University of Nebraska Omaha Library Links to Go Local

We are always delighted to have other libraries link to Go Local Nebraska. It is a great way to get out the news about this health service directory. Please consider linking to Go Local if you have a website. The link is simply http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska

If you wish to provide more information about the program on your website feel free to share the following:

Go Local Nebraska links Medline Plus users to health service providers and organizations in the state of Nebraska.

Subject Coverage:
A broad range of health services in Nebraska are represented 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 will lack websites. Therefore Go Local Nebraska will not restrict selection to only those sources having a web presence, but will provide addresses and contact information for sources meeting the Go Local Nebraska selection criteria.

Go Local Statistics Provided by NLM

Have you been wondering how often the Go Local site is visited or the number of hits the site receives? The following summarizes how we have been doing this past year:

January 3553 hits and 538 visitors

February 11, 470 hits and 574 visitors

March 4299 hits and 573 visitors

April 5355 hits and 748 visitors

May 4033 hits and 573 visitors

June 6609 hits and 604 visitors

July 3677 hits and 619 visitors

August 4549 hits and 554 visitors

September 3386 hits and 436 visitors

October 4405 hits and 748 visitors

November 4203 hits and 703 visitors

Totals for January - November 2007 55539 hits and 6670 visitors

Letters Sent Out

The GoLocal team has been busy mailing out letters including brochures and baseball cards to all the hospitals and clinics listed in the GoLocal Nebraska database. Would you believe that is over 2000 letters? Each letter includes the contents of the individual records currently posted and blank spaces for missing data such as email addresses or websites. Many of the sites have responded via email or phone calls with updated information. The mailing will not only allow us to update information, but also promote the project to those who may not be aware of the valuable resource "GoLocal Nebraska".

Promoting Go Local Nebraska to new UNMC Faculty

On September 28, the Go Local Nebraska directory, along with other McGoogan Library of Medicine information resources, was promoted to 49 new faculty members of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The Go Local exhibit was one of 15 exhibits during the all-day annual New Faculty Orientation. Faculty members appeared glad to learn that these resources existed for their use. One College of Nursing faculty member took extra baseball cards to share with students doing rounds in the community.

If you have an opportunity to promote Go Local Nebraska to new or existing employees, please request a free display by filling out the form on this site:
http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm.

Update on recent Go Local Nebraska activities

The Go Local Nebraska Initiative now has its own email address: golocal@unmc.edu. Please feel free to use it and distribute it to others interested in communicating directly with the Go Local Nebraska project committee.
Go Local and CHIRS were presented to the Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency on September 17, as part of their monthly Wellness programs. 15 insurance professionals learned about the services and resources available to them through Go Local Nebraska links to MedlinePlus.gov, and through the Consumer Health Information Resource Service at the McGoogan Library of Medicine. There were many favorable comments about the Go Local resource. We hope the employees at Grace/Mayer let us know how we can serve their consumer health information needs better.
The project leaders at Go Local Nebraska were thrilled and honored to learn that they had been asked to provide examples of the promotion materials for the next meeting of the National Library of Medicine Board of Regents, due to take place this week. The materials have been sent, and if we receive any comments, we will pass them along to you through this blog.

Covering the state of Nebraska while promoting Go Local

The Go Local Nebraska team at the McGoogan Library of Medicine has covered the state while promoting the new Go Local directory. You can see where they have visited public libraries on this page: http://www.unmc.edu/apps/library/travelog/log.cfm .

Go Local exhibit September 8 at The Nebraska Medical Center

Information about Go Local Nebraska was distributed to attendees at the annual Community Health Fair, hosted by The Nebraska Medical Center on September 8, 2007. The Health Fair drew over 280 participants that took advantage of the cholesterol and other screening tests, then visited the 9 information booths and free breakfast in the Storz Pavillion. Health fair participants and volunteers alike were impressed with the quality and quantity of information accessible through Go Local Nebraska. Comments received included, "This makes the entire health fair worthwhile", and "This is a wonderful resource! I will share it with my friends." Go Local Nebraska cards were also given to fellow booth representatives in the effort to get them to check out their own organization's entry in the directory, and give feedback to the Go Local team as to the correctness of their entry.
There are a few more health fairs scheduled this fall season for the Go Local Nebraska display. If you know of a health fair in your area, please contact the Go Local Nebraska team and request a display to be mailed to you at no charge. You can request a display by visiting this website: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm .

