PANEL 2 - Fulfilling Information
Needs with National/State/Local
Web Resources
Terry Henner, U Nevada - Leader
Ione Auston, NLM - Recorder
Public Health
Outreach Forum
National Library of Medicine
Lister Hill Auditorium
Bethesda, Maryland
1. How are librarians/info pros determining
web-based info needs of PH professionals?
How effective are these methods? Does
evaluation validate needs assessment?
• Telephone survey of county health
providers - hard to reach but worthwhile using web-based survey form
• Paper based needs survey - via State Dept.
of Health/State Public Health Association
• Via faculty contacts and affiliations Schools of Public Health
1. How are librarians/info pros determining
web-based info needs of PH professionals?
How effective are these methods? Does
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evaluation validate needs assessment?
Via Listserv - response rates good - useful
for targeted audiences
Feedback from people who were in training
courses
RML outreach coordinators - attending
state PH association meetings - ID projects
Local newspaper articles
Solicit information on “gaps”
2. To what degree is duplication among
project websites and PH organizations a
concern? Is a national resource needed?
• PH pros have 1 or 2 web sites that they
regularly use. Librarians need to link to
many resources to reach PH community.
• Core resources? Need LOCAL resource
links & relationship building, Pathfinders
• Local resources - data from counties - help
local resources create web sites
2. To what degree is duplication among
project websites and PH organizations a
concern? Is a national resource needed?
• Web development - may need to be
designed for teaching or other specific
purposes/ content developed at local level
to be kept up-to-date
• Web template and other established
collaboration guidelines, e.g, global search
engine across sites, could help
• ASTHO’s Statepublichealth.org - links to
and indexes target web sites
2. To what degree is duplication among
project websites and PH organizations a
concern? Is a national resource needed?
• Meta-engine to search across projects
• Meta-data - Public health intervention
model - natural language search extraction
from gray literature
• Meta-search tool needs to be marketed to
PH portals and linked from them
3. How can we engage PH professionals to
partner in developing and maintaining
directories of relevant web resources?
• Top-down from upper management that
using and contributing to web is part of
work
• Bottom-up approach for community based
programs - advocacy groups can contribute
content - PH web projects can provide web
presence for this content
• Personal contacts with people who have
used library in past
3. How can we engage PH professionals to
partner in developing and maintaining
directories of relevant web resources?
• Let users help identify and contribute have notice for comments on web site
• At training sessions, ask for input
• Info “Demand” - from grassroots groups,
e.g., for local health statistics
• Needs assessment - asked for favorite sites
4. What kind of additional resources, or new
areas, need to be developed and made
available on the web?
• Consumer health information - for diverse
population, e.g, Spanish and low-literacy
• MEDLINEplus front page in Spanish (multilingual)
• Consumer public health information - good
for consumers and health providers, e.g.,
how to describe an epidemic, primary
source material
4. What kind of additional resources, or new
areas, need to be developed and made
available on the web?
• Fulltext needed
• Workforce development information to
attract students into PH careers
• American Family Physician and other
journals - index more consumer health
pages not just JAMA’s for MEDLINE
4. What kind of additional resources, or new
areas, need to be developed and made
available on the web?
• CHID database - need to link to fulltext
• Preconstructed MEDLINE searches based
on local public health goals & needs
• Partner with PH academic departments and
schools (especially for local data/research)