The Go Local Nebraska team wishes you a bright holiday season!

Happy holidays! As 2008 winds down, the team is busy updating the database with the change of addresses of health care professionals and facilities. We want to thank you for your support throughout the past year, and look forward to serving your information needs in 2009 on Nebraska health care professionals, facilities, and organizations. Please continue to let us know when the database lacks information, as well as when we are "doing it right".

New records added to Go Local Nebraska

Over 190 chiropractors have been added to the database, and letters requesting information updates have been sent out to the same group of names. We have received positive feedback from the chiropractors, many of whom have linked to the Go Local Nebraska database on their own websites.
If you know of another group of Nebraska healthcare professionals that should be listed or updated in Go Local Nebraska [ http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska ], just let us know by emailing golocal@unmc.edu .

Interested in contacting Go Local projects in other states?

The Go Local Nebraska blog gets visitors from many other areas in the nation. If you are one - welcome! If you are a health care consumer, professional, student, or librarian, you have a lot to offer the Go Local initiative in the United States, and should get in touch with Go Local contacts in your own state or region to see what information resources are available, and find out the best way you can assist the team.

Here is the link to the page that lists all of the Go Local projects, along with contact information:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/golocal/contacts.html

Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS in La Vista

The Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS booth was well attended at the La Vista Annual Health Fair on October 17, 2008. 55 people stopped by the booth and received information on how to access health care organizations, support groups and professionals through Go Local Nebraska, and how to use the CHIRS health information service offered free to all Nebraskans. MedlinePlus information in English and Spanish was also distributed.

The health fair attendees caught a double dose of information - the La Vista Public Library had a booth at the fair, and also presented information on CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska!

If you know of a health fair in your Nebraska community, please request a free booth display by emailing golocal@unmc.edu, or calling 1-866-800-5209.

Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS will be at the 2008 Nebraska Library Association conference

The theme for this year's Nebraska Library Association/Nebraska Educational Media Association Conference is: "Nebraska Libraries: Vision for the Information Age". Go Local Nebraska and the Consumer Health Information Resource Service (CHIRS) fit that theme well, particularly when partnered with the Nebraska public libraries.
Brochures, baseball cards, and even magnets will be available to the conference attendees, thanks to Marty Magee, Nebraska/Education Liaison for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine-MidContinental Region.
If you know of any conferences where Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS promotion materials would be useful, please let us know by emailing your request to golocal@unmc.edu .

Promoting Go Local Nebraska to Nebraska hospitals

Go Local Nebraska, CHIRS, and MedlinePlus were promoted to an exhibit of health care organization recruiters at UNMC on September 18th. The event was coordinated by MINK Midwest MD http://www.mink-midwest.org/index.php . Teri Hartman, member of the Go Local Nebraska committee, gave Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS information to the following Nebraska organizations: Alegent (Omaha Metro), Methodist (Omaha Metro), Gordon Memorial Health Services (Gordon, NE), Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center (Beatrice, NE), Sentinel Health Care (Kearney, NE), and North Platte. Hartman encouraged all recipients to send their feedback on how their Go Local Nebraska listing appeared in the database. Marty Magee, NN/LM-MCR Education/Nebraska Liaison, gave MedlinePlus and other National Library of Medicine information resource information to exhibitors from all four states - Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas. It was wonderful to reach so many communities and not even leave campus!

If there are events such as this taking place in your community, please consider attending and take CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska/MedlinePlus/your library brochures, baseball cards, and magnets. Let both the exhibitors and the attendees know the great health information services that exist solely to fill their information needs. Let us know if you need additional promotional materials by filling out the free form: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/chirs_order.cfm .

CHIRS in the news

CHIRS - Consumer Health Information Resource Service - includes Go Local Nebraska resources. The service was highlighted in The Gateway, the student paper of the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus. The article, written by Karen Collins, appeared in the September 5, 2008 issue: Tap Into Your Free Health Care Info.

