HSLS Update

PHIA Program Continues Beyond Initial Grant Period

Members of the academic community are accustomed to having a wealth of information resources available through their university libraries. Unfortunately, public health practitioners often face a shortage of such resources in their workplace. Few publicly funded public health agencies can afford in-house libraries or librarians, nor do they have direct access to health sciences library collections or services. Free Internet public health resources are expanding, but these meet only selective information needs. In an ongoing effort to address these challenges, HSLS will continue the Public Health Information Alliance (PHIA) project, whose aim is to provide high quality information access for the local public health workforce.

The Public Health Information Alliance program has provided access to HSLS resources and training for the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) since March 2003. PHIA was funded through August 2004 by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under grants and Contracts No. N01-LM-3521.The most significant indicator of the success of this pilot program is its continuation after the conclusion of the NLM grant period, with funding from ACHD and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Practice.¹

PHIA has had a significant impact on ACHD employees’ information seeking behavior, and their knowledge about information resources. A recent program evaluation survey showed that ACHD employees:

• Agree PHIA provides information that is relevant to their work, and saves time.
• Request information via document delivery to obtain journal articles that they would not have previously pursued.
• Search PubMed and other information sources more frequently than before training.

Eighty-two percent of respondents who attended PHIA training classes on PubMed, Internet Searching, Grant Funding Resources, Statistical Resources, or Consumer Health Resources reported that they have used the skills learned in class on the job.

All services provided during the original grant period are continuing in the next phase of the program. These include access to the customized PHIA Web site, training, reference support, document delivery, and borrowing of library materials. The steering committee of Barbara Epstein, Nancy Tannery, and Barbara Folb (continuing as the project manager) from HSLS, and Alice Kindling and Ed Schwartz from ACHD will continue to guide the program. For more information, visit the PHIA Web site at <www.hsls.pitt.edu/phia>.

-- Barbara Folb

¹University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Practice is providing generous support from public health workforce training and development grants through the Health Resources and Services Administration and by cooperative agreement number U90/CCU324238 from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.