Summertime and Go Local Nebraska

We hope you are having a great summer - the Go Local Nebraska crew at the McGoogan Library of Medicine sure have!
Work continues with entering and indexing new and established Go Local records, ensuring the correct and current information is available to all users.
The "Featured Site" at http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska will now be changed regularly, highlighting a different health information site. Currently, it takes readers to eHealth http://www.unmc.edu/ehealth/ , a portal site created by the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The free Go Local display has continued to circulate through public libraries - if you have a health-themed or community event coming up, be sure to get on the reserved list here for a Go Local display: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm .
Enjoy your summer days, and remember that Go Local Nebraska will be there if and when Nebraskans need up-to-date information on access to health care.

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 .

Go Local Nebraska in the news

We have received copies of two recent articles about Go Local Nebraska: one in Doniphan's Herald on April 5, and one in Lexington's Clipper-Herald on April 11. If you happen to see any media reports on Go Local Nebraska, please let us know so we can add the event to our publicity file.

May 11th presentation in Oakland

Marie Reidelbach, chair of the Go Local Nebraska committee, presented the new service during the Eastern Library System's Direct meeting on May 11, 2007. Hosted by the Oakland Public Library, the meeting was attended by nine area public library directors and Kathy Tooker, director of the Eastern Library System. Marie gave a personal invitation to the group to become Go Local Selectors. Seven of the library directors present agreed to become the first class of Selectors in Nebraska, and are eagerly awaiting their first assignments.

Back at McGoogan after a great trip!

We had a wonderful time last week, traveling Nebraska and telling librarians about the Go Local Nebraska initiative. We visited with 38 libraries and 3 system offices, delivering a poster and a bag of promotional items, or a poster alone if the library was visited during our 2006 trips. We taught the Go Local Nebraska class to over 60 library staff members that traveled to Alliance, Kearney, Norfolk, and Lincoln for the Spring Meetings. Total mileage driven from May 6-11: 1474 miles.
This was a great start to our 2007 travel season!

In Lincoln, after a successful Thursday

Travel yesterday was very successful. The NLA Spring Meeting class went well, with a potential Selector nominating themself for service. Starting off in Stanton, where we found a CHIRS poster up at the public library. The library director and assistant director were very glad to hear about the free display that any library can request - it will come in handy during their city-wide celebration this summer. Some libraries, like the one in Ulysses, were closed when we drove by, but we will get back to them during our future travels. The last stop, Milford, happened just as the library was about to close, but the staff received us warmly.
Today we have the final NLA Spring Meeting class, one more library visit, then home to Omaha.

In Norfolk, NE, and the week is half over

We had an enjoyable day, traveling to 10 libraries after the training we conducted at the Kearney Public Library. Saint Paul, Silver Spring, Genoa, all the way up to Oakdale and Battle Creek - the libraries and towns in Nebraska are varied and vibrant. We had a great reception in Oakdale - the librarian had attended our February training in Norfolk, and not only reads each issue of Year of CHIRS that she receives, she shares it with her board members so they will understand what health information services exist for Nebraskans through our public libraries. We have a full class set for Norfolk in the morning, then we will begin visiting libraries all the way down and past Lincoln, our training site for Friday. Today's items of interest: pairs of ducks on ponds, chipmunk-looking critters that played chicken with our rental car, and guinea hens on the side of the road. Next stop - Lincoln!

Now in Kearney

We are waiting for a great sunset here in Kearney. Today, we visited the library in Paxton, meeting a new librarian and introducing her to CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska. She liked the free display that we circulate to any library in Nebraska, and may request it for an event coming up this summer.
We also visited the librarian at Wallace, who also runs the town hotel. She was glad that we provided information on how to promote health information services to her community.
Items of interest today: whitetail deer, turkey (1 male, 1 female, but about a county apart), and a peacock.

