

Project Director: Eileen Packer
Period of Performance: November 2010 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $12,895

The goals of this project are to use health surveys as sources of information for healthcare policymakers, public health professionals, private providers, insurers, and health care consumers concerned with the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health-related programs and policies; to provide access to the information which increases collaboration with private and public community partners while providing service level data for individual partners; and to use the data which provides a long-term strategic planning tool that identifies priority areas and supports program development and capacity building. The project will disseminate the results of the 2010 health needs assessment data of Eastern Riverside County in an open forum which will be presented to the public at California State University, Palm Desert Campus.

Medical Librarian Training Program Pacific Islands Health Officers Association
Pacific Islands Health Officers Association (PIHOA), Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Greg Dever
Period of Performance: November 2010 - January 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $11,985.70

This project provides funding for nine US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) medical librarians to attend and participate in the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (PIALA) Conference in Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia. This project will strengthen sustainability and growth for medical libraries in the USAPI by allowing these medical librarians to build human and resource networks, so important to the development of these libraries, and will provide them an opportunity to meet face to face with each other and the other librarians throughout the region, critical in forming support networks. An opportunity for enrollment in an accredited library technician credential program through Palau Community College's Distance Education facilities will be available at the Conference.

Youth Enrichment in Science/Junior Nurse Program
American University of Health Sciences (AUHS) Library, Signal Hill, CA

Project Director: Yi Gong
Period of Performance: August 2010 - March 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $3,659.30

The Youth Enrichment in Science | Junior Nurse Program includes the goals of promoting outreach to share expertise and resources with minorities not normally reached, encouraging community-focused activities in support of the NN/LM mission, and improving access to health information for those health consumers without adequate access to health sciences information services. The project is a cooperation between AUHS and Signal Hill Elementary School. The ultimate project goal is to have more youth, especially minorities, learn basic knowledge and get involved in the medical and science fields, as well as encourage their future careers in these fields.

Consumer Health Initiatives for Asian and Hispanic Communities in California
University of California, San Francisco, Library and Center for Knowledge Management

Project Director: Min-Lin Fang
Period of Performance: April 2010 - March 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $12,500

The goals of this project will include training classes for MedlinePlus and other NLM resources targeting Asian immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hispanic migrant workers and socioeconomically disadvantaged people in Los Angeles and California's Central Valley. Another target audience will be students attending San Francisco Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Middle School. Partnering with the Tzu Chi Foundation, exhibits at health fairs in the Central Valley and Los Angeles area will also be conducted. Ten workshops will be offered: two at the Tzu Chi Northwest regional office in San Jose, two at the Tzu Chi Free Clinic in Alhambra, located near Los Angeles, and at least six at the MLK Academic Middle School.

Reaching Out to Los Angeles: The Charles Drew University Health Sciences Library and the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Share NN/LM Health Information with the Community
Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, Health Sciences Library, Los Angeles, CA

Project Director: Darlene Parker-Kelly
Period of Performance: April 2010 - March 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $3,415

This project provides opportunities for the Charles Drew University Health Sciences Library and the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library to jointly participate in 4-6 health fairs throughout Los Angeles County, reaching several hundred community members. The goal of the project is to promote NLM resources to a diverse and broad constituency in a major metropolitan area. The project coordinators will submit narrative reports to NN/LM PSR providing updates on user feedback, and informing the National Library of Medicine of ongoing trends and issues affecting the diverse population of Los Angeles. Partner organizations include a large church group and two local chambers of commerce.

Text-A-Librarian in an Under-Connected Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital, Barnett Briggs Medical Library, San Francisco, CA

Project Director: Joy Graham
Period of Performance: January 2010 - April 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $16,650

This proposal involves a demonstration project called "Text-A-Librarian @SFGH". Using a mobile device enables us to demonstrate various mobile resources anywhere in the hospital, and allows reference staff to respond to texts whether or not they are near a computer. Clinical and administrative hospital staff, patients, and patients' family members will be invited to text their information requests to the library and receive answers via the text messaging feature of their cell phones. The San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) administers the hospital and is responsible for maintaining the computer systems and equipment in patient wards. Due to various restrictions, the DPH-networked computers have limited value for searching the Internet, but most clinical staff and patients use cell phones.

Arizona Health Literacy Collaboration
El Rio Community Health Center, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Laurie Robinson
Period of Performance: November 2009 - October 2010
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $11,978

In this project, the Arizona Health Literacy Collaboration will assess the current knowledge base of health literacy and health literacy resources of health care providers and social service personnel in Arizona and then provide training to this group, to increase their knowledge on the topic and available resources. After the results of the needs assessment are tabulated, a statewide webinar on health literacy will be developed, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Barry Weiss. A train-the-trainer model will be used to empower the participants to return to their agencies, clinics, and health care settings and conduct training sessions for their respective personnel and/or clients. The training materials developed and other health literacy resources will also be compiled in a web-based toolkit to provide access to all Arizona residents with a goal of improving health outcomes for all the state's residents.

Community Health Library Without Walls
Marshall Medical Center Community Health Library, Placerville, CA

Project Director: Alison Clement
Period of Performance: November 2009 - October 2010
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $9,220

This project will allow the Marshall Community Health Library to accomplish two goals, which will increase awareness of the free services and health information available in the library and via the internet. A major outreach campaign, consisting of roughly 32 presentations, will be conducted by the Community Health Librarian to target community physicians, rural health clinics, community support groups, El Dorado County public librarians, El Dorado County public health nurses, and El Dorado County Senior Services groups. The emphasis for each presentation will differ according to the needs of the group, but every session will include distribution of MedlinePlus bookmarks and Information Rx notepads. Further training in MedlinePlus and other NLM/NIH resources will be offered upon request. The library will also provide three public desktop computers to provide free access to MedlinePlus and other reliable health resources via the internet.