Please let us know if you have the chance to promote CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska through newsletters, newspapers, or other media outlets. We are glad to supply any text you may need to promote these services.

Latest Go Local Nebraska press release

The McGoogan Library of Medicine has written a new news release that is available at the University of Nebraska Medical Center archives: http://app1.unmc.edu/publicaffairs/newsarchive/view_art.cfm?article_id=1742.

You can use this latest press release to promote CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska in your community newspaper, radio station, neighborhood and library newsletters. Please let us know if you promote Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS - we want to recognize all efforts that work toward our common goal of improving the health of fellow Nebraskans.

Announcing The Nebraska Notebook for Consumer Health

What is it? - A free online presentation covering:
MedlinePlus.gov - Will direct you to information to help answer health questions. It includes information about drugs, a medical encyclopedia, interactive tutorials, and more .
Go Local Nebraska – A service for finding local resources for health-related issues in your Nebraska county or city.
Consumer Health Information Resource Service (CHIRS) – Provides a tailored package of information on your health condition at your request.
Evaluation of Web Sites – What you should know about web sites.

Who can use it? – Anyone!
Does not require Power Point or other software to access
Access it at: http://www.tinyurl.com/nebraskanotebook. (No user name or password needed)
Use it to study yourself or to give a presentation!
We are eager to hear your feedback - please answer four short questions about this product at: http://www.tinyurl.com/nenotebook.

The Nebraska Notebook for Consumer Health is a joint project of the National Network/Libraries of Medicine MidContinental Region and the University of Nebraska Medical Center , McGoogan Library of Medicine, with assistance from Michael Straatman, MLS student, University of Missouri.

Congratulations to Dr. David Palm, Go Local Nebraska Advisory Committee member

Dr. David Palm received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D. Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine from UNMC's College of Public Health on May 1, 2008.

From the University of Nebraska Medical Center Public Affairs story: "Dr. Palm has more than 30 years of experience in working on various health planning and policy issues for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services including serving as administrator of the Office of Community Health Development in the Division of Public Health since 2000. " A link to the entire news story: http://app1.unmc.edu/PublicAffairs/TodaySite/sitefiles/today_full.cfm?match=4611

Congratulations, Dr. Palm, and we are so glad you serve on the Go Local Nebraska Advisory Committee!

Recent exhibits for Go Local Nebraska

The Go Local Nebraska team has been fairly busy with exhibiting services to librarians, health professionals, and consumers. Marie Reidelbach and Teri Hartman attended the Republican Valley/Meridian Library Systems' Joint Annual Meeting in Hastings, Nebraska on June 6. They presented information on Go Local Nebraska, the Consumer Health Information Resource Service [CHIRS], and other support offered by the McGoogan Library of Medicine to all public librarians in the state.



Marie and Teri also exhibited Go Local Nebraska and the CHIRS program at the 2008 Cattleman's Ball on June 7 near Albion, Nebraska. The Ball is a major fund raiser to support cancer research at the Eppley Cancer Center at UNMC. Meeting and talking about high quality health information sources such as Go Local Nebraska, CHIRS, and MedlinePlus with some of the 3000 attendees was exciting. This exhibit was held outdoors in a tent! Lucky for the team, the weather was beautiful that day.

CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska were discussed at the Nebraska Libraries Future Search event that was held in Schuyler, Nebraska on June 10 and 11. Nearly 100 Nebraska citizens, elected officials, librarians, and trustees agreed that having quick access to evaluated, reliable, local health information is and will continue to be important to Nebraskans.

Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS teamed up with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to exhibit at the Washington Branch of the Omaha Public Library on June 18 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Omaha World Herald published a story about the event at this site: http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3940&u_sid=10362060 . Health information resources were presented to the adults in the crowd as they watched the kids and young people ride the rides. This was a great community event!