Hello from Ogallala

We have arrived at Ogallala after a long day of travel. We conducted a Go Local training at the Alliance Public Library this morning to an enthusiastic crowd of 26 public librarians and staff. The training was part of the NLA 2007 Spring Meetings. Then we hit the road, visiting Hemingford, Harrison, Mitchell, Morrill, Minatare, and Bayard. At some of the towns, we just took photos of the library, since we were able to give the brand new Go Local Nebraska posters and promotion material in person at the training in Alliance. In other towns, like Morrill and Harrison, we were able to meet the library staff members, give the materials and share the news that Go Local Nebraska has been designed for them and their community's health information needs. Other items of interest we saw today: antelope, buffalo, meadowlarks, and redwinged blackbirds. We will post the number of miles we have driven each day so far in tomorrow's entry. -Roxanne and Teri

Next week: follow the CHIRS Road Team's progress across Nebraska

Roxanne Cox and Teresa (Teri) Hartman are traveling across Nebraska from May 6 - May 11. In addition to conducting consumer health information training sessions at the NLA Spring Meeting sites of Alliance, Kearney, Norfolk, and Lincoln, the pair will take the message of Go Local Nebraska to public libraries that were not visited during the 2006 travel. Photos and descriptions of the visits will be uploaded to this blog every evening (barring any technology difficulties), so stay tuned!
You can see the travel log of trips made in 2006 at this site: http://www.unmc.edu/apps/library/travelog/log.cfm . After the trips are made next week, they will also be added to the travel log.

Another exhibit for Go Local

Roxanne Cox and Marie Reidelbach had the opportunity to exhibit Go Local Nebraska to UNMC employees during the Be Well Aware health fair that was held April 17. They spoke to approximately 39 employees about Go Local Nebraska and other CHIRS services offered through the McGoogan Library of Medicine.
If your organization or community has a health fair coming up, please make a free request for the Go Local display materials at this site: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm. The display will be mailed to you with return mail postage paid, along with any other display materials (baseball cards, Go Local magnets) that you reqest.

Go Local has been promoted in the TV and radio media

An interview highlighting Go Local Nebraska is running today on the KFAB radio station in Omaha. You can listen to the station online through their website: http://kfab.com. The Community Telecast Channel in Omaha http://www.communitytelecast.com/ is also showing the Go Local Nebraska logo and url on cable channel 22.
Please let us know if you have successfully listed Go Local Nebraska with your local community news media.

Be on the lookout for Go Local Nebraska in the news!

A Go Local Nebraska press release was sent out by UNMC Public Affairs to news and media outlets across the state on Friday, March 30. We have heard from one Advisory Committee member that they are including the information included within the press release in their organzation's newsletter this month. Please consider adding information about Go Local Nebraska within your organization's newsletter and/or website. Remember to let us know where you publicized the Go Local Nebraska resource so that we can include the information in the quarterly reports.

We have exhibited Go Local at two area health fairs

Go Local Nebraska has been shown to Nebraska citizens during two recent health fairs: on March 26 at the Blair Community Health Fair in Blair, NE; and on March 31 at the Black Family Wellness Association Health Fair in Omaha, NE. Stuart Dayton, Head of the Learning Resource Center at McGoogan, designed a new display for 2007, and it received very favorable comments from those that attended each fair.
Health fairs are a great way to get the word out about the new Go Local Nebraska resource, offering an easy way to reach citizens that will use the resource as well as health professionals and organizations that should be listed within the resource.
Please let us know if you hear of a health fair in your area. No matter where the health fairs take place in Nebraska, we could send a display for you to use if you are exhibiting, or we could work with a local public library if they are going to exhibit health information.

Go Local Nebraska

Go Local Nebraska
Originally uploaded by Bibliotek.