Diverse Community-Dwelling Elders Health Information: A Cross-Generation Training Program
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center-Hayward Library, Hayward, CA

Project Director: Evelyn Kobayashi
Period of Performance: November 2009 - October 2010
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $7,526.62

This project will build a collaborative health information training program for elders enrolled in basic computer classes where they are individually coached by high school volunteers. The City of Fremont Senior Center staff and teenage volunteers will be trained in finding multi-lingual health information resources of MedlinePlus, AHRQ, CDC, RHIN and other Internet sites. Teenage volunteers will be encouraged to become health information ambassadors to their families and peers. Target languages will include simplified and traditional Chinese, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, as well as others by request. The project will reach out to four community center staff members who serve a diverse elder population and two public librarians. Twenty teenage coaching volunteers will be drawn from Fremont high schools. Up to 400 community-dwelling elders will receive training during the project period and beyond.

Improving Access to Health Information in the US-Affiliated Pacific: A Pilot Digital Library
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) Resource Center, Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Jane Barnwell
Period of Performance: November 2009 - March 2011
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $27,000

This project seeks to undertake a systematic collaborative process, working with the Pacific Island Health Officers Association (PIHOA), for the development of a health digital library, which will result in the aggregation of health and medical digital content in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). Access to reliable health information is essential for making informed and effective decisions by Departments/Ministries of Health (MOHs), healthcare practitioners, and educators for the benefit of their respective populations. The digital library will strongly complement and enhance NLM resources and make unique regional materials available to a wider audience. The digital health library will be incorporated into the larger Pacific Digital Library (PDL) framework, which is hosted at the College of Micronesia-FSM National Campus.

Taking It to the Streets: Sharp Community Health Library Attendance at Health Fairs
Sharp Healthcare Community Health Library, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Jacqueline Davis
Period of Performance: April 2009 - March 2010
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $2,505

In this project, Sharp Community Health Library staff will exhibit at a series of 5-6 consumer health fairs in order to disseminate health information and encourage attendees to access health information, particularly through MedlinePlus. Having a presence at health and community fairs allows Sharp Community Health Library to educate people about available resources in a variety of formats, and encourage use of the personal service offered by the library through email, phone call and in person. Booth visitors will span a wide variety of ages, languages, literacy abilities and health concerns. The project will provide opportunities for networking with community based organizations to advertise the library's availability for presentations and for development of a basic structure and kit for outreach opportunities on consumer health.

Health Information Outreach for Micronesians in Hawaii
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) Resource Center, Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Jane Barnwell
Period of Performance: December 2008 - November 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project involves building documentation and a directory of resources and research that can be used by health care workers and social service organizations to better assist Micronesians with their health information needs. PREL will partner with the University of Hawaii School of Public Health to research and develop documentation. The project will utilize students at the School to conduct a literature review of existing health information materials that are designed for or are appropriate to use for the Micronesian target population. This will be followed by dissemination of resource directories to identified health clinics, service providers and other organizations that serve Micronesians. The resource directory will also be posted through links on the PREL and Hawaii Public Health Association web sites.

Lunch & Learn Health Education Series
ValleyCare Health System, Pleasanton, CA

Project Director: Margaret Hsieh
Period of Performance: September 2008 - August 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $4,015

In this project, the ValleyCare Health Library will collaborate with the Regional Cancer Center and Diabetes Education Center, both affiliated with the ValleyCare Health System, to conduct a series of Lunch and Learn workshops, to be held throughout the year to promote the understanding of disease progression, treatment options and preventive measures for certain diseases selected from our needs assessment study. Programs will also include information on the ValleyCare Health Library's health resource services in order to improve consumers' access to health information and to publicize the availability of quality health resources at the library via PubMed and MedlinePlus. The overall project goal is to do outreach to consumers living with certain chronic diseases and offer opportunities for social and learning experiences they would not normally have access to, so they will be more empowered to make informed decisions about their health.

Students to Seniors: Connection for Health Information
Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Project Director: Terry Henner
Period of Performance: September 2008 - August 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $5,805

This project proposal requests funds to extend and build on the successes of an existing program funded through a one-year grant, ending June 30, 2008, from the State of Nevada Trust Fund for Public Health entitled "Students to Seniors Connection for Health Information." This project addresses the needs of senior citizens who are on the wrong side of a widening "digital divide," and without intervention are unlikely to make effective use of this necessary technology. Training will be provided using a train-the-trainer approach utilizing a cadre of volunteer undergraduate students, who are enrolled in a new combined BS/MD program at the University of Nevada. The project will also expand the breadth and depth of an existing website targeting the needs of Nevada seniors, ElderhealthNevada.org, by enhancing the web site with online tutorials, streaming videos, and other features.

Palau Health Information Literacy
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) Resource Center, Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Jane Barnwell
Period of Performance: October 2008 - September 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project proposal seeks support to provide 4-5 training sessions to public health and library staff in Palau, covering key health information resources. The material covered in the proposed workshops would include effective access and searching strategies for National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources, and in resources such as EBSCOHost and Stat!Ref, which are provided to the region through Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). The target audience for the workshops would be selected public health and library staff from throughout Palau. The overall goal is to improve health information outreach, education, and access to quality, reliable health information in remote and underserved multicultural communities in the Republic of Palau by partnering with government and community agencies, including the Republic of Palau Ministry of Health, the Palau Community College, and the Palau Association of Libraries.

Seminar in Immigrant Literacies: Health Literacy
San Francisco State University J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco, CA

Project Director: Pam Howard
Period of Performance: June 2008 - May 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project involves a multi-week seminar, exploring the role of language in everyday situations in which immigrants engage in, including home life, work community and health care. A large focus of this seminar is Health Literacy. The project targets individuals that are preparing or are in careers of Adult ESOL, and health and community development. The specific objectives for this project include promoting awareness among the course attendees about the range of existing NLM resources, such as MedlinePlus, PubMed, TOXNET, and the Drug Information Portal. Attendees will include representatives from community-based organizations from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Empowering the Community with Health Literacy
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Naomi C. Broering
Period of Performance: April 2008 - March 2009
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

Building on the success with Health Information Literacy, the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine Library (PCOM) will implement an outreach training partnership based at four San Diego community centers and libraries in 2008-9. The PCOM library will conduct a series of health information computer workshops and hands-on classes to a broad audience. The sessions will be held at various San Diego Public Libraries, the Riford Adult Community Center, the El Cajon County Library, and the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine classrooms and library computer lab. Content will include how to access MedlinePlus, PubMed and other reliable websites.