The Go Local Nebraska team also exhibited at the Eastern Library System Annual Meeting, held in Bellevue, Nebraska on June 20. Public, school, and special librarians attended the meeting, and stopped by the booth to catch up on the news about Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS. This was also a great opportunity to show the Go Local/CHIRS display that can be checked out by any library in Nebraska. Additionally, brochures were given to representatives of the Soul Desires and Confluence bookstores, so their customers would know about the health information services offered to them. You too can request promotion materials for your library or community facility in Nebraska by going to this webpage on the McGoogan Library site: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/chirs_order.cfm , or by emailing golocal@unmc.edu .

Go Local Nebraska is not limited to Nebraska!

The excellent information available through the Go Local Nebraska directory [http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska ] can be found by anyone in the world, not just Nebraska citizens. To help illustrate the fact, one of the committee members took a Go Local Nebraska bag with them on a recent trip to the Gulf, taking pictures of it in each of the states they passed through. If anyone in those states (such as: family members of Nebraska citizens; people considering a move to Nebraska and looking for health care support; or people looking for potential places of employment in Nebraska) had a need for information on Nebraska health care providers, organizations, or support groups, they could have found their answer using Go Local Nebraska.

Promoting Go Local Nebraska to tomorrow's health care providers

Every two months, a group of about 20 third year medical students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center go on Primary Care rotation, usually in or around Nebraska. During their day-long orientation before heading out to their rotation sites, they learn about information resources available to them and the citizens that they will care for through the McGoogan Library of Medicine. Among the resources demonstrated: CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska.
If you know of health professional students in your area, please share with them about Go Local Nebraska. After all, one day we hope to have their practice indexed in it!

A testimonial showing how CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska make a difference

[I wanted to share this testimonial with you, our CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska supporters. Please let us know if you hear of any other stories from the many people that we have served over the years. -th]

My father has a rare disease. I needed to find the singular specialist in Omaha for a second opinion and treatment consultation. But who? And how would I find this doctor? Could there even be someone in our area?
I emailed my request to Teresa Hartman at Go Local Nebraska, and within hours I had the name of a doctor with the subspecialty in neurology. Within a few days, we were sitting in his office. We are most grateful to the medical librarians at the McGoogan Library who know everything! You just have to ask.
Sandra Wendel

Highlighting members of our Advisory Committee

The gentleman in the middle of the photo above with his insides out is Ira Combs, a Community Liaison Nurse and Project Coordinator for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The photo shows Mr. Combs and the clowns at the Black Family Health & Wellness Association Health Fair, March 29th in Omaha. In addition to serving on the Go Local Nebraska Advisory Committee, Mr. Combs serves on other National Library of Medicine committees, and is featured in this year's Aetna African American Calendar (July) that can be downloaded from this site: http://www.aetna.com/diversity/aahcalendar/2008/index.html

Another of our Advisory Committee members has had some great career news this year. Jim Bothmer, Director of the Creighton University Health Sciences Library/Learning Resources Center and Assistant Professor in the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy and Health Professions, has been appointed Assistant Vice President for Health Science and Director of the Health Sciences Library/Learning Resources Center at Creighton University. In this new role, he will be enhancing the academic mission of the Health Sciences Division.

More information about all of our talented Advisory Committee members can be found through this site: http://www.unmc.edu/library/golocal/

Teri Hartman exhibits for Go Local Nebraska

Teri Hartman has been busy this past month attending several meetings and sharing information about CHIRS and Go Local. She attended the following:

• March 24 - Washington County Health Fair - Blair, NE
• March 29 - Black Family Wellness Association Health Fair - Omaha, NE
• March 31 - Governor's Conference on Community Service - Omaha, NE

A new display was designed for the meetings and is ready to be mailed out to any Public Library or Service Group interested in sharing information about the CHIRS program or Go Local. Click on http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm to request the display. All shipping costs are absorbed by the McGoogan Library.

Members of the Go Local team are also available to attend the meeting to share information about the consumer services we provide. Contact thartman@unmc.edu for more information.

