Methods: The pediatric palliative care team including a pediatric oncologist and a nurse practitioner in association with a clinical medical librarian and a hospital-based interpreter, collaborated to create a resource using SpringShare software to create a library guide. The purpose is to provide cultural and palliative care information resources, books, and journal articles to assist health care workers at UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center in caring for children from the diverse cultural backgrounds living in the region. In order to introduce and evaluate the usage of the library guide, we plan to survey Children's Medical Center staff including nurses, residents, attending physicians, and child life staff at baseline and after visiting the library guide. As of this date, the usage of the guide has had over 400 hits per month or 1,200 hits in the last 3 months (libraryguides.umassmed.edu/diversity_guide).

Results: We will be conducting a survey of all children's medical center staff, nurses, and physicians to evaluate the usefulness and impact of this resource.

Conclusions: The results of the survey will be complete in 2013.

The Lamar Soutter Library at UMASS Medical School and the Gordon Library at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have collaborated to develop frameworks for a data management curriculum targeted for health science, science and technology research students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. These curriculum frameworks include lesson plans for a series of teaching modules and research case scenarios that allow flexibility for teaching students at different levels in diverse science disciplines.

Please join Dan Kipnis and Ann Koopman of Thomas Jefferson University, and Lisa Palmer of University of Massachusetts Medical School for a free webinar on institutional repositories (IRs) at medical schools.

Speakers will explore how each organization decided to start an IR, how the IRs have evolved, unique IR collections, successful partnerships, challenges and opportunities, and the future of medical IRs.

Presented at the North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries (NAHSL) Annual Meeting, Rockport, ME, October 2009.

Audience: Providence Rhode Island’s Latino community and rural residents in the Western Maine Health District (Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties).

Methodology: Social Cognitive Theory informed the development of a semi-structured key informant interview protocol. Questions were designed to determine confidence in using the Internet to find health information and the availability community resources that support access to computers and the Internet, including possible role models. Interviews were conducted in person and at a time and place convenient to the interviewee. All questions were open-ended, followed by probes to elicit greater detail. Interview data were coded and organized into major themes and sub-themes. It is within the sub-themes and direct quotes that patterns emerge.

Results: Nine key informants, service providers in CBOs, libraries, and schools were interviewed in Western Maine. Data were organized into six major themes and 24 sub-themes. From these data we learned that communities in Western Maine have a growing senior population and that community-based organizations are important to supporting public health efforts. Health topics of concern include chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and cancer. The public school system, adult education programs, and public libraries offer access to computers, and opportunities for training and support.

Ten key informants, service providers in CBOs, libraries, and health care were interviewed in Providence, Rhode Island. Data were organized into six major themes and 23 sub-themes. From these data we learned that Latinos in this community begin looking for health information by asking the people they know and trust. Health topics of concern include issues related to health insurance and access to care, chronic diseases like diabetes, and family and childhood health and that the radio is an important source of health information. Adult education programs, public libraries, and a network of minority health centers offer access to computers, and opportunities for training and support.

These findings led the NN/LM – NER to tailor their health information outreach efforts in Western Maine to seniors and to work with public health coalitions and agencies directly serving seniors to increase awareness and use of NIHSeniorHealth. In Providence, Rhode Island these findings led us to develop a train-the-trainer health information outreach model working with foreign trained health professionals to teach others in the community about reliable health information resources including MedlinePlus in Spanish and to work with local radio.

Discussion: An intensive community assessment effort is critical to developing a focused health information literacy outreach program. These data and the process of gathering these data helped the program tailor efforts to meet the needs of the community and identified community leaders, local organizations, and other potential partners to improve community access to reliable health information. While the results of this community assessment are not generalizable, the approach provides a much needed practical understanding of the community and how best to address the needs and utilize available resources.

Presented at the Institute for Healthcare Advancement's Health Literacy Conference, Irvine, California, May 5, 2011.

METHODS: Chart rounds, led by Department of Family Medicine and Community Health faculty preceptors, are held daily at each residency practice site. Family Medicine residents present cases based on patients seen that day. New guidelines for chart rounds were developed by residency leadership in 2007. Based on these guidelines, librarians, behavioral health specialists and pharmacists are invited to participate. In early 2010, residents (n=32) were invited to complete an IRB-approved survey asking them to evaluate their satisfaction with chart rounds. The survey consisted of ten questions, three of which focused on the effectiveness of library participation. Other questions sought feedback on the value of chart rounds as an educational tool as well as questions about the participation of other specialists. This paper reports results from this survey specific to librarian involvement, analyzed using SPSS 17.0.

RESULTS: Survey results were crosstabulated by practice site and by post-graduate year (PGY) across all sites. Of greatest significance were satisfaction reports by PGY. Residents in the third year of training were more likely than those in earlier years to report that information provided by librarians during rounds: A) changed their short-term and/or long-term treatment plans (chi2=13.61, p=.009); B) helped them locate useful information more efficiently than in the past (chi2=10.99, p=.027); and C) helped increase their knowledge about a medical or community health issue (chi2=16.15, p=.003).

CONCLUSIONS: After reviewing these results and discussing possible interpretations by site and by PGY, several changes have been made or are proposed for this and the 2011-2012 academic year, e.g. participation of librarians in PGY1 practice settings such as inpatient morning report. These changes will address areas where lower satisfaction scores were reported. A specific follow-up survey targeting librarian participation is planned for 2012.

Setting: Research and Scholarly Communication Services Department, Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS)

Description: The Department is charged with overseeing four major areas:

• Scholarly Communications
• Library Services to the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), as well as the larger research community
• eScholarship@UMMS, the University’s institutional repository
• eScience Initiative of the Library

Outcome: Leveraging existing relationships with GSBS faculty and administration, a popular institutional repository, and the NIH Public Access Policy, the department successfully integrated itself into the research community of the University, producing a number of expanded and new services.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, May 15, 2011, Minneapolis, MN.

Presented at the Association for College and Research Libraries New England Chapter Annual Conference, "Creative Collaborations," on May 13, 2011, in Worcester, Mass.

Presented at the New England Technical Services Librarians 2011 Spring Conference, on April 8, 2011, in Worcester, Mass.

Presented at the MAHSLIN 2011 Annual Meeting on May 6, 2011 in Waltham, Mass.