Bilingual Asian Healthcare Website
Asian HealthCare Institute, Inc., San Francisco, CA

Project Director: Diana Lau
Period of Performance: April 2007 - April 2008
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This is a pilot project aiming at the translation of 10 articles on Heart Disease from the NLM MedlinePlus website. The translated materials will be put online in four formats: bilingual English/Traditional Chinese, Bilingual English/Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese only, and Simplified Chinese only. These translations will be uploaded with simple graphics to AHII's website, complete with optional voice narration of the text in 3 options: English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Specific project objectives include: 1. To promote awareness and use of NLM MedlinePlus Health Information website to the Asian community and health professionals; 2. To improve access to health information for those health professionals and health consumers without adequate access to library and information services; 3. Provide health information in consumers' own Asian languages to increase health literacy, understanding and treatment plan of their chronic health condition to promote self management; 4. Make website provisions to serve visitors with eyesight or literacy limitations; 5. To serve as pilot for a larger-scale project to translate the entire NLM MedlinePlus Health Information website.

Health Information Literacy Outreach Community Service
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Naomi C. Broering
Period of Performance: November 2006 - November 2007
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

The PCOM Library Health Information Literacy Program is designed to provide San Diego community residents and health professionals with knowledge, training and experience to access authentic and reliable information by using MedlinePlus, PubMed and related NLM/NIH resources. The objectives are to: 1. Train & educate health professionals and consumers in the San Diego area about MedlinePlus, PubMed, and NLM/NIH databases. 2. Emphasize broad and special topics including obesity & diet, alternative medicine, general medicine and drug information. 3. Publicize the training workshops and seminars broadly in the community through flyers, newspapers and newsletters. 4. Provide the instructional workshops at four locations: Pacific Beach Branch of San Diego Public Library, Florence Riford Adult Community Center, the PCOM Library and the Pacific Symposium held annually at the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego.

Health Information Outreach to American Samoa
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Jane Barnwell
Period of Performance: April 2007 - April 2008
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project seeks to improve health information literacy in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa by providing 4-5 training sessions in NLM and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) resources to selected public health and library staff. Its goal is to improve education and access to quality health information in remote and underserved multicultural communities in American Samoa. By partnering with community and government agencies, PREL will be able to maximize resources to improve health information literacy of key public health and library community members in American Samoa. Specific project objectives include: 1. project participants will successfully complete training sessions on basic information retrieval skills to access and use up-to-date online resources; 2. project participants will discuss culturally and linguistically appropriate ideas for using this knowledge to improve health outcomes for the target audience; and 3. project participants will help publicize health information literacy resources provided by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning and the National Library of Medicine within their respective workplaces.

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Internet Connectivity Support Awards

Internet Connectivity Support Program - Cottage Health System
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara, CA

Project Director: Sharon Lezotte
Period of Performance: January 2007 - January 2008
Project Type: Internet Connectivity Support Program
Funding Awarded: $1,000

The goal of the NN/LM PSR Internet Connectivity Support Program is to improve access to the Internet for Cottage Health System nurses by providing funding and support which will enable them to access National Library of Medicine Internet resources. This proposal will fund a computer workstation for a nurses' training computer lab.

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Major Outreach Subcontract Awards

Promoting Web Access to Health Information Throughout San Diego
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine Library, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Naomi Broering
Period of Performance: November 2009 - April 2011
Project Type: Major Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $40,000

This project involves a collaborative effort to extend and promote access to the NLM/NIH online health information resources throughout San Diego to consumers and health professionals with easy-to-use web informatics technologies. PCOM Library has partnered with an eight-member team of San Diego public libraries, church-based organizations, a community center, and community clinics to substantially expand its instructional program and offer a variety of new teaching alternatives that include hands-on, electronic tutorials, live web-based sessions, and DVDs customized for specific target groups. The overall goal of the project is to significantly extend the PCOM Library's community outreach services by working with more partner institutions to reach populations previously neglected and to remedy inequities in targeted areas by offering new instructional options for using MedlinePlus, PubMed, Clinical Trials, and other NLM resources. The Library will also expand and improve the depth of its existing web site and digital resources.

Breast Cancer Health Information Project
Maricopa Integrated Health System Library, Phoenix, AZ

Project Director: Rebecca Birr
Period of Performance: November 2009 - April 2011
Project Type: Major Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $24,250

Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) will implement a Breast Cancer Health Information Project targeting ethnically diverse, low-income, and impoverished women with limited English proficiency, who have received a breast cancer diagnosis. The goals of this project are to: 1) increase and improve communication pertaining to breast cancer health and treatment options by utilizing written and video presentations; 2) create a breast cancer health information web site; and 3) empower women to be involved with their own health care. Results from the study will be shared with the medical community and community partners to improve breast cancer education among socio-economically disadvantaged women. A multi-disciplinary team of health care professionals, including the breast surgeon and nursing staff, will work with the Health Sciences Library Director, Education and Organizational Development Training Specialist, and other MIHS staff to ensure the project's success and to improve breast cancer outcomes.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander Substance Abuse Information Outreach Center
National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse, Los Angeles, CA

Project Director: Ford Kuramoto
Period of Performance: February 2010 - March 2011
Project Type: Major Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $40,000

The National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse (NAPAFASA) will establish the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander Substance Abuse Information Outreach Center. This Outreach Center will expand and improve substance abuse related services for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders (AANHOPI) in California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Island Jurisdictions by improving access to substance abuse related information specific to the AANHOPI populations, particularly for those without adequate access to library and information services. NAPAFASA will collaborate with Community Partners such as the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii and Community Voices, Inc. (Guam). The target population is the underserved Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander (AANHOPI) populations, including service providers, community members, and other stakeholders in California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Island Jurisdictions.

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Outreach Agreements

Arizona Outreach to American Indian, Hispanic and Border Communities and Populations
Arizona Health Science Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette L. Ryan
Period of Performance: May 2006 - March 2009
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $40,000

The Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) of the University of Arizona seeks to improve access to health information for Arizona's American Indian, Hispanic, and border populations. By improving access to health information, we provide health practitioners with better access to the information they need when making decisions about the healthcare of their patients and consumers will be better informed about their health. Community leaders will know and be comfortable in contacting AHSL when knowledge-based information is needed. Better health for all Arizonans will result.

