Updating the support group information in Go Local Nebraska

Thanks to the hard work by Kari Stavneak and Rose Fredrick, the 853 support group records held in Go Local Nebraska are getting a thorough updating. First, Kari compares the information held in the database record to what she can locate at the support group's web site. If more information is needed, or a website is not available, Rose or Kari call the support group contact person. Thanks to this painstaking attention to detail, Nebraskans will continue to have a direct connection to health-based support groups through the Go Local Nebraska resource.

June 13 visits with new Go Local Nebraska Selectors

Marie and Teri visited new Go Local Selectors at 5 public libraries. The Selectors will be invaluable in locating local information to add to Go Local Nebraska, and correcting current information already listed in the Go Local database.

Blair - Met with Ruth Peterson, Director, and Laurel Lau. Ruth suggested adding a reviewed date to each description in Go Local, since we teach our users that it is important to know the age of the information they are viewing. The photo below is , left to right, Peterson and Lau at the main desk in the Blair library.

Fremont - Met with Jennifer Wright, Laura England, Karen Choy, and Ann Stephens, Director. Our main contact for the Selector duties will be Jennifer. Ann told us about their earlier efforts at community information with the Connect Fremont program that was managed by the library. We had lunch at the Thornhills, a wonderful place to eat if you are ever in Fremont. The photo below shows, left to right, Marie Reidelbach, Laura England, Jennifer Wright, Karen Choy, and Ann Stephens.

Oakland - Met with Rosa Schmidt, Director. A great community library, complete with its own cat. Rosa had CHIRS and Go Local promotion materials up in her library. The photo below, left to right, is Teri Hartman and Rosa Schmidt.

Hooper - Met Karla Shafer, Director. She was very enthusiastic about the Go Local program, and eager to promote the service through both the library and her second job as manager of the Senior Center. Karla also had one of the Go Local exhibits up in her library. The photo below is of Karla Shafer.

Wahoo - Met with Denise Lawver, Director. She will be updating her community information very soon, as they have just built a new building for their hospital in Wahoo. Denise is at the main library desk in the photo below.

Exhibited at the Eastern Library System Annual Meeting

An exhibit promoting Go Local and CHIRS was set-up at the Eastern Library System Annual meeting held in Bellevue University on June 8. 50+ librarians representing public, school, academic, and special libraries attended the full day meeting. Brochures, baseball cards, and a CD were available at the booth for attendees. Marie Reidelbach spoke with several of the participants about the program with emphasis given to the Go Local project. Joy Winkler spoke on health literacy in the afternoon session. As part of her presentation she shared information about the CHIRS program and had brochures available with her handouts. It is always rewarding to introduce this service to a librarian and see how excited they are to hear about it.

Go Local linked from the Omaha World Herald

Support Groups are a regular feature of the online version of the Omaha World Herald linked from http://omaha.com . Click on the “Living” button and scroll down to Support Groups. To the right of the listing is a RELATED link. Click on this link which takes you directly to the Go Local Nebraska website. A broad range of health services in Nebraska will be represented from the established Go Local Service terms with emphasis on clinics, hospitals, health departments, public health services, nursing home facilities, mental health centers, libraries, emergency medical services, home health care services, and support groups. Many of these health service organizations and providers have their own websites.

Latest Happenings with Go Local Nebraska

Marie Reidelbach and Teri Hartman attended the Go Local meeting at the Medical Library Association in Philadelphia on May 20th. It was exciting to see the other states that have begun working on their Go Local initiative (North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa are now working on their Go Local!), and to hear what plans the National Library of Medicine has for improving the Go Local web appearance and functionality.
Teri Hartman visited with Jamie Moore, Vice President of Volunteer and Community Services at the United Way of the Midlands on May 31. Ms. Moore is also in charge of the 211 service here in Nebraska and western Iowa. Teri demonstrated Go Local Nebraska for Ms. Moore, showing how it could be a great resource for the 211 information and referral operators on her staff. We hope that the 211 database will soon list Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS as health information resources for our citizens that call 211 for help.
The Go Local Nebraska team is looking forward to welcoming Go Local Selectors that have volunteered as a result of visits made to public librarians in May. Selectors, acting as local eyes and ears for the Go Local team, would be responsible for auditing their community's entries in the Go Local Database, checking them for accuracy, and recommending other resources to be added. If you know of someone that would like to know more about the responsibilities and benefits of becoming a Selector, please ask them to contact us at askus@unmc.edu .