2009 Wrap-Up

Go Local Nebraska has had a good year. The team at McGoogan Library was kept busy updating records and adding new health facilities and organizations to the database. The display went out to Nebraska sites several times. And the calendar year rounded off nicely at the Nebraska Library Association annual meeting with personal visits at our booth with Nebraska public and school librarians .
We look forward to serving you and your community with up to date contact information on self-help groups, health organizations and facilities in your area and across the state of Nebraska, If you wish to partner with us on updating your community's information, please email golocal@unmc.edu, and we will show you how to proceed.
Happy New Year! from the Go Local Nebraska/CHIRS team.

Go Local Nebraska presented at Creighton Student Health Fair

Thanks to the outreach efforts of Jeanne Burke, Education Coordinator at the Creighton University Health Sciences Library, Creighton University students learned about Go Local Nebraska and how the resource works with MedlinePlus.gov. On October 28th, Ms. Burke presented the information resources to 132 individuals. "Most individuals were extremely impressed with “Go Local”!", reported Ms. Burke.

The Go Local Nebraska team thanks Jeanne Burke for her stellar outreach efforts. If your library has recently conducted outreach that has included presenting information on Go Local Nebraska or CHIRS, please let us know. We would like to recognize your hard work here, and make sure it is included in the quarterly project reports that are submitted to the National Library of Medicine.

Go Local Nebraska will be at the Nebraska Library Association meeting

Please stop by the NNLM-MCR booth at the Nebraska Library Association meeting in La Vista tomorrow afternoon, and learn more about the Go Local Nebraska initiative. Here is a link to the wonderful program of events they have planned for Nebraska librarians: http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/conference/2009/program.html . See you there!

Join us at the Making Healthy Happen fair in Omaha

Please drop by and take a look at the health fair tomorrow (October 10, 2009), if you find yourself out by the Village Pointe Medical Center at 175th and Burke Street between 10am and 2pm. McGoogan Library will be there, exhibiting CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska services. Here is more information about the free fair (which includes prizes!):
http://www.unmcphysicians.com/ttg-uma/public/v2/images/users/10/Making%20Healthy%20Happen.pdf

Friends of the McGoogan Library event

Go Local Nebraska, as a part of the Consumer Health Information Resource Service, will be presented to the Friends of the McGoogan Library Annual Meeting this evening. Information about the event will be posted later tonight.

CHIRS/Go Local Display is available for your next event

The CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska Display is back and ready for your next event. You can reserve a display by going to this page: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm .

The most recent library that had the display was the Plattsmouth Public Library in July. They used it in a community health fair to exhibit their library's consumer health information services. If you have an event coming up in your community - a blood drive, a volunteer fire fundraiser, parent's night at school - register the date at the link above, and we will mail out the display via FedEx. We always include return postage, so your library will not incure ANY charges for having the display.

Recent Go Local Nebraska exhibits

The Go Local Nebraska promotional exhibit has been traveling this spring. In addition to its appearance at the Cattlemen's Ball in Doniphan, NE on June 6, it was viewed in Wahoo at the community health fair on June 6, and at the Eastern Library System Annual Meeting at the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus on June 12.
If you have an opportunity to exhibit the information resources available through Go Local Nebraska (http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska), you can request a free traveling display by filling out the form at this page:
http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm

See you at the Cattlemen's Ball!

Summer always brings many exhibit opportunities for the Go Local Nebraska outreach team, and this year is no exception. The Cattlemen's Ball is one that takes place near Doniphan, Nebraska this weekend - June 5th & 6th. The team attended last year's event, and found it an excellent opportunity to get the word out about Go Local Nebraska and the valuable information it contains. Stop by the Health Screening tent if you are attending the Ball. More information on the event is at the Give Cancer the Boot site: http://cattlemensball.com/

Go Local Nebraska display and promotion materials

The Go Local Nebraska/CHIRS display has been viewed in the following community libraries around the state this month: Crete, Fairbury, Omaha Public (Millard branch), and Hastings. Promotional materials (brochures, baseball cards, and other items) have been sent out to a site in Albion.
If you would like to receive either the tri-fold display, or promotional materials, all at no charge to your organization, please make your request at this page:
http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/chirs_order.cfm

or call toll-free 1-866-800-5209. Reserve the display as early as possible - we are already receiving requests for Fall 2009.

Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS included in conference handouts

The Olson Center for Women's Health at UNMC is hosting "Women's Watch: Timely information on Depression, Anxiety, Weight, & Pain Management" tomorrow night. They are expecting over 200 women to attend, and will be packing information bags for them to take away. Tucked into each bag will be a CHIRS/Go Local Nebraska brochure, so the attendees will know where they can call for expert health information resources. An additional 50 brochures were dropped off for the Olson Center's new Resource Room.
If you know of a resource center in your community, or an upcoming health event, please email golocal@unmc.edu or go to http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/chirs_order.cfm and request brochures. If there is space at the event, you can request a free display to exhibit the consumer health resources.

Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS - Your local information resources for health-related issues

Thanks to the support and technical leadership of the Nebraska Library Commission, a recorded presentation on Go Local Nebraska and CHIRS is up on NCompass Live:
http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/scripts/training/eventshow.asp?ProgID=8982

The presentation, given March 18, 2009, is designed to inform libraries in Nebraska about these two valuable information resources, and how they can be used to support library patrons and communities. A key piece of information given in the presentation applies to any state or region with a Go Local directory service: local libraries need to check their community's health services listings, and send updates/additions to their Go Local for inclusion. By doing so, each Go Local directory will improve and grow richer with up-to-date local information.

If you are a Nebraska library and would like to update your community's health listings, please contact golocal@unmc.edu and let us know you would like to help.

Nebraska Legislative Day - February 10

Teri Hartman made the rounds visiting 13 of the 15 offices of the new senators during Legislative Day. She also visited with the specialists in the Legislative Research Office. The staff members seemed eager to hear about the McGoogan Library of Medicine services to professionals and consumers in the state, and all promised to share the promotional materials with their senator including a Go Local Nebraska magnet, McGoogan baseball card, CHIRS/GoLocal Nebraska brochure, and the 2009 McGoogan Library of Medicine fact sheet. Email is the preferred method of corresponding with the senators and their office staff. It was a productive morning with Teri making some excellent contacts.

CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska promoted at the Baright Public Library

Thanks to an invitation from the head of the Baright Public Library in Ralston, NE, CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska were promoted during yesterday's Lunch and Learn. 9 citizens attended the event, which is held monthly at the library. The library's wireless network stretched into the meeting area, so live demonstrations of Go Local Nebraska could be conducted. It was a pleasure to promote these great services in such a relaxed atmosphere, while reinforcing the consumer health information network collaboration between the local public library and McGoogan Library of Medicine. In addition to this presentation, the Baright Public Library has had the loan of one of the displays, placing it out in their high-traffic area in the library. If your library would like to request a display to use to promote Go Local Nebraska, please fill out this web form: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm . It will be delivered to you with return postage paid.

The Baright Public Library has made their Lunch and Learn series a successful outreach tool. They offer a free drink (coffee, tea, water) and dessert (brownies & carrot cake), and encourage attendees to bring their lunch to eat during the presentation. They have everyone drop their name in a basket, and at the end the speaker draws out a winner, who gets a prize bag of goodies (including library promotional items). Signs are up at the entrance to the meeting room, announcing the next Lunch and Learn's date and topic. Citizens attend, learn something new, and reacquaint themselves with their local library, making everyone involved a winner.