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2001-2006 Projects

Northern Nevada Obesity Information Network
Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada, Reno

Project Director: Terry Henner
Period of Performance: January 2006 - April 2006
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $8,398

This project involves creating a Web-based repository of information related to obesity, hosting an online discussion forum to facilitate interactions among members of the Washoe County Obesity Coalition, and instituting an alerting service using RSS news feed technology to identify and push information to the desktops of coalition stakeholders. In addition, two classroom-based sessions will be held to train coalition members to use resources such as PubMed and MedlinePlus to locate obesity-related materials. Individual remote tutoring via desktop conferencing software will also be provided on an as-needed basis.

Consumer Health Information Community Service
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Naomi Broering
Period of Performance: February 2005 - January 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project involves training and educating health professionals who serve minority populations in local health clinics in several communities of San Diego, CA, about MedlinePlus, PubMed, and other NLM resources. The health professionals will in turn train the minority populations on using computers and the Internet to access MedlinePlus and obtaining consumer health information. The targeted areas in San Diego include Clairemont, Kearney Mesa, Pacific Beach, and adjacent communities, which have large minority and immigrant populations. Twelve training sessions will be provided by the project director dealing with topics such as searching PubMed, MedlinePlus, and other health resources on the Web. The sessions will also cover evaluating health information resources and strategies for providing health reference services.

Health Information Outreach Project: Creating Rural Networks in the Grossmont Healthcare District
Herrick Community Health Care Library, La Mesa, CA

Project Director: Judy Kammerer
Period of Performance: April 2005 - March 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project involves creating local networks involving the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) Library, local public libraries, and local public health nurses, in an area covering 18% of San Diego County. The GHD Library Director will train the librarians and nurses to provide reliable health information to individuals needing assistance, in particular senior citizens and disabled persons.

Health Matters! Consumer Health Literacy for Glendale Seniors
Glendale Public Library, Glendale, CA

Project Director: Kathryn Sheppard
Period of Performance: August 2005 - March 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

The Glendale Public Library serves a large senior population, including roughly 14,000 seniors in the 55-65 age group. This project involves training Glendale seniors to use computers, adaptive technology and the Internet to search, find and evaluate health and medical information. A series of workshops and training sessions will be held in three-week blocks, repeated each month from October 2005 through March 2006. The majority of sessions will provide training directly to seniors, and the remaining sessions will train the librarians and reference staff in assisting patrons in the use of online consumer health and biomedical resources. Through this project, seniors in the community will be better equipped to independently search and access online health related information, make better use of library services, print and electronic resources to meet personal goals, and make better decisions about their own health care.

Healthcare Interpreter Resource Training
Marshall Medical Center Community Health Library, Placerville, CA

Project Director: Ellen Richards
Period of Performance: April 2005 - March 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project involves training for students of Adelante Healthcare Interpreters in PubMed, MedlinePlus and other resources, in order to support well-trained interpreter agency staff for El Dorado County, California. Outreach will also be provided to Latino patrons of the Community Health Library, involving individualized instruction on MedlinePlus and other healthcare resources.

Infopeople Consumer Health Training
San Mateo, CA

Project Director: Holly Hinman
Period of Performance: October 2005 - April 2006
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $26,250

The Infopeople Project as part of the Peninsula Library System will teach seven classes derived from the public library workshops created by the NN/LM. A combined day long class from the following two classes will be developed: "Prescription for Success: Consumer Health Information on the Internet" and "From Snake Oil to Penicillin: Evaluating Consumer Health Information on the Internet." Priority should be given to offering the courses in rural communities of California. One of the classes will be given at a tribal library. Potential locations are Red Bluff, Mono County, Chico, and Humboldt-Eureka, Calexico, San Luis Obispo County and the Pala tribal libraries near San Diego. Infopeople will also produce an hour long webcast of consumer health information for public library staff.

Kaiser/Community eCatalog
Kaiser Permanente MultiMedia Library, Oakland, CA

Project Director: Mary Leoni
Period of Performance: April 2005 - March 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project will involve improving and expanding the Community Library Wellness web site, which will provide better access to clinical information and consumer health education material, particularly for low-literacy users, community health clinics, California public hospitals, and non-English speaking groups.

Library Automation/Family Resource Center
Children's Hospital Central California Medical Library, Madera, CA

Project Director: Cynthia Perkins
Period of Performance: August 2005 - March 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $4,100

This project will allow the Children's Hospital to automate the library and provide better consumer library services. Improvements will be made to the Family Resource Center, including linking the collection to the Heartland Regional Library Network libraries, making materials available for checkout, and building on the existing collection of consumer health materials. In addition, training will be held to teach public, school and academic librarians how to search for consumer health information so that they may provide better services for their users.

The Lung Express at Preuss: Peer Training Project
University of California, San Diego, Medical Center Library, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Craig Haynes
Period of Performance: January 2005 - December 2005
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $5,000

This project follows up on a 2004 Express Outreach Award, and involves a collaboration with the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial counties. This phase of the project will involve creation of a training program to prepare six high school peer trainers to impart knowledge and skills to about 90 9th graders at the Preuss School in the area of lung health and disease. Key online and print health resources, such as MedlinePlus and ToxTown, will be included in the training curriculum, which will be conducted over the course of 12 weeks. The peer trainers are involved in a Senior Internship Class, where they are encouraged to participate in a variety of opportunities involving community service and outreach, as well as broaden their knowledge and skills in a "real world" type of experience.

Medical Resources Access Project for Rural Northern California Hospitals
University of California, Davis, Health Sciences Libraries, Sacramento, CA

Project Director: Rebecca Davis
Period of Performance: June 2005 - April 2006
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $23,684

This project will include seven rural health care systems and their medical staffs located in northern California. The focus of this project is to train rural healthcare providers in the use of information resources currently available to them through the UC Davis Clinical Resource Center (CRC) website. Included will be an emphasis on health information literacy for their enhanced professional use, as well as resources available for increased patient and consumer health information. Approximately 600 medical personnel will be surveyed to gather information about desired new CRC resources. This information will be used to design in person and online training modules to facilitate the effective use of CRC.