Please let us know if you need any Go Local Nebraska baseball cards to promote the service to your audience. You can email your request to askus@unmc.edu .

Using an RSS reader? Add Go Local Nebraska to your collection!

The site feed url for the Go Local Nebraska blog is http://golocalne.blogspot.com/atom.xml . The Site Feed url is also posted at the bottom of this blog.

The benefit of using an RSS reader is to manage many blogs through one location. A good example of what an RSS reader can do to help you manage your connection to information is Google News - a news blog aggregator that collects many sources of information on one site: http://news.google.com.

Some free readers/aggregators that may serve your needs:
Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/. Quote from the Bloglines site: "Create a personal Bloglines page loaded with the freshest news about the things you love."
Google Reader http://www.google.com/help/reader/tour.html. Quote from the tour site: "Google Reader shows you all your favorite sites in one convenient place. It's like your inbox, for the web."

Reaching Out To Patients

The Go Local Nebraska team has applied for funding with The Nebraska Medical Center University Hospital Auxiliary. If approved, this would fund a new effort called Reaching Out To Patients, and enable purchase of promotional display holders, brochures, and other materials aimed at reaching patients and their family members at their time of information need. All of the promotional materials would be hand-delivered to patient waiting areas around The Nebraska Medical Center clinics, aiding patients and their family members seeking quality and reliable consumer health information.

Upcoming Education Events for Go Local

Roxanne Cox and Teri Hartman will be taking the message of Go Local Nebraska and traveling around the state to teach and demonstrate this new service at the Nebraska Library Association's Spring Meetings. The schedule is:

May 7th - Alliance
May 9th - Kearney
May 10th - Norfolk
May 11th - Lincoln

The Go Local committee at the McGoogan Library of Medicine, led by Marie Reidelbach, is also looking at scheduling travel and education sessions throughout the summer. If you know of a group that would benefit from a Go Local Nebraska presentation, please tell us so we can get them on the schedule.

February 6th Education Event a Success in Norfolk

Roxanne Cox and Teri Hartman traveled to Norfolk, NE on February 6th to teach two sessions on Go Local Nebraska for the Northeast Library System Workshop. The morning session students included 16 library staff and 1 library trustee; the afternoon session students included 18 library staff and 2 library trustees. The CHIRS program and the Go Local Nebraska project were covered in each hour-long class, with live demonstrations of Go Local Nebraska resulting in enthusiastic praise from the students. "This information is worth the cost of the workshop.", and "This made the entire day worthwhile." were two of the student comments overheard by the instructors. Evaluations gathered from the students included the following comments: "Small libraries cannot keep up w/current medical issues and this is one area where I know they are given correct info." "A great reference for ANYONE! Thanks." "WOW. I didn’t know any of this was available. I’m much better able to help our patrons w/medical questions."

Go Local Displays are traveling the state

The Go Local Nebraska project used some of the NN/LM grant monies last spring to purchase two mail-able displays for libraries to use when promoting Go Local and access to consumer health information in their communities. Using the Display Order form on this site: http://app1.unmc.edu/forms/library/displayform.cfm, libraries, hospitals, and colleges in Nebraska can request the display for a specific event, or just to add to their current promotional activities within their organization. There are no fees involved - the display is mailed out with return postage included. The following organizations have used the display since June 2006, and reservations for 2007 are still being received:

Alliance Public Library
Chase County Community Hospital
Fairbury Public Library
Goodall City Library
Grand Island Public Library
Hamilton College
La Vista Public Library
Norfolk Public Library

Database has Doubled in Size

Go Local Nebraska started with roughly 2700 records in October, 2006. As of March 2007 the number of records has nearly doubled with over 4600 records approved. 1200 records are in process which includes clinics across the state. It is estimated all of these records will be completed by June bringing the number of records in the database to almost 6000 entries.

Style Manual of Terms

As the Go Local team indexes records it is critically important to maintain consistency. A manual of all the service terms along with descriptions (provided by the North Carolina Go Local project) and topics is being developed. Currently the manul covers over 150 pages. The manual will eventually be posted on the Go Local website for all selectors and reviewers of the Go Local Nebraska project.

