Improving Access to Information for Public Health Workers
public health workers in non-academic settings can face daunting challenges in accessing information in support of their daily tasks. To help solve this problem, HSLS has been awarded an 18-month National Library of Medicine contract by the National Library of Medicine to develop a partnership with the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD). The goal of the project is to raise public health workers’ awareness of information resources and decrease barriers to use by enhancing access to knowledge-based information, document delivery, reference assistance, user education and consultation. As ACHD Director, Dr. Bruce Dixon, noted in his letter of support, this grant "will enable [ACHD] staff to become more efficient in accessing the health information they need to more effectively address existing and emerging public health problems."
Specifically, HSLS will develop a Web-based public health information portal so that ACHD staff can access relevant local, state, national and international information resources. The portal will include links to agencies and organizations, databases and available full-text information. HSLS will also provide access to print books and journals – whether in HSLS collections or in other library collections – through direct book borrowing privileges and paperless Web-based document delivery for journal articles.
Barbara Folb, MLS, will spearhead this project as liaison librarian to ACHD. She will offer ongoing reference and consultation service to ACHD employees for work-related questions and projects. In addition, she will develop and implement an ongoing user education and information literacy program for ACHD public health workers. Training will focus on accessing information resources and services, developing effective strategies for information retrieval and updating knowledge and skills.
--Barbara Epstein
