Citations
(Library Newsletter) April 2001
Library
Health Information Project Improves Borderland Wellness
The Border Health Information and
Education Network (BIEN!), led by the NMSU
Library, is a partnership of seventeen academic and public libraries, hospitals,
clinics and other public health service organizations in New Mexico’s Dona Ana,
Luna, and Otero counties. BIEN!’s
mission is to create opportunities to improve the health of residents of the
borderland region by the provision of quality health information in all formats
in English and Spanish. Since its
beginning in 2000, BIEN! has made much progress in accomplishing its goals:
•Installation of computers with Internet access and
printers at all 17 BIEN! Project partner locations.
•Creation of a BIEN! Project Internet web site accessible
at http://www.nmsu.edu/bien.
This site includes many links to quality consumer/patient health information
web sites in Spanish and English as well as links of interest to health care
providers and health educators. Besides
locating health/medical information, BIEN! web site visitors can provide
feedback to the site’s webmaster and BIEN! Project Health Information Reference
Librarian Molly McGetrick and
post messages to the site’s bulletin board.
•Purchase of various web-based health and medical
information database subscriptions, now available to project partners. Because the NMSU Library is a BIEN! partner,
faculty, students, and staff have access to EBSCO Publishing’s AltHealthWatch,
a full text alternative and complementary health information database, and
MDConsult, a health and medical information database geared to health care
professionals. Ask about accessing these
databases at the Reference/Information desks at Branson and Zuhl libraries.
•Access training sessions at BIEN! partner sites in February
and early March. A total of 20 sessions were
conducted by project staff members Judith
Pearson and Molly McGetrick. Participants were groups of public librarians
and staff, academic librarians and staff, health educators, and health care
providers. Approximately 140 people have
participated in training sessions thus far. More sessions will be scheduled in March and
April. Training sessions include
presentation of BIEN! web site features and instruction on navigating the site
to locate and retrieve information. Training/instruction
is also provided on searching EBSCO and MDConsult databases. Each training session includes a time period
for “hands-on” practice using the resources to reinforce learning.
Overall response to the training sessions by both
participants and trainers has been very
positive. Participants
are invited to complete training evaluation forms which provide valuable feedback
to the trainers, including suggestions for modifying the BIEN! web site. These suggestions have been implemented. NMSU academic departments and community groups
interested in participating in a BIEN! training session may contact Judith
Pearson, BIEN! Project Outreach/Training Librarian, at 646-3078 or jupearso@lib.nmsu.edu.
Approximately $28,000 has been spent to purchase health
information resources in Spanish and English in print and other formats based
on results of a needs assessment survey of project partners. Each partner site will receive a core collection
of materials tailored to that location’s stated needs, to be used for reference
and distribution. One of the goals of
the project is to provide timely and quality health-related research information
and other health reference information to consumers, health care providers,
health educators, allied health professionals, students, faculty, and
librarians. Already, the project staff has
responded to numerous information requests via email and phone and will continue
to provide this service for the life of the project.
BIEN! has been funded by a $10,000 planning grant from the
Paso del Norte Foundation of