Web Statistics Reveal Go Local Usage

Since Go Local Nebraska was launched on October 21, 2006, the National Library of Medicine has maintained a monthly report of usage. The following provides an overview of web statistics through February, 2007.

October 2006
No. of Visitors - 578
Visited Once - 510
Visited More than Once - 68
Visits per day - 790
Avg. visits per day - 25
Avg. hits per day - 215
November 2006
No. of Visitors - 585
Visited Once - 504
Visited More than Once - 81
Visits per day - 939
Avg. visits per day - 31
Avg. hits per day - 355
December 2006
No. of Visitors - 363
Visited Once - 298
Visited More than Once - 65
Visits per day - 534
Avg. visits per day - 17
Avg. hits per day - 88
January 2007
No. of Visitors - 538
Visited Once - 457
Visited More than Once - 81
Visits per day - 744
Avg. visits per day - 24
Avg. hits per day - 114
February 2007
No. of Visitors - 574
Visited Once - 489
Visited More than Once - 85
Visits per day - 770
Avg. visits per day - 27
Avg. hits per day - 409

Go Local Reaches Across the State (GRAS)

The Go Local Nebraska project has received funding to further promote the initiative and train selectors across the state. The $11,000 is provided by the Nebraska Library Commission in support of a Nebraska Health Information Partnership grant proposal.

Project Description:

Providing quality, up-to-date information in GoLocal Nebraska is a continuing need. Limited staffing is available from the McGoogan Library of Medicine to research all health related resources within each community. Therefore, it is important to partner with people who are knowledgeable about the health resources in their communities. Public librarians are aware of the resources in their cities and often times have the most contacts to support this project.

The purpose of this project is to expand the content of GoLocal Nebraska and ensure important information about services and health care providers is not omitted. To achieve this goal, public librarians will be trained as GoLocal Nebraska selectors across the state. They will identify missing information as well as ensure the information listed is up-to-date. In addition, health related services including hospitals and clinics will be actively targeted to receive promotional materials about the Go Local Nebraska project.

Grant funds will be used to create the necessary promotional and training materials as well as to cover travel expenses. The Eastern Library System will be the initial system to identify a selector who is willing to partner on this project. That selector will play a major role in testing the training materials and refining methods for launching this type of partnership to the other systems. To successfully gather and train selectors across the state, funding will be spread across a 24 month period. Primary objectives include:

1. To improve access to quality health information and services for Nebraska residents using the World Wide Web.
2. To improve access to state, local, and community resources.
3. To aggregate dispersed health services information in a single source and make it readily available.

Project Implementation:

• Select a Public Librarian to become a Go Local selector from each library system.
• Provide the needed training for each selector.
• Travel to Public Libraries promoting MEDLINEPlus and Go Local Nebraska.
• Provide training to consumers about quality consumer health information on the web by attending Health Fairs across the state.
• Write up a job description for the selectors including what they would be expected to do and what they can anticipate receiving for their efforts.
• Selectors will receive training materials in print or on a CD, toll free number to call if they have problems or questions, and a framed certificate that they have partnered with the McGoogan Library. CE for attending the training sessions will be investigated as a possible reward as well.
• Promotional materials will be developed and distributed to health care providers, clinics, and hospitals.

Project Communication Plan
Provide a newsletter, up to date website, create training CD’s and be a part of the Nebraska Library Commission’s “Database Roadshow”.

Press releases and contact each system administrator to identify public librarians who might be interested in becoming a selector.

Project Budget
The requested dollars will be used for travel expenses and the development of training and promotional materials. The project will be completed in 24 months. A progress report will be written at the end of the first 12 months with a final report submitted to the Nebraska Library Commission at the conclusion of the project.

Welcome to the Go Local Nebraska Project blog

Thanks to the hard work of many people, the Go Local Nebraska Project is live at http://medlineplus.gov/nebraska . Work continues on data acquisition and entry, indexing, and promotion of this new health information resource.