Operation Health Outreach
Glendale Public Library, Glendale, AZ

Project Director: Frieda Ling
Period of Performance: January 2005 - December 2005
Project Type: Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $25,000

This one-year project will allow Glendale Public Library, Glendale, AZ, the opportunity to conduct Operation Health Outreach. The overall mission of Operation Health Outreach is to improve access to health information for the major non-English speaking minority group, the Hispanic population, in Glendale, Arizona, by providing health information in Spanish, the identified native language. Specific goals and objectives of the project include providing free hands-on Internet Health Search Classes in Spanish, offering free health information seminars in Spanish, and hosting a health fair with participation from Spanish-speaking health workers. Operation Health Outreach will involve a number of collaborating organizations, including Central Arizona REFORMA and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill West Valley.

Pilot Program to Train Staff at Two Student-Run Clinics to Provide Consumer Health Searching and Promote the Awareness of Consumer Health Resources to Clinic Attendees
University of California, Davis, Medical Center Library, Sacramento, CA

Project Director: Rebecca Davis
Period of Performance: February 2005 - January 2006
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $5,640

In this project, student staff at two clinics affiliated with the UC Davis School of Medicine will be educated and trained to use MedlinePlus, PubMed, and other NLM databases. Once trained, the students would provide training to clinic attendees on using computers and the Internet, to make patients aware of consumer health resources. The two clinics involved are the Paul Hom Asian Clinic and the Shifa Clinic, both of which primarily serve patients who lack adequate insurance and health care due to language or cultural barriers. The project director will provide 15 training sessions covering topics such as obtaining consumer health information resources using MedlinePlus, an introduction to other health resources on the Web, and evaluating health information sources.

Access to Health Information for Arizona's Tribal Nations II
Arizona Health Sciences Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette McCray
Period of Performance: July 2004 - June 2005
Project Type: Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $25,000

This one-year project will build on the initial Access to Health Information for Arizona's Tribal Nations project by expanding relationships with Arizona's tribal nations throughout the state. The goal of this project is to explore how to improve access to health information for Native Americans in Arizona, with tribal representatives as full partners. A plan will be developed for improving access to health information for Native American health care practitioners and/or consumers in an identified region of the state, and the option of delivering services to this special population using ongoing collaborations with partners such as the Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN), Arizona AHECs, the Ajo Office of the Pima County Health Department, and the University of Arizona School of Information Resources & Library Science, will be explored.

Clinical Internet Training Lab
San Mateo Medical Center, Medical Library, San Mateo, CA

Project Director: Mark Constantz
Period of Performance: May 2004 - April 2005
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

The focus of this project is to train primary care physicians to efficiently access NLM databases and other Internet resources. Community physicians who practice at clinics which serve vulnerable populations, such as HIV patients, Latino immigrants, uninsured patients, and chronically mentally ill patients, will be targeted. Twelve demonstrations and other activities will be provided, covering the areas of searching Medline using PubMed, using other NLM databases and resources, and an introduction to health resources on the Web and other San Mateo Medical Center Internet resources. Continuing medical education will be provided through the Medical Center's Education Department.

Design and Implementation of Web-Based Video Library of Neuromuscular Channelopathies
Periodic Paralysis Association (PPA), Judith Tuttle Memorial Research Library, Monrovia, CA

Project Director: Patrick Cochran
Period of Performance: September 2004 - October 2005
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $10,000

The Periodic Paralysis Association (PPA) maintains a close relationship with each of the leading institutions having a focused interest in the periodic paralysis or non-dystrophic myotonias collection of disorders. Due to the rare nature of this class of disorder, few healthcare workers have had an opportunity to gain familiarity with the clinical presentation of the known variants. The PPA is committed to developing, housing and managing an on-line video library to enhance the diagnostic knowledge base for this class of disorder. This project will enable the PPA to develop a web-based video library, modeling a spectrum of the unique symptoms associated with these disorders.

Enhancing AZHealthInfo.org: Phase II of the Arizona Turning Point Public Health Information Centers Project
Arizona Health Sciences Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette McCray
Period of Performance: July 2004 - June 2005
Project Type: Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $25,000

The mission of the National Turning Point initiative is to transform and strengthen the public health infrastructure in the United States to make the system more effective, more community-based, and more collaborative. The significance of the Arizona Turning Point Project lies in its potential to dramatically improve access to public health and consumer health information and therefore significantly strengthen the ability of both citizens and public health workers to improve the health of everyone in the state. A key innovation of this project is its bringing together of the state's public libraries, medical libraries and public health community to collaboratively provide integrated, up to date information resources. Phase II objectives, beginning July 2004, will focus on enhancement of AZHealthInfo.org, continue training and partnership building, and position AHSL to operationalize the project and assume maintenance and ongoing development within its own mission and commitment to outreach in the state.

Exhibit at the Wild West Veterinary Conference
University of California, Davis, Carlson Health Sciences Library, Davis, CA

Project Director: Rebecca Davis
Period of Performance: October 2004 - November 2004
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $2,002

This project involved exhibiting at a large regional veterinary conference in Reno, NV. The primary objective of the project was to provide numerous demonstrations to make conference attendees aware of the veterinary content in PubMed and various other resources, and to inform attendees about document delivery and search assistance services available to them from the UC Davis Health Sciences Libraries. Attendees also received instruction about free online resources of peer-reviewed veterinary information. Strategies used to promote this information included a description of library services in the conference program booklet, as well as distribution of the PubMed handout prepared by the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section of MLA.

Internet Professional and Consumer Medical Information Access
Guam Memorial Hospital

Project Directors: Carol Perez, Arlene Cohen
Period of Performance: June 2004 - May 2005
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project will involve a partnership with the University of Guam Robert F. Kennedy Library to provide training to medical and allied health professionals, as well as members of the American Cancer Society, Guam Diabetes Association, and other citizens interested in consumer and patient education. Four training sessions are planned to cover the following activities: Effective usage of PubMed and Loansome Doc, obtaining consumer health information using MedlinePlus, using other NLM resources, and introducing other health information resources available through the Internet. Follow-up evaluations will be conducted with training participants to ascertain the value of the sessions.

