An Ounce of Prevention: Health Reference Basis

Thursday, April 16, 2009–Participants joined LILRC for a group viewing of the College of DuPage Soaring into Excellence Teleconference Series sponsored by the New York State Library.

Topics of discussion included the importance of the medical reference interview and communication strategies, ideas for providing quality health information outreach and services, and cultural diversity issues.  Print and electronic resources were recommended, including:

• MedlinePlus: brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news.

• PubMed: is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.

For additional resources on consumer health collection development, cultural differences, HIPAA and more, refer to the College of DuPage Press Consumer Health Reference Toolkit.

Special thanks to the South Huntington Public Library for hosting this event.

Beyond an Apple a Day: Consumer Health Information @ Your Library

August 12th- Arpita Bose, Outreach and Communications Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Middle Atlantic Region, presented the hands-on workshop Beyond an Apple a Day: Consumer Health Information @ Your Library for a mixed group of public, academic and medical librarians.

The class begun with a look at health information seeking behaviors and health literacy.  According to the Pew Internet and American Life Health Report (2006):

Most internet users start at a search engine when looking for health information online. Very few check the source and date of the information they find.

The Reference Interview for health information can present some challenges, especially when it comes to pointing patrons to accurate, authoritative, and reliable consumer health resources.  Some of the guidelines discussed during the class included:

• Be empathetic
• Be an active listener
• Ask open ended or natural questions
• Respect privacy/ confidentiality
• Be prepared for emotional reactions
• Be aware of body language

For more information on guidelines, please refer to:

• UCONN Healthnet Guidelines for Providing Medical Information to Consumers
• MLA Code of Ethics for Health Science Librarianship

Presentation Slides

Additional Resources

Trusted Consumer Health Information:

• MedlinePlus
• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
• Ask Me 3 (refer to the “For Patient” section)
• NN/LM Consumer Health Information in Many Languages Resources
• Familydoctor.org
• KidsHealth
• SeniorHealth

Local Resources:

• New York State Physician Profile
• New York State Hospital Profile
• New York State Online Access to Health (NOAH)
  

All resources listed on this page were provided from the class handout.  For additional information please refer to the class link at: http://nnlm.gov/training/consumer/apple.