Public Library Association

The presentation titled MedlinePlus Goes Local: Linking Quality Health Information to Local Health Services through Partnerships had 73 attendees on Friday, March 28. Five presentors including representation from the National Library of Medicine discussed the development of MedlinePlus and the Go Local initiatives. Currently there are 23 states who have launched a Go Local project and 10 more planning to go live in the coming year. A copy of the full slide presentation will be posted on the blog.

Go Local Nebraska heads to Minnesota!

The Go Local Nebraska project leader, Marie Reidelbach, will attend the upcoming Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 29. She will present on the Go Local Nebraska project as a member of a panel:

MedlinePlus Goes Local - Linking Quality Health Information to Local Health Services Through Partnerships.

If you know of any public librarians attending the PLA conference, please encourage them to attend this 4pm presentation.

CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska in Nebraska Newspapers

Both the Go Local Nebraska and the CHIRS programs have been featured recently in Nebraska newspapers:

Knowledge is Powerful Medicine - by Sandra Wendel
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?
u_page=3189&u_sid=10245534
The photo on the right, included in the print version of the story, shows Kari Stavneak (standing, left) and Rose Fredrick (seated) with Teri Hartman at the McGoogan reference desk. Kari and Rose are key members of the Go Local Nebraska workforce, and we thank them for all of the hard work they do in keeping the database populated and maintained.

Library News from the Baright Library in Ralston:
http://www.bellevueleader.com/site/tab7.cfm?newsid=19268153&BRD=2712&PAG=461&dept_id=557009&rfi=6 We thank the Baright Library for mentioning the CHIRS program, and encourage all Nebraska libraries to follow their example and promote this free, high quality service to their patrons.

Announcing a national Go Local customer satisfaction survey

Starting today and throughout the next year, there will be a customer satisfaction survey popping up when customers go to the third consecutive Go Local page. This survey asks customer satisfaction questions about the Go Local site, as well as what state or district customers are accessing Go Local at the time. Since there isn't enough traffic on any of the 21 Go Local sites around the nation, this survey will be an aggregate of all sites, and the project leaders at the National Library of Medicine will share the results with all Go Local teams, including the group here at Go Local Nebraska.
Please fill out the survey if you see it, and encourage those at your facility - feedback of all kinds is very valuable to creating a good customer experience on a site such as Go Local Nebraska. Naturally, you can opt out of taking the survey. Either way, if users do or do not take the survey, the system knows to not ask a specific user to take the survey again for a month.

Fremont Public Library Completes Go Local Nebraska Community Health Services Update

(L-R in photo: Teresa Hartman-associate professor, McGoogan Library, Marie Reidelbach-Associate Director, McGoogan Library; Ann E. Stephens, Director, Keene Memorial Library; Jennifer Wright, Library Assistant, Keene Memorial Library)

Marie Reidelbach, associate director of the UNMC McGoogan Library of Medicine presented the Keene Memorial Library with the first Go Local Nebraska Recognition Award.

The librarians and staff of the Keene Memorial Library in Fremont were recognized by staff from the McGoogan Library of Medicine for their work on completing a comprehensive listing of the Fremont community health services in the Go Local Nebraska database http://medlineplus.gov/Nebraska with a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2 at the library at 1030 N Broad St, Fremont, Neb.

“Thanks to their work, Fremont and Dodge County area residents can access up-to-date health services information directly through Go Local Nebraska,” said Marie Reidelbach, Associate Director of the McGoogan Library of Medicine.

Jennifer Wright, a library assistant at the Keene Memorial Library, was the principal staff member involved with the 2007 project.

Nebraska public libraries in Blair, Oakland, Hooper, and Wahoo are currently reviewing and updating their community’s health services information.

Go Local Nebraska was launched in 2006 and contains health services directory information for the state of Nebraska. It was created by the McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The directory is managed by a team of librarians and a citizen advisory group. In addition to funding through UNMC, It has been funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and the Nebraska Library Commission.