Listening Circles Project - Native Hawaiian Community Health Education Project
Papa Ola Lokahi, Honolulu, HI

Project Directors: Thomas Foye, Momi Imaikalani
Period of Performance: September 2004 - September 2005
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $61,203

Papa Ola Lokahi (POL), a federally-funded, non-profit community-based health organization located in Honolulu, Hawaii, has received funding to develop and implement Native Hawaiian community health education projects in Milolii, Hawaii, and Waimanalo, Oahu. This project resulted from discussions and experiences of delegates from NLM, who visited Hawaii as part of the Native American Listening Circles Project. Overall goals of the Milolii Community Health Education Project, which targets residents of a Native Hawaiian community on the Kona Coast of the island of Hawaii, are: 1) to increase the knowledge of community members about available health information and resources, and 2) to support community-based initiatives which have their foundation in the Hawaiian concepts of health. The Waimanalo Project will involve placement of three computers in the waiting areas of the Waimanalo Community Health Center (WCHC), located on Oahu's windward side. The computers will have a controlled list of health-related Web sites which patients, staff, and community residents can access, including MedlinePlus and other respected local and national health sites.

Lung Express @Preuss
University of California, San Diego, Medical Center Library, San Diego, CA

Project Director: Craig Haynes
Period of Performance: April 2004 - September 2004
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $4,300

This project involves a collaboration with the San Diego Chapter of the American Lung Association on a demonstration project to bring a special curriculum on the respiratory system and lung health to a group of sixth grade students at the Preuss School of UCSD. The project will reach about 140 students, who will receive two hours of Lung Express training over two days. Ten demonstrations and activities will be provided, covering the areas of obtaining consumer health information using MedlinePlus, an introduction to health resources on the Web, including ToxTown, and introducing the students to resources available at the Health Information @Preuss Web site.

Senior Health Project: Access to Electronic Health Information in San Diego
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), San Diego, CA

Project Director: Naomi Broering
Period of Performance: September 2004 - February 2006
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $40,000

The purpose of this project is to develop a health program for seniors in two San Diego Senior Centers; the First Lutheran Church's Senior Center and the Florence Riford Senior Center in La Jolla, in partnership with the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM). The project will implement a health information access network relationship with these partners, provide computer training workshops for local senior citizens, add pertinent NLM and other resources to the PCOM web site for use by seniors, and extend Document Delivery services and Loansome Doc to the project partners.

Verde Valley and Yavapai County Outreach
Verde Valley Medical Center Library, Cottonwood, AZ

Project Directors: Karen Fanning, Jay Fleishman
Period of Performance: September 2004 - February 2006
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $32,392

The purpose of this project is to provide access to accurate and quality consumer health information to the residents of the Verde Valley and Yavapai County through the Internet. MEDLINE, PubMed, MedlinePlus, NIHSeniorHealth, ClinicalTrials.gov and Household Products Database will be the primary databases used for accessing consumer health information. It is anticipated that this project will provide free accurate and quality consumer health information, including easy-to-read material, Spanish-language and possibly other language materials, and interactive tutorials to the Verde Valley and communities located in Yavapai County.

Access to Health Information for Arizona's Tribal Nations
Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL), University of Arizona, Tucson

Project Director: Jeanette McCray
Period of Performance: July 2002 - December 2004
Project Type: Outreach Agreement
Funding Awarded: $50,000

PSRML has awarded funding to the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL), University of Arizona, Tucson, to conduct an outreach project, Access to Health Information for Arizona's Tribal Nations. This two-year project will begin with a six-month planning phase, followed by implementation of a project or projects based on the planning outcomes. The goals of this project are to improve access to health information resources for Native Americans in Arizona, and to develop sustainable, working partnerships between the Arizona Health Sciences Library (NN/LM resource library for Arizona), tribal representatives, and other organizations to be identified in the project planning phase, such as public and academic libraries, health care institutions, and other groups and departments in the University of Arizona and at the Reservations.

See our Latitudes article: Access to Health Information for Arizona's Tribal Nations (volume 11, issue 5) for more details about this project.

Assessing Potential of Handheld Computing Applications in Public Health
Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Project Director: Terry Henner
Period of Performance: December 2002 - April 2004
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project will provide PDAs to several public health professionals employed by the Nevada State Department of Health Division and Washoe County Health District Department, in order to identify information seeking applications that might benefit from the use of handheld computing technology. A train-the-trainer program will also be developed to help key public health professionals promote PDA usage within their institutions.

Basic Health Research for Adult Learners
Vision Literacy Service, Santa Clara County Library and the City of Mountain View Public Library, Milpitas, CA

Project Director: Pat Lawson-North
Period of Performance: April 2003 - March 2004
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project will focus on training new adult readers to independently use and understand MedlinePlus health tutorials and other easy-to-read content. The project will also involve creation of an easy-to-use Internet-based library of low literacy level health information links, categorized by medical conditions and health interests of the target audiences. A customer satisfaction survey instrument for MedlinePlus will also be developed.

Central Valley Access to Electronic Health Information Project
California State University, Henry Madden Library, Fresno, CA

Project Director: Patrick Newell
Period of Performance: March 2003 - August 2004
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $10,000

The Central Valley Access to Electronic Health Information Project will provide training for librarians and other information intermediaries for the public on major Internet-accessible consumer health, clinical trials, and medical research information tools. Groups to be reached include community-based organizations, school library educators, and librarians in four central California counties: Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Tulare. Training sessions will be conducted and a website that provides access to local and national health information resources will be created.

Facilitating School Nurses' Access to Electronic Data
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

Project Directors: Marilyn Hall, Renee McLeod
Period of Performance: March 2003 - December 2004
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $40,000

This project will provide the tools and skills necessary for school nurses in San Diego and Imperial Counties to access and evaluate current health information and to enhance their role as resources for families and researchers in the community. San Diego State University's Library and Information Access and School of Nursing will partner with the California School Nurses Organization, San Diego/Imperial Section. The project involves a needs assessment of the area school nurses; provision of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's) to a selected group of school nurses; training sessions on the use of PDA technology; and a website to facilitate training, communication, and resource location. The project will examine whether the use of handheld technology improves the anticipated outcomes for the group of nurses using the PDAs.

