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 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.

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2005 Projects

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.

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2004 Projects

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.

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2003 Projects

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.

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2002 Projects

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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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.

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2000 Projects

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.