Hawaii Health Portal
Hawaii Medical Library, Honolulu, HI

Project Director: John Breinich
Period of Performance: March 2003 - August 2004
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $39,590

This project will create an Internet portal to ensure that Hawaii's population can easily locate authoritative health information resources specific to their needs. This project will strengthen and develop the existing partnership between Hawaii Medical Library and the Hawaii State Public Library System and build a collaboration with the University of Hawaii's Department of Native Hawaiian Health, the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence, and Papa Ola Lokahi. The Hawaii Health Portal will include links to health information resources of special interest to the Native Hawaiian population. Public librarians, as well as health professionals and educators serving the Native Hawaiian population, will be trained to use the portal and will teach others to use it.

Model System for Integration of NLM Resources into Internet-based Information Systems for Rare Disease
Judith Tuttle Memorial Research Library, Periodic Paralysis Association, Monrovia, CA

Project Director: Patrick Cochran
Period of Performance: April 2003 - January 2004
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

The focus of this project is to promote information access within the rare disease community, by integrating existing electronic resources produced by the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, and the Organization for Rare Disorders into a model web-based information system, which is focused on periodic paralysis disorders. Products and services of the National Library of Medicine and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine will be identified and made more accessible to the rare disease community as a result of the project.

Partnership: Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and the Body Positive Foundation of Phoenix
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ

Project Directors: Sally A. Harvey, Lora Robbins
Period of Performance: March 2003 - August 2004
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information Award
Funding Awarded: $11,620

The Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center will provide training in accessing current and authoritative HIV/AIDS information for staff, volunteers, and clients at nearby Body Positive, a support agency for HIV positive individuals in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Special classes will be developed and taught to the bilingual staff members at Body Positive. Document delivery will be offered during the project via Loansome Doc.

Bay Area Health Information Outreach
California Pacific Medical Center Library, San Francisco, CA

Project Director: Douglas Varner
Period of Performance: June 2002 - May 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $5,950

Partnering with the Golden Gateway Library Network, this project provided instruction to public library user groups and reference librarians working in public libraries in using and evaluating health care information resources on the Internet, including NLM products and services. Ten instructional sessions were provided, covering topics such as MedlinePlus, PubMed, and the NLM Gateway. Instruction focused on finding information on aspects of healthy living for various urban public library user groups, such as minority populations, seniors, and persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Digitization Pilot Project
Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library, Los Angeles, CA

Project Directors: Heidi Sandstrom, Andrea Lynch
Period of Performance: January 2001 - January 2003
Project Type: Pilot Project
Report: Final Report 92 kb

The overarching goal of the pilot has been to develop an information structure and process for identifying, evaluating, digitizing, and enhancing discovery of foreign language consumer health information resources on the web.

Handhelds in Healthcare Fair
Arizona Health Sciences Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Gary Freiburger
Period of Performance: October 2002 - March 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

Two sessions of the fair were held, one each in Phoenix and Tucson, targeting health care providers in Arizona, as well as students in the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Public Health. Each fair included about ten vendors demonstrating their hardware and software products, to acquaint health care providers with software and web services for PDAs, and to promote the use of handheld technology in medical practice, research, and education. The fairs were ideal sharing forums, where peers could learn from one another.

Health Literacy & Information and Referral Resource Awareness
Marshall Medical Community Health Library, Placerville, CA

Project Director: Ellen Richards
Period of Performance: October 2002 - September 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

Partnering with about ten community-based organizations in El Dorado County, twelve workshops providing hands-on practice will be offered, covering searching of PubMed, MedlinePlus, and other health resources on the web. Evaluation strategies for online health information will also be included. Target populations include grandparents raising grandchildren, school nurses, public health and mental health educators, and parish nurses. Recommendations of best websites will be compiled and shared among the groups.

Outreach to Consumers in Contra Costa County
Degnan Medical Library, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, Martinez, CA

Project Director: Sally Chu
Period of Performance: October 2002 - September 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $3,500

A Consumer Health Resource Library will be established to provide MedlinePlus training to outpatients in the adjacent Family Practice Center waiting room. One-hour workshops covering MedlinePlus, PubMed, and ClinicalTrials.gov will be provided to librarians and library assistants from 23 branches of the Contra Costa County Public Library system. Local church groups with minority populations will also be targeted for training.

Petaluma Health Information Access
Redwood Health Library, Petaluma, CA

Project Director: Eris Weaver
Period of Performance: June 2002 - December 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

This project will identify television and video programming which covers finding and evaluating health information, and targets Spanish-only speakers and consumers with low literacy levels. Partnering with local television station Petaluma Community Access, television and video programs in English and Spanish will be broadcast on the local cable channel. These programs will inform viewers how to access local health services, including the Redwood Health Library and the Petaluma Health Center; how to find and evaluate health information; and basic prevention, wellness, and self-care issues. In addition, the project involves the creation of two to four original programs, both in English and in Spanish. All programs will be available for checkout from the Library.

San Fernando Valley Health Information Outreach
Olive View/UCLA Medical Center Library, Sylmar, CA

Project Director: Marsha Kmec
Period of Performance: June 2002 - December 2003
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $6,000

Training sessions will be provided to ValleyCare Clinics to promote PubMed, MedlinePlus, Loansome Doc, and document delivery services with the Health Sciences Library. The workshops will also cover using the Web, finding Web-based health information resources, and evaluating health information found on the Web. The project will assess Internet access at surrounding ValleyCare Clinics, and initiate contacts with area public libraries, such as Granada Hills and Pacoima, to begin assessment and planning for health information outreach to members of the public.

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2000-2001 Projects

Consumer Health Information for California
Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library, California State Library, Del E. Webb Memorial Library of Loma Linda University (Webb Library)

Project Directors: Carlene Drake, Heidi Sandstrom
Period of Performance: February 1999 - April 2001
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Funding Awarded: $14,747

In February 1999, the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library (PSRML), with outreach funding from the National Library of Medicine, launched the "Consumer Health Information for California project" in collaboration with the California State Library and the Del E. Webb Memorial Library of Loma Linda University (Webb Library). The overall goal of the project was to facilitate the ability of public library staff to answer consumer health questions. The project included the development of core lists of health materials for public library pilot sites, and of a series of training modules to assist public librarians in providing consumer health information. The California State Library provided funds for consumer health materials to be added to these public library pilot site collections. The project concluded in April 2001.

Public Health Information Links for Nevada (PHIL)
Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, NV

Project Directors: Joan S. Zenan, Terry A. Henner
Period of Performance: October 1998 - June 2001
Project Type: Partners in Public Health Information Access Grant
Funding Awarded: $49,241

Public Health Information Links for Nevada (PHIL) provided statewide training for public health professionals in Nevada to promote effective use of the Internet. The project was initially funded by the National Library of Medicine's program Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce. More than 300 public health professionals were trained at sessions held in Battle Mountain, Elko, Carson City, Las Vegas, and Reno. The project also developed a website providing comprehensive links to information supporting the needs of Nevada public health professionals. Excellent contacts developed at the three major public health agencies in Nevada, the Nevada State Health Division, the Clark County Health District, and the Washoe County District Health Department, as well as with the Nevada Public Health Association. Following the close of this successful project, Savitt Medical Library continued to offer training for public health professionals statewide and to update the PHIL website.

Hawaii Public Health Virtual Emporium (HiPHIVE)
Hawaii Medical Library and University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI

Project Directors: John Breinich, Virginia M. Tanji, Sharon L. Berglund
Period of Performance: October 1998 - December 2000
Project Type: Partners in Public Health Information Access Grant
Funding Awarded: $36,500

The HiPHIVE project was a collaborative partnership between the Hawaii Medical Library and the School of Public Health at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The project was funded initially by the National Library of Medicine's program, Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce. The project's primary focus was to provide public health professionals hands-on training in the use of local and web-based health databases, and to create a website for timely, convenient access to information resources to help public health professionals improve the health of the public they serve. The project successfully piloted use of a portable LAN (networked laptops connected to the Internet via a single phone line) for hands-on training. A total of 148 public health professionals attended the 16 training sessions offered on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. The State of Hawaii Department of Public Health contributed to promotion and marketing efforts with flyers, e-mail announcements, and linking to the project website. Hawaii Medical Library continues to support the public health website, which has seen increasing use over the course of this successful project.

An article on the project http://nnlm.gov/psr/lat/v10n1/hiphive.html appeared in Latitudes, January/February 2001.

WHINN - Web-Based HIV Information for Northern Nevada
Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Project Director: Terry Henner
Period of Performance: January 1999 - January 2000
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $3,490

The HIV/AIDS population in the Reno/Carson Nevada area were winners with a new program out of Savitt Medical Library, University of Nevada, Reno under a subcontract with PSRML. Targeting the caregivers in this region, Terry Henner, Head of Information & Education Services, led a team of Savitt Medical Library and Washoe Medical Center Library staff. They promoted the use of World Wide Web resources to better enable AIDS caregivers to locate the most current, relevant information in support of their patient care.

See our Latitudes article: WHINN - Web-Based HIV Information for Northern Nevada (volume 8, issue 3) for more details about this project.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - Tucson, Arizona
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette McCray
Period of Performance: February 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $39,875

To improve access to health information resources for the residents of Tucson and surrounding Pima County, a partnership was established between the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library and the Tucson-Pima Public Library. This partnership will position the public library as the logical first point of contact for the consumer seeking health information, and will back up the front-line public librarians with appropriate ongoing training; a sophisticated, growing, locally-targeted Web site with many access points; and with streamlined access to the wealth of resources available at the health sciences library.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - La Jolla, CA
University of California, San Diego, The Preuss School, La Jolla, CA

Project Directors: Brian Schottlaender, Craig Haynes
Period of Performance: February 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $39,927

Preuss School is a new charter school for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Affiliated with the University of California, San Diego, its mission is to prepare low income and educationally underserved students for college. The UCSD Biomedical Library will partner with the Preuss School faculty to integrate a health information seeking component into the instructional curriculum and a health information seeking skills component into the in-service training of the school's instructors. Investigators will create Web sites that utilize not only NLM's consumer health resources, but also other appropriate sites for both students and instructors.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - Pleasanton, CA
ValleyCare Foundation, Pleasanton, CA

Project Director: Cheryl Warren
Period of Performance: February 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $10,000

The LINCS (Linking Information about Children with Special Needs) Clearinghouse is a project of the ValleyCare Health Library. Its goal is to make available to parents, caregivers, educators, health professionals and local agency personnel a comprehensive clearinghouse for information and referral sources for the special needs child. Access will be facilitated through a Web site with links to local, state and national sites. A multi-media, multi-literacy level collection will be organized with full library services (e.g., document delivery, reference). Workshops are planned to train librarians, educators, health professionals and organizations on using the LINCS Clearinghouse and MedlinePlus resources.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - San Jose, CA
Planetree Health Resource Center, San Jose, CA

Project Director: Candace Ford
Period of Performance: February 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $40,000

Planetree Health Resource Center, in partnership with the Grail Community Resource Center and the Gardner Family Health Network, Inc., is developing a neighborhood-based Planetree satellite library. Staff at the satellite location will focus on the health information needs of minority and low-income families in East San Jose [including many who are Spanish speaking] and of the health care professionals who provide medical services for them.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - Honolulu, HI
Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS), Hawaii Medical Library (HML), Honolulu, HI

Project Director: John Breinich
Period of Performance: May 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $33,040

The Hawaii Medical Library (HML) has been awarded funding to develop the Hawaii Partnership for MEDLINE Training project with the Hawaii State Public Library System. The project addresses the needs of Native Hawaiians, senior citizens and selected community organizations including AIDS/HIV support groups. Training sessions are being offered to introduce PubMed and MedlinePlus to the general public; the project is also providing computers to participating public libraries.

Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public - Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Clark County Library District, Las Vegas, NV

Project Director: Florence B. Jakus
Period of Performance: February 2000 - July 2001
Project Type: Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public
Funding Awarded: $36,036

Located in the West Charleston Library, the Health Science Library is a specialty collection for the Las Vegas Clark County Library District. To meet the increasing public demand for health care information, the Health Science Library requires enhancement of existing information delivery resources to the public and extension of staff training. The Library District's Web page will be further developed to provide more links to health care resources. Emphasis will be placed on linking to PubMed and MedlinePlus and to other federal government sites for health information. Programs will be developed to train library staff and consumers on how to locate and effectively evaluate health care